Why Do I Get Migraine Headaches?

By Marion Jones

Headaches in any form are always very painful for the sufferer. However, some headaches, like migraines, for example, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be sickness, light sensitivity and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache is felt on one side of the head, although at other times you can feel the pain on both sides of your head at the same time.

The actual causes of migraine headaches has yet to be discovered, although there are a few theories why we experience migraine headaches. The most commonly held belief is that a change in the blood flow within the brain is one of the triggers that causes migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that maybe it could be caused by pain sensing chemicals called neuropeptides.

Many medical professionals speculate that neuropeptides relax the muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation causes the blood vessels to dilate. The relaxed blood vessels increase the flow of blood and other cranial fluid to the brain. This increase in fluids is thought to be the cause of migraine headaches.

These cranial fluids are the reason for inflammation, pain, sensitivity, tissue and blood vessel inflammation during the time of the migraine headaches. Many people think that the aura that is sometimes seen during a migraine headache is caused by the constriction of the blood vessels that became dilated during the beginning phase of the migraine headache.

Another theory as to the causes of migraine headaches has been linked to genetics and inheritance. These theories state that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% chance of getting migraine headaches too.

The chances of inheriting migraine headaches become even greater if both parents are known to suffer from this painful type of headache. Should both parents be known to have frequent migraine headaches the chances of the child inheriting migraine headache symptoms rises to about 70%.

However, even though some professionals think that inheritance plays a role in migraine headaches, the genes that are considered to be the causes of migraine headaches have not been identified or even isolated. When we begin to experience migraine headaches the only warning signs that we may expect to receive are a throbbing pain in the temple area and slight sickness.

As the symptoms of the migraine progresses, the pain becomes much more severe. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have yet to be found and we dont know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure this sort of headaches yet.

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