Life with Migraine

What a life it has been for the last few months. Just kidding! Thankfully nothing new has happened-it’s all same old but definitely the work load has increased for me and I am pretty sure that it is going to take its momentum in the upcoming weeks. So first of all, thank you so much for all your lovely comments on the blog.

Many people have asked me if I am really the one who write all my posts/ articles or is there a ghost writer. To tell you the truth that I am apparently the one who is writing all the material yet I know for sure that it is only possible by the orders of God and His creativity to enter my mind and express whatever there is to spoken to the world.

Whether we write, act, draw, sing or even take a superb business decision or get a brilliant idea it is never possible without the divine intervention. So how to have that intervention, though I don’t have any precise guidelines in this regard I believe to have some pointers. I believe it is imperative to have a healthy lifestyle full of activity, body movement and exercise and devoid of junk food. Second is our openness to accept help from the invisible realm, and then it is our readiness to act on the guidance that we receive.

So after almost twenty years of living with frequently happening bad headaches I was diagnosed with migraine. Like me, there are many of you who are suffering in silence because many doctors believe that migraine is untreatable, whereas other half of them think that it’s psychosomatic/ stress related. However, I have to inform you that it is neither untreatable nor it’s merely a stress related issue, and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Yes treatment of migraine is complicated, it differs from patient to patient and once it starts to take place then it is almost unstoppable until the patient is properly slept and in many cases only after a vomit. However, healthcare research institutes like John Hopkins Headache Centre, American Migraine Foundation and Harvard Medical and many others have declared migraine to be a valid health problem for which there are several studies being conducted every day.

Migraine is a particular type of headache which causes severe pain in head muscles, but its pain is experienced in jaw area, back & shoulders muscles, and eye socket along with  acidity, nausea/vomiting. In fact, entire body gets affected during a migraine attack to an extent that it completely disables the patient from continuing with her/his daily activities. It happens with aura and also without an aura, which means that in aura patient sees lines, dots, spots before the headache. In many cases, migraine subsides after vomiting while with many other patients there is no vomit but only nausea and it relaxes after a proper sleep at night.

Causes of migraine are still not known but there is a very strong research which suggests that the pain of migraines is associated with swelling in blood vessels and irritation of nerves that surround the brain. The brain doesn't have pain receptors. But it processes pain signals from other parts of the body. It's the pain processing networks, or centers, in the brain that are overly reactive or dysfunctional in migraine. The brain chemical serotonin may play an important role in this process as it does in other conditions, including depression and eating disorders.

Furthermore, an abnormal electrical activity may occur in the brain tissues during a migraine attack. Areas of altered activity have been found on brain imaging studies in patients having migraine attacks. This activity is called "spreading depression," and it represents a wave of increased activity of nerve cells, followed by decreased activity. Originally it was thought that blood vessel spasms caused this abnormal activity, but more recently we have learned that this is not the case. The electrical disturbance is the primary event, and the blood flow changes are a response to the electrical disturbance (Teixido & Carey, 2014).[1]

Migraines can be triggered by certain activities, foods, smells or emotions. Some people are more likely to experience migraines when they are under stress, while others develop migraines when stress is relieved (for example, the day after exams or an important meeting). Women who have migraines often find that their headaches occur or worsen around the time of their menstrual periods (Harvard Health Publishing, 2019)[2]. If you need further information, follow the links given after this post. Some of the migraine triggers are:

·        Weather changes (hot & humid)

·        Lack of sleep

·        Coffee, chocolate, cheese

·        Schedule changes, not defined sleep patterns

·        Dehydration

·        Hunger (irregular eating timing or prolonged fasting)

·        Certain foods

·        Strong smells

·        Teeth grinding at night

·        Menstruation

For me this journey has been quite painful, the first time I felt the pain it was accompanied by a strong pain in my teeth so I went to the dentist. He diagnosed it as wisdom tooth pain, this happened on many occasions when I assumed that I had a dental issue but doctor thought the opposite. They quickly diagnosed it as psychosomatic problem because they believed that I think about my pain too much.

But let me tell you this, so you can tell people around you that migraine is a real illness and nobody ever thinks about it and start feeling this terrifying pain. It is the high time that people and doctors should study and research more before they simply categorize it as anxiety-stress related illness.

Please note that Migraine is very common in children, some of them also have abdominal/ stomach-migraine Abdominal migraine is a form of migraine seen mainly in children of ages between five to nine years old, but can occur in adults as well. Abdominal migraine consists primarily of abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. 

It is recognized as an episodic syndrome that may be associated with migraine, as links have been made to other family members having migraines and children who have this disorder often grow into adults with migraine. Most children who experience abdominal migraine grow out of it by their teens and eventually develop migraine headaches.

The pain associated with abdominal migraine is generally located in the middle of the abdomen around the belly button. It is often described as dull or “just sore” and may be moderate to severe. In addition to the pain, there can be loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and pallor. The attacks last between 2-72 hours and in between attacks there should be complete symptom freedom (AMF, 2016).[3]

It is always advisable to see a doctor, especially a neurologist to treat your migraine as many other specialists would not be aware about the seriousness of this type of headache and would simply treat you with a muscle relaxant or a pain killer. Today there are many line of treatments specifically focused on migraine with some wonderful medicines that could heal the pain at the beginning and also be helpful in controlling its attack.

For me, precautions as well as medication has proved to be quite beneficial. Also alternative medicine or naturopathy like acupressure, reflexology along with medical treatment are effective ways to curb the menace before it starts, as little can done after the migraine attack takes place.  

Now the precautions which have proved to work: Eat banana, Eat banana and Eat banana- before your breakfast and then drink water; before and after your workout; before and during the migraine attack. It will be difficult but Drink lots of water during the attack and Eat banana. The point is to supply your body with enough water so the electric current and flow of blood in your capillaries is restored. If you need to relieve yourself then it could help in easing the pain.

In normal days keep yourself hydrated and drink lots of water. The 8-10 glass idea is only a basic water requirement, you need to drink more of it. And let me tell you that you will not need to relieve yourself often while at work because you are drinking too much water. It is a myth that one has to use lavatory a lot while drinking water, it might happen once or for two days when you are body is adjusting itself to your new hydration regime. You will see that within no time your need to use washroom will be perfectly managed and, it would be only as and when needed and not more.

Eat properly don’t skip meals and strictly avoid junk/deep fried/ fast food. It is always better to have a home-cooked full meal, even for lunch at work.

Avoid drinking tea or coffee more than twice a day. Instead eat nuts, peanuts, chappati role with sabzi, peanut butter sandwich, and seasonal fruits whenever you feel hungry. Don’t just get a cup of tea or coffee when you feel hungry or lazy during your day at home or at work. Eat and rest for few minutes. Our body is very intelligent, it will always guide us but we do have to listen to it.

Then discipline yourself with scheduled sleep and wake times and especially while using your laptops, tablets or smartphones. Use them only when you actually need to.

Do breathing exercises and mediation. I don't care what is your age, size or shape please avoid making lame excuses, do exercise at least 150 minutes per week. And pleeaaase don't tell me that you are too busy, because our Prime Minister Imran Khan is handling the entire country, craziest economy, foreign and internal affairs, aggressive opposition, dull departments and he still manages to exercise before getting to work in morning. So kindly don't tell your self that you are too busy.

Amitabh Bachchan and actress Jane  Fonda are aged 75 and they still exercise. So kindly don't tell your self that you are too old to exercise. Do yoga, strength/weight straining, cardio, move, walk, take stairs instead of lift, get-up and please park your car or get off your vehicles a little away from the malls so you can move and be active. Don’t just sit on your chair for 10 hours- you need move, walk and stretch after every 30 minutes.

Lastly, always wear sunglasses and also train your children to wear them also during outdoor activities in the day, especially in hot weathers. I hope this information would help to you in the best possible way.

With lots of best wishes.

Sonya Syed. (Day 579)

---

[1] https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/otolaryngology/_docs/Migraine%20patient%20handout.p

[2] https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/migraine-a-to-z

[3] https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/abdominal-migraine/