Saturday, May 18, 2013

Women - Are Hormones Triggering Your Migraines?


When you have read this articles you will know that many more women suffer from migraine headaches than men. You will also learn what is the biggest problem with migraine headaches and why keeping a journal can be your first and most important step towards getting relief from those terrible headaches.

More women than men

It is a fact that women get more migraine headaches than men. Statistics show that nearly 30 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches -and that three out of every four of them are women.

The biggest problem

The biggest problem with treating migraine headaches is that there is no discernible cause. In other words, any time you don't know what is causing a problem, treating it is very difficult. In comparison, it's relatively easy to treat a headache associated with sinusitis because all you have to do is treat the infection.

Because it is impossible to pinpoint the cause of migraine headaches it is extremely difficult to know why more women than men suffer from them. However, many experts believe that biological changes in a woman including her menstrual cycle, can trigger the headaches. It is also believed that they can be triggered by stress, the weather or even by noise.

Ask yourself these questions

If you are suffering from headaches that you believe are migraines, there are questions you should ask yourself. This includes "are you missing work or unable to concentrate," "when you get a headache do you need to keep your eyes closed;" and "if someone tries to touch your head, do you recoil or try not to talk?" If you can answer yes to all or most of these questions, it is most likely that you are suffering from migraine headaches.

Keep a journal

One good way to deal with those migraines is to keep a journal in which you track your headaches and hormonal cycles. You should also track your sleeping and eating patterns, and the weather. You can learn a lot from this. For example if you can relate your migraines to your hormonal cycles, you will at least know what to expect and can take steps to mitigate the migraine before it becomes unbearable.

Many treatments

The only good news of migraine headaches is that there are many treatments available. This can consist of drugs that will at least mitigate the pain of a migraine and non-prescription treatments that can help. These can range from relaxation techniques and learned breathing to just knowing when to cut back on red wine because you know you're at a higher risk for getting a migraine. Many migraine sufferers have found that chiropractic can help. Also, some experts say that there are simple lifestyle changes that can help reduce the pain of migraine.

In short, if you are being tortured by migraine headaches, take heart. You can get help and relief.

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