Migraine V Headache: Whats the difference?
By Brianna Delaney
June is Migraine Awareness Month and with 1.1million estimated cases around the world in 2019, knowing about Migraine is important to diagnosing, treating and managing. There are many differences between headaches and migraines and having an understanding can help you and your loved ones understand what to do in each circumstance.
What is a Headache?
Headache is a pain felt in the head or face that has affected around 95% of the population at some point. These can be classified as either primary or secondary, primary headaches include Migraine and Tension-Type headaches, the latter being more prevalent. Aside from presenting symptoms, the duration, severity and frequency of your presentation are important in distinguishing which type of headache you might be experiencing. With tension-type headaches benign the most common, they usually present as an ache or pressure type pain described as a band around the head. Typically tension-type headaches are mild to moderate in severity and have low impact on daily activities.
What is a Migraine?
Migraine Australia explains Migraine as a sensory processing disorder in which a migraine attack occurs when the brain over-reacts when exposed to too much stimulus. There are many different types of migraine with varying triggers as well as differences in severity, frequency and disability, the symptoms and triggers may even change over time. Migraine is typically described as a throbbing, pulsating pain on one side of the head that can last between 4-72hrs. The severity ranges from moderate to severe and can interrupt simple daily tasks and and have varying associated symptoms. Typically, migraine sufferers will prefer dark, quiet rooms until their symptoms subside.
A migraine attack is the experience of symptoms for a period of time. Within the brain, the valves of the ion channels get stuck open unable to regulate the channel. This causes irritation of the pain nerves of the head and neck, blood vessel spasms and inflammation in the affected area. These physiological events cause the experiences of pain, nausea and vomiting and in some cases a sensitivity to light, smells or sounds.
Migraine Australia describe the different phases of Migraine in the image below:
Whether it be migraine or headache, keeping track of when, how long and what symptoms you experience can be useful information in diagnosing and treating your presentation. Keeping a headache/migraine diary can be done with a simple notebook, on your phone or with apps.
For more information on migraine you can head to www.migraine.org.au
Resources: https://www.nkch.org/blog/headaches-vs-migraines-know-the-root-of-your-head-pain