Nerve Stimulator Decreases Migraine Attacks

A nerve stimulator worn in the forehead may lessen the frequency of migraine attacks by as much as 30 percent.

A migraine is a severe headache felt as a throbbing pain at the front or on one side of the head.

Migraines bring about a heightened sensitivity to sound and light, speech problems, nausea, and auras. Auras are symptoms that affect the senses such as flashes of light, blind spots or a tingling sensation in the arm or leg. For those who experience auras, this usually happens before the onset of a migraine attack.

Although the pain is usually associated with a migraine, there are instances where the symptoms of a migraine are present, most specially migraine auras, but the pain is not felt. This is called a silent migraine.

The cause of a migraine is still unknown but it may involve the Central Nervous System (CNS) and how nerve signals and other stimuli trigger chemical and neurological events in the brain. It is believed that migraines have something to do with brain's vascular system which affect the blood flow in the brain and its surrounding tissues.

Lightning May Induce The Onset of Headaches and Migraine

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that lightning may cause the onset of headaches and migraines.

When there is an imbalance of positive and negative charges in the atmosphere, lightning occurs. This occurs when the lower area of a storm cloud becomes negatively charged while objects on the ground become positively charge which causes an imbalance.

The clash of these two charges creates a bolt of electricity that is lightning. This happens to align and balance the atmospheric charges back to normal. The actual process on the formation of lightning is still being investigated.

A lightning bolt may carry as much as one billion volts of electricity. These lightning discharges can create a short burst of electromagnetic waves which creates a magnetic field. There are occasions when objects in the lightning's path becomes permanently magnetized. This effect is known as lightning-induced remanent magnetism, or LIRM.

The science of Bioelectromagnetics which is the study of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and biological entities, are looking into the effects of electromagnetic waves such as LIRM and the human body.

Many Treatments Available To Help Prevent Migraine Unused

A migraine is a common type of headache. With most people, the migraine is felt on only one side of the head.

Symptoms of a migraine attack may include heightened sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, auras (loss of vision in one eye or tunnel vision), difficulty of speech and intense pain predominating on one side of the head. An aura is a group of symptoms that include vision disturbances (spots, tunnel vision, loss of vision) that signals an oncoming migraine attack.

It is caused by abnormal brain activity and can be triggered by a number of factors. The cause of a migraine is still undetermined. It is believed that it involves a Central Nervous System (CNS) disorder. The CNS is made up of the brain and spinal cord. In a migraine, various stimuli or nerve signals may cause a series of neurologic and biochemical events which affect the brain's vascular system. This chain of events starting from the brain, travelling to nerve pathways affect the flow of blood in the brain and its surrounding tissues.

New guidelines: Treatments can help prevent migraine

Research shows that many treatments can help prevent migraine in certain people, yet few people with migraine who are candidates for these preventive treatments actually use them, according to new guidelines issued by the American Academy of Neurology. The guidelines, which were co-developed with the American Headache Society, announced at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans and published in the print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Studies show that migraine is underrecognized and undertreated," said guideline author Stephen D. Silberstein, MD, FACP, FAHS, of Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "About 38 percent of people who suffer from migraine could benefit from preventive treatments, but only less than a third of these people currently use them."