How to tell if you have a headache or a migraine

If you are prone to headaches, you may wonder about the difference between a regular headache and a migraine. Both are terrible, but the migraine is clearly worse. So how can you tell which type you are suffering from?

Regular headaches feel like “dull cap pressure,” said neurologist Julia Jones. Houston Methodist Hospital“They don’t usually interfere with activities or bother people enough to go to the doctor.”

A migraine, on the other hand, is “typically a throbbing or throbbing pain on one side of the head that progresses or worsens over time,” Jones said. She had 72 hours with symptoms including sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, and vomiting. Pain increases with movement.About one-third of people experience Pre-migraine aura, including visual disturbances such as flashes. Having a migraine makes everyday activities very difficult, if not impossible.

Keep a headache diary to record your triggers

Knowing your triggers can help if you’re convinced migraines are a problem.For many, these include heat, stress, or certain foods. For women, hormones are a common trigger, and migraines often occur at certain times during the cycle.

Identifying triggers can be complicated because the effects of triggers are not always immediate. “A migraine can take up to 72 hours for the pain to come on,” Jones said. The period before the onset of pain is prognostic stageand may include symptoms such as neck and jaw stiffness, mood changes, excessive yawning, fatigue, and gastrointestinal upset.

For these reasons, keeping a headache diary can help you keep a detailed record of when you had a headache and what you were doing the day before. Hopefully. You will begin to notice patterns and be able to fend off migraines before they even start. however,again Do everything right and avoid the known trigger, you can yet get a migraine.

Maintaining balance can help manage migraines

“You’re more likely to get that headache,” said Jones, when life starts to get a little out of balance, whether it’s a disturbed sleep schedule, poor diet, or dealing with a lot of stress. teeth, Role of the hypothalamusmaintains functions such as body temperature, thirst, hunger, sleep, our emotional state, and works during migraines.

“When they perform PET scans of nitroglycerin-induced headaches, they find stronger functional connections to the hypothalamic pain and autonomic centers in migraine patients compared to patients without migraine.” said Jones. “That’s why having that homeostasis is so helpful.”

You may need preventive medicine

Occasional migraines – 1 or 2 per month –can often be treated with over-the-counter pain relieverssuch as ibuprofen or aspirin. Excedrin migraine is sometimes more effective, acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine. (Drinking coffee also helps.) Over-the-counter drugs Too often it can lead to rebound headaches.

if the migraine gets worse more often or does not respond to over-the-counter drugs, your doctor have experience with treatment. according to them frequencyyour you may need a doctor prescribe something stronger, Either ease Symptoms During Migraines, Preventing Them From scratch, or a combination of the two.When if you Dealing with migraines 6 to 8 days or more per month, Referral to a Neurologist It may be appropriate if you have experience in treating migraines.