De-Mystifying Migraine:
-Dr. Jonathan Arkin
Migraine is a disorder that millions of Americans are diagnosed with. Roughly 39 million men, women, and children are afflicted in the US, and potentially up to a billion people worldwide. It is the world’s third most common illness and is much more than just a bad headache.
Migraine is a neurological disorder with devastating neurological symptoms including but not limited to;
- Severe throbbing pain, usually one-sided
- Visual and auditory disturbances (aura)
- Hallucinating smells
- Light and sound sensitivity
- Tingling and/or numbness in the face, arms, hands, and feet.
- Vomiting and dizziness
- Depression and anxiety
Many people will have pain daily! This can lead to people being unable to work and often lead to many other co-morbidities. These can be varied and serious, such as increased stroke risk, depression, fibromyalgia, and many others.
This is complicated by a lack of understanding of what a migraine is. There are many theories right now, the most common being changes in how blood flow occurs in the brain. We now realize that this cannot cause pain but may contribute to it. There are several triggers for migraine which have been identified such as;
- Stress
- Flickering lights
- Food sensitivities
- Weather changes
- Dehydration
There are even many different types of migraines: vascular, Basilar, Vestibular, Silent, etc. They go on and on. In fact, there are dozens of different types of migraines, and there is no agreed-upon cause or therapy to fix any of them.
Luckily however we do know a common problem with all types of migraine. This is the fact that no matter what kind of migraine you may be suffering from, we know that it is due to a primary brain dysfunction. This is where your brain is causing pain to be interpreted when it should not be doing so.
Typical medications have a pretty bad success rate on fixing migraines. Because every migraine should be viewed as a brain dysfunction. One of our brains primary jobs is to decrease the sensation of pain we feel in our body; however, it can fail in this job and cause massive amount of pain even without any physical cause of pain, this is called “brain-based pain”. This is what happens in a migraine; our brain causes pain when it shouldn’t happen.
The best way to treat this terrible disorder is by understanding how the brain works. Your doctor needs to do a comprehensive examination to determine exactly where your brain is dysfunctional. They then need to rule out red flags, such as tumors, bleeds, etc. Once this is done and your doctor knows where in the brain you are having your dysfunction, a thorough treatment plan must be developed to stimulate the regions of the brain that are struggling.
There are many types of treatments that have been shown to work, such as massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, medicine, herbs, exercise, etc… The problem lies in the fact that 10 people can have the same symptoms and brain dysfunction in 10 different areas, so it is very difficult for you, the patient, to guess which therapy will work best for you.
That is where we come in. Our team is specifically trained to diagnose the region of brain dysfunction and provide the treatment that will work for you.
In the meantime, you can go ahead and keep a journal of your symptoms, do your best to identify any triggers that lead to headaches and eliminate them.
This should shed some light on what a migraine actually is. Shockingly, I have found that many patients have never been taught what is happening to them. If you or a loved one has any questions, please feel free to call 770-664-4288. A doctor will be happy to consult with you or direct you to a provider who may be more local to you and whom we trust.
Look out for further articles demystifying disease and directing health.
Happy healing
-Dr Arkin
P.S. If you want to do some further research on migraines,