The Causes of Migraine Headaches
Headaches of any type are always painful for the sufferer. However, some headaches, like migraines, for instance, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be nausea, light sensitivity and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache acts on one side of the head, and other times you can feel the pain on both sides of the head at the same time.
The actual causes of migraine headaches has not been found as of yet, although there are some theories as to why we experience migraine headaches. The most common theory is that a change in the blood flow within the brain is one of the trigger causes of migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that it could be caused by pain sensing nerve chemicals called neuropeptides.
Many medical professionals think that neuropeptides relax the smooth muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation causes the blood vessels to dilate. This blood vessel relaxation increases 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 cause inflammation, pain, sensitivity, tissue and blood vessel inflammation during the time of the migraine headaches. Some 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 the genetics of inheritance. These theories state that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% chance of having migraine headaches too.
The probability of inheriting migraine headaches becomes even greater if both parents are sufferers from this painful kind of headache. If both parents 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 light sickness.
As the symptoms of your migraine progress, the pain of the headaches become more severe. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have not been discovered and we dont know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure these headaches yet.