Migraine Myths and Reality

Truth - Migraine pain is amongst the least properly diagnosed and most mistreated of all ailments. Up to 70% of migraine sufferers have never been properly diagnosed with having the illness. Migraines remain seriously underestimated and misunderstood, even among doctors treating this illness

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Fiction - Migraines are nothing more than really bad headaches.

Truth - The headache is really just a symptom of a disease and the cause of the migraine pain is the opposite of the cause of the headache pain. Migraines are a disease that are genetically based. Those with a single parent who experience migraines themselves have a 50% chance of developing migraines.

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Fiction - Migraines are annoying and uncomfortable, but there’s nothing life-threatening about them.

Truth - Migraines can induce several life-threatening conditions such as stroke, aneurysms and coma. 27% of all strokes experienced by those under the age of 45 are preceded by a severe migraine headache. 25% of all cerebral infarctions are associated with migraines. In addition, studies have also found links between migraines and epileptic seizures.

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Fiction - Migraines are psychological in nature, caused by external environmental factors.

Truth - A migraine is a neurological disease, not a disorder. Migraines truly are neurological diseases, caused by physiological and not psychological triggers. Migraines happen when cranial blood vessels dilate, causing nerve endings to release serotonin, a crucial factor in the development of a headache.

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Fiction - If you aren’t suffering from the most severe symptoms like nausea and auras, then it’s probably not a migraine.

Truth - Only 20% of migraine suffers experience the kind associated with auras. And many never experience the more extreme symptoms such as nausea or

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Fiction - Only women suffer from headaches.

Truth - Women, men, adults and children all suffer from migraines. While it’s true that the overwhelming majority of migraine patients are adult women, a significant number of suffers are male and an increasing number of children are being treated not just for migraines but for a particular type called abdominal migraines.

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Fiction - There’s no doubting about whether that headache you’re suffering is really a migraine or not. If you’ve got a migraine, you’ll know it.

Truth - Millions of people suffer from migraines without having been correctly diagnosed or thinking that it’s just a regular tension headache.

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Fiction - My headaches are triggered by allergies or changes in the weather conditions; therefore they are probably sinus headaches.

Truth - Allergic reactions and changes in the weather can trigger migraines, but they are never the cause. In addition, migraines are offer accompanied by symptoms such as a runny nose or watery eyes that can be mistaken for sinus-based headaches.

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