TREATMENT FOR Migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a condition that causes severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on one side of the head. It’s frequently characterized by intense, debilitating headaches.Migraine pain most commonly affects the forehead area mainly the temple region. It can occur on each side or shift. It is often amid nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.
Migraine episodes can last for hours to days, and the pain can be so severe and recurring, that it interferes with your everyday activities such as a person’s daily life, including their ability to work or study.Migraines can begin in childhood or might not occur until early adulthood.
Causes of Migraine:
The exact cause of migraines is unknown, but they're thought to be the result of imbalances in certain brain chemicals, which stimulates abnormal brain activity, temporarily affecting the nerve signals, chemicals and blood vessels in the brain. The trigeminal in your head runs your eyes and mouth. It also helps you feel sensations in your face and may be a major pathway for pain. This causes your body to release chemicals such as serotonin and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). CGRP makes blood vessels within the liner of your brain swell. Your levels of a chemical called serotonin may fall at the start of a migraine, and this nerve can release chemicals called neurotransmitters that visit your brain, which causes inflammation and pain.
Migraine Triggers:
Things that may set off a migraine include:
- Hormonal changes : Shifts in hormonal changes in women, such as estrogen and progesterone fluctuations during menstruation, pregnancy, or menopause can bring on migraines in women. Medications like contraception pills or hormone replacement therapy can trigger headaches or make them worse. But other women have fewer migraines once they take these medications
- Emotional stress : This is one among the foremost common migraine triggers. When you’re stressed, your brain releases chemicals that depart your “fight or flight” response. Worry, fear and anxiety can create even more tension and make a migraine worse
- Certain foods : Salty, processed foods and aged cheese varieties are some known triggers. The artificial sweetener aspartame and flavor enhancer MSG (MSG) may cause them too
- Improper meal routine : If you miss a meal, your blood sugar could drop, irregular mealtime and dehydration trigger a headache
- Dietary factors : Alcoholic drinks and drinks high in caffeine, chocolate, cheese, citrus fruits and foods containing the additive tyramine can be migraine triggers. Tobacco consumption could also be a risk factor
- Sensory overload : Flickering screens, secondhand smoke, loud sounds or noises, bright lights, and strong smells can bring on these headaches in some people
- Sleep pattern : If you get an excessive amount or insufficient sleep, you'll get a migraine. Traveling between time zones and jet lag could be a key cause as well
- Physical strain : An intense workout, like heavy exercise that causes shoulder and neck tension,poor posture, sometimes physical overexertion due to sex can cause a migraine. You should still choose to be active, but you would possibly do better with a more moderate pace
- Environmental factors : Stuffy rooms, temperature changes, and severe heat or other extremes in weather. Changes in weather is a big trigger. So is a change in the overall air pressure or barometric pressure
- Medications : If you've got migraines and take medications for quite 10 days during a month, you'll be setting yourself up for what’s called a rebound headache. Your doctor will probably call it a medication overuse headache, use of certain medications, such as oral contraceptives or nitroglycerin can trigger migraine.
Types of migraine:
There are several kinds of migraines. The most common ones are migraine with Aura (classic migraine) and migraine without Aura (common migraine).
Other types include:
- Menstrual migraine : It is when the headache is linked to a woman’s period.
- Silent migraine : This kind is additionally referred to as an acephalgic migraine. You have aura symptoms without a headache
- Vestibular migraine : It is caused when you have balance problems, vertigo, nausea, and vomiting, with or without a headache. This kind usually happens in people that have a history of kinetosis
- Abdominal migraine : Experts don’t know a lot about this type. It causes stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting. It often happens in children and should become classic migraine headaches over time
- Hemiplegic migraine : it occurs when you’ve had a short period of paralysis (hemiplegia) or weakness on one side of your body. Wherein, you may also feel numbness, dizziness, or vision changes. These symptoms also can be signs of a stroke, so get medical help directly
- Ophthalmic migraine : This is also termed as an ocular or retinal migraine. It causes short-lived, partial, or total loss of vision in one eye, along side a dull ache behind the attention , which can spread to the remainder of your head. Get medical help directly if you've got any vision changes.
- Migraine with brainstem aura : Confusion, dizziness, or loss of balance could happen before the headache. The pain may affect the rear of your head. These symptoms usually start suddenly and may come alongside trouble speaking, ringing in your ears, and vomiting. This type of migraine is strongly connected to hormone changes and mainly affects young adult women. Again, get these symptoms verified by a doctor directly
- Status migrainosus : This severe sort of migraine can last quite 72 hours. The pain and nausea are so intense that you simply may have to travel to the hospital. Sometimes, medicines or medication withdrawal can cause them.
- Ophthalmoplegic migraine : This causes pain around the eyes, including paralysis of the muscles around it. This is a medical emergency because the symptoms also can be caused by pressure on the nerves behind the attention or by an aneurysm. Other symptoms include a droopy eyelid, diplopia or other vision changes.
Symptoms of Migraine:
Symptoms of a migraine might vary from person to person. Some symptoms may include headaches that last about 4 hours, but severe ones could go for more than 3 days. It’s common to get 2-4 migraine episodes per month, so people go through headaches for every few days while others get them only once or twice a year. Tiredness and irritability could last for 2 days after the episode and this period is sometimes called the “migraine hangover”.
Migraine symptoms tend occur in stages, and they are as follows,
1. Prodrome:
Migraine symptoms may begin one to two days before the headache itself, About 80% of people have nausea along with a headache, and vomiting sensation. You may also be pale and clammy or feel faint. This is known as the prodrome stage. Symptoms during this stage can include:
- Being sensitive to light, sound, or smell
- Fatigue or low energy
- Food cravings or lack of appetite
- Mood changes
- Severe thirst
- Bloating
- Constipation or diarrhea
- Depression
- Frequent yawning
- Hyperactivity
- Irritability
- Neck stiffness
2. Aura:
Before the headache, there might be sensory changes that are known as an aura. These symptoms stem from your nervous system, so during an aura, you may have problems with your vision, sensation, movement, and speech. They usually start gradually, over a 5-20 minute period, and last less than an hour. Usually in migraine with aura, the aura occurs after the prodrome stage. Examples of these problems include:
- Experience vision of black dots, wavy lines, flashes of light, or things that aren’t there (Hallucinations)
- Have tunnel vision
- Dizziness or feeling faint
- Increased sensitivity to light and sound
- Nausea
- Pulsing and throbbing head pain on one side of your head, either on the left side, right side, front or back, or in your temples
- Not be able to see at all
- Have a tingling feeling or numbness on one side of your body
- Not be able to speak clearly
- Have an important feeling in your arms and legs
- Experience ringing in your ears
- Notice changes in smell, taste, or touch
- Vomiting
3. Attack:
The next phase is called the attack phase. It is the foremost acute or severe of the phases when the particular migraine pain occurs. In some people, this would overlap or occur during an aura. Attack phase symptoms could last anywhere from hours to days.
- A migraine headache often begins as a dull ache and progresses into throbbing pain. It usually gets worse during physical activity. The pain can move from one side of your head to the opposite and often within the front of your head or even feels like it's affecting your entire head
- Difficulty in speaking clearly
- Feeling a prickling or tingling sensation in your face, arms, or legs
- Seeing shapes, light flashes, or bright spots
- Temporarily losing your vision
4. Postdrome:
After the attack phase, an individual will often experience the postdrome phase. During this phase, there are usually changes in feelings and mood swings. These can range from feeling euphoric and very happy, to feeling very fatigued and apathetic. A mild, dull headache may persist. This stage can last up to each day after a headache. The Symptoms include,
- Feeling tired, wiped out or cranky
- Feeling unusually refreshed or happy
- Muscle pain or weakness
- Food cravings or lack of appetite
The length and intensity of those phases can occur to different degrees in several people. Sometimes, a phase may be skipped and it’s possible that a migraine attack occurs without causing a headache.
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Diagnosis
Doctors diagnose migraines by hearing out your symptoms, taking a thorough medical examination by learning your family history and performing a physical exam to rule out other potential causes. Imaging scans, like a CT scan or MRI, can rule out other causes, including tumor, abnormal brain structures and stroke.
Conventional treatments:
Migraines can’t be cured, but your doctor can assist you manage them so you get them less often and treat symptoms once they occur. Treatment also can help make the migraines less severe.
Your treatment plan depends on:
- Your age
- How often you have migraines
- The type of migraine you have
- How severe they are, how long they last, what proportion of pain you're experiencing and how often it keeps you from getting to school or carry on with your work
- Whether they include nausea or vomiting, also as other migraine symptoms
- Health conditions you may have and other medications you might be taking Your treatment plan may include a mixture of these,
- Self-care migraine remedies
- Making lifestyle adjustments, inclusive of stress management and avoiding migraine triggers
- Migraine medications or OTC pain drugs like NSAIDs or acetaminophen (Tylenol)
- Prescription of migraine medications that you simply take as soon as a headache starts, to control it from becoming severe and to ease symptoms, it also assists in preventing nausea or vomiting and reduces how often you get headaches.
- Hormone therapy if migraines seem to occur in reference to your cycle
- Counselling
Surgical Treatment:
There are a few surgical procedures that are done to treat migraine. These procedures include neurostimulation and migraine trigger site decompression surgery (MTSDS)
A. Neurostimulation surgeries
During these procedures, a surgeon inserts electrodes under your skin. The electrodes deliver electrical stimulation to specific nerves. Several sorts of stimulators are currently getting used. These include:
- Occipital nerve stimulators
- Deep brain stimulators
- Vagal nerve stimulators
- Sphenopaletine ganglion stimulators
B. MTSDS:
Migraine trigger site deactivation surgery (MTSDS) is a term that encompasses procedures that are performed for the preventative treatment of migraines. The theory behind this procedure is the peripheral mechanism theory of migraine. According to this theory, peripheral nerve compression serves as a trigger site for migraines. They rectify the compression through surgeries. However, this procedure has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Alternative care could be taken, which includes biofeedback, meditation, or acupuncture.
Acupuncture to cure migraine and its benefits:
Acupuncture seeks to revive the flow of positive energy throughout your body.It also claims to get rid of negative energy that's causing you pain. From a contemporary medical perspective, acupuncture stimulates various systems of your body, which might trigger a healing response.
- Acupuncture segregates your body into a series of zones and pressure points.
- Acupuncture needles are inserted into different pressure points, based on your symptoms. These needle points are apparently near the nerves in your body, where the needle stimulates the nerves to release hormones, like endorphins, that trigger a response from your body. This immune and circulation system stimulation is what proponents of acupuncture claim relieves migraines and tension headaches.
- According to a search conducted by the scientists in McMaster University, Three months after starting acupuncture treatment, frequent headache or migraine sufferers experienced significantly fewer headache days than those receiving routine care or treatment with preventative drugs.
- Systematic reviews also showed that acupuncture was safe and well tolerated comparatively. Overall, people receiving acupuncture reported fewer side effects and were less likely to possess an episode of migraine than those receiving drugs.
- Acupuncture may help reduce the frequency of headaches and migraines, a minimum of within the short-term and is safe and well tolerated. Many people don't respond well to the drugs prescribed, hence to stop headaches or migraines in their case, acupuncture may be a good alternative
Clinical Diagnosis of Migraine using Acupuncture
During an acupuncture treatment, your acupuncturist inserts very thin needles into specific spots on your body. Insertion of the needles usually causes little discomfort. Each person who performs acupuncture has a unique style, often blending aspects of Eastern and Western approaches to medicine. To determine the type of acupuncture treatment that will help you the most, your practitioner may ask you about your symptoms, behaviors and lifestyle. He or she may also closely examine:
- The parts of your body that are painful
- The shape, coating and color of your tongue
- The color of your face
- The strength, rhythm and quality of the pulse in your wrist
This initial evaluation and treatment may take up to 60 minutes. Subsequent appointments usually take about a half-hour. A common treatment plan for a single complaint would typically involve one or two treatments a week. The number of treatments will depend on the condition being treated and its severity. In general, it's common to receive six to eight treatments.
Best Cure for Migraine
Looking for a best solution to treat Migraine, here’s why you should reach out to the expert Acupuncturist. A. Shaji Bharath from Dr.Bharath’s Acu Heal. He is currently treating patients for a wide range of conditions. As an expert acupuncture practitioner with 15 years of experience, and having worked with several Neurologists, Acupuncturist. A. Shaji Bharath can create a best treatment plan to manage your pain that's tailored to your needs, which can break a cycle of long-lasting or acute headaches. He has witnessed acupuncture doing wonders on people suffering from migraine. The effectiveness rate increases several times just with one course of Acupuncture and a specialized expertise in migraine and other headache-related disorders is warranted. So, take some time to find the right pain management approach that suits you. Most of the people swear by acupuncture, citing it as a ‘miracle’ to improving their quality of life.
Dial: +91 9884746916 or Visit: drbharathsacuheal.com for more details on treating migraine using Acupuncture.
BEST ACUPUNCTURE DOCTOR NEAR ME
To choose the Best doctor for Acupuncture, it's important that the Acupuncturist should have a decade of experience and treated at least 1000 to 2000 patients.
You can also search for the Best Acupuncture Doctor near me or ask your primary care physician to refer an experienced Acupuncturist nearby. Once you find the Best Acupuncture Doctor in Chennai, you may go through their google reviews first and then fix an appointment with the doctor only when you are satisfied with the reviews.
The Best Acupuncture Doctor should address your concerns and help you feel more comfortable before your first session. Acupuncture usually takes numerous sessions or several weeks to get a complete cure in any ailment but within 3 or 4 sessions the patients will experience positive differences.
BEST ACUPUNCTURE CLINIC NEAR ME
Owing to the demand for the treatment, there are numerous clinics popping up and it is sometimes skeptical to choose the best or even the safe one. To address such concerns, you can look into the following points to choose the best acupuncture clinic for Migraine. Acupuncture is also offered in hospital pain clinics and by healthcare organizations but it is ideal to visit the best Acupuncture Clinic for Migraine. If you are not sure, it would be a good idea to contact your local doctor to see if they would be prepared to refer to the best rated acupuncture clinics. For example in cases where a patient specifically requests acupuncture for migraine, or where it is felt that acupuncture would complement conventional treatment. In some cases acupuncture is offered in top rated acupuncture clinics near me because conventional treatment has failed or produces unacceptable side effects.
Most of the best acupuncture clinics for Migraine will spell out very clearly
- what type of acupuncture they practice
- how much they charge
- how professional they are - at present anyone can set themselves up as an acupuncturist but reputable practitioners will belong to an organization
- whether the premises are hygienic and smart
- what other therapies they offer
So while you are filtering the best clinics for acupuncture that treats migraine, you can look out for the above said factors.
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THE BOTTOM LINE
There are different types of headaches that cause pain on only one side of your head or face. Many have benign causes and will go away on their own. Lifestyle changes such as managing your posture, drinking more water, or resting your eyes may help. Make an appointment with your doctor if your headaches interfere with your daily life. Only a doctor can diagnose the cause of your headaches and rule out more serious conditions. Your doctor can also recommend ways to manage pain and prevent future headaches.
SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management (NICE guidelines [CG 150]). 2012 (updated 2015)
- Medical News Today-Medically reviewed by Heidi Moawad, M.D. — Written by Dr. Helen Webberley, MBChB, MRCGP, MFSRH — Updated on December 21, 2020
- Vickers A. et al. Acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care: large, pragmatic, randomised trial BMJ 2004;328;744-9
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FAQ:
What are the services provided for migraine by Dr.Bharath’s Acu Heal?
An experienced Acupuncturist use pulse diagnosis to determine the cause of migraine. After careful analysis, Acupuncture treatment will be prescribed to treat the underlying cause along with few analgesic acupuncture points so that the pain will be relieved immediately. In the first few sessions, there will be a positive change in the symptoms and after several sessions, there will be a 90% to 100% chance that the patient will get cured of Migraines. Simultaneously the patient will be advised on a diet with food restrictions and exercise regime which includes an induced sound sleep that plays a vital role in reversing the disease.
What are the benefits of acupuncture for migraines?
Migraine sufferers are accustomed to taking medications together for months or years, and they have side effects. After the entire course of acupuncture treatments, the patients can stop their medications for a lifetime.
How many sessions of acupuncture do you need for migraines?
It takes 40 to 50 sessions approximately in a span of 5 to 6 months.