What is Migraine?

Migraine is a type of headache that occurs in attacks. Attacks can last between 4 hours and 72 hours. The person may feel completely normal between attacks, but they worry about the next attack.

In addition to headache, symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and hypersensitivity to light and sound are also seen in migraine. Migraine is a disease that can disrupt the quality of life of both the patient and their relatives.

What are the Symptoms of Migraine?

• Headache; It is only one of the symptoms of migraine. It is usually a one-sided, intense and throbbing headache.
• Visual disorders; Blind spots, flashing lights, vision impairment or zig-zag shapes may be seen. These symptoms, called aura, are seen in only 10% of migraine patients. Migraine with aura is called classic migraine.
• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
• Hypersensitivity to light (photophobia)
• Hypersensitivity to sound (phonophobia)
• Hypersensitivity to smell (osmophobia)
• A person with migraine may experience stiffness in the neck and shoulders, tingling in the hands and feet, difficulty concentrating, difficulty speaking, and rarely paralysis (paralysis) or loss of consciousness.

What Causes It?

The exact cause is still unclear. It is thought to be due to changes in the brain blood vessels and chemical communication substances (neurotransmitters) in the brain. However, there are factors that trigger migraine. These factors have a threshold value for each person, meaning that sometimes one or sometimes more than one stimulus is required. For example, hunger does not always trigger migraine, but hunger combined with insomnia and stress can trigger migraine. There is also a genetic predisposition. It is more common in people with a family history of migraine.

What Triggers Migraine?

• Dietary Factors: Chocolate, citrus fruits, cheese, nitrites/nitrates, sodium glutamate, alcohol, especially red wine, excessive caffeine or caffeine withdrawal
• Emotional Stressors: Excessive stress, anxiety, excessive sadness or joy, depression, emotional shock
• Hormonal Changes: Menstruation, birth control pills
• Systemic Factors: High blood pressure, excessive blood sugar fluctuations in diabetics
• Head Pain: Toothache, pain in the eyes, sinuses, or neck
• Physical Stressors: Travel, excessive exercise, physical or mental fatigue, bending forward for long periods of time (e.g. while gardening), lifting or straining, changes in routine (e.g. shift work or vacations), too much or too little sleep, allergies, sexual arousal, smoking, or starving
• External Stimuli: Climate change, high altitude, very hot showers or baths, strong odors (such as perfume, bright, dazzling lights, watching TV for a long time and sound

How Many Types of Migraine Are There?

• Classic Migraine: Migraine with aura. Classic migraine occurs in 15% of migraine patients.
• Common Migraine: Migraine without aura. It is seen in approximately 80% of migraine patients.
• Menstrual Migraine: It is seen at the beginning of the menstrual period or during the menstrual period; it is not seen at any other time. Studies show that menstrual migraine is usually without aura.
• Other: Apart from these three types of migraine, there are many less common types of migraine; however, they only constitute 5% of all migraines. They mostly occur secondary to other diseases. These can be given as migraine developing after stroke, after trauma and secondary to eye disease.

How Does a Migraine Attack Progress?

A migraine attack can be classically divided into 6 periods.

• Prodromal period: Functional changes seen in the body before migraine symptoms begin. These include hypersensitivity, depressive mood, excessive joy and rarely hyperactivity, dullness/stagnation, decreased concentration and attention, slowed thinking, stumbling while speaking, increased light, aura and smell sensitivity, yawning, fatigue or desire to sleep, weakness or weakness, hunger, desire to eat sweets, increased appetite and loss of appetite, excessive water drinking, water retention in the body, frequent urination, abdominal swelling, constipation or diarrhea.
• Aura period (15%): Approximately one hour before the development of the headache, it manifests itself with temporary sensory symptoms such as hallucinations seen in the form of zig-zag lines, blurred vision, flashes of light or the presence of gaps in the field of vision known as scotoma.
• Pain onset period
• Pain
• Pain termination period
• Postdrome period: In the postdrome period, known as after pain, there is a feeling of exhaustion, weariness and fatigue, and a feeling of relief occurs with the decrease in pain. Some people have a desire to eat sweets or to urinate frequently.

The presence of one or more of these features also clarifies the diagnosis of migraine.

How is it Treated?

In the classical medical approach, there are drug treatments including painkillers, anti-nausea drugs, neuroleptics, especially triptan and ergotamine derivatives. They are used to prevent attacks during attacks or before attacks if they occur very frequently. However, drugs only work to suppress pain and cannot provide a radical solution for the cause.

In treatment, from the perspective of Neural Therapy-Regulation medicine, a radical solution is possible for all types of functional headaches, including migraine. From the perspective of neural therapy, migraine pain is a call for help from the body, a signal, and there are a number of reasons that create this call. These reasons are called interference fields in neural therapy, and it is possible to detect interference fields with neural therapy examination methods.

The interference fields that cause migraine are most commonly found in the head and neck region. Past or ongoing tooth, tonsil, sinus infections, functional problems in the jaw joint, and joint blockages in the upper neck region are common among these.

In addition, all kinds of past illnesses, wound and surgical scars, digestive and circulatory disorders, and psychological subconscious loads may be at the root of migraine. After these problems are determined with a detailed patient history and neural therapy examination methods, permanent healing can be achieved with neural therapy injections.

The treatment period can last from a few weeks to a few months depending on the severity of the underlying causes. If necessary, nutritional regulation, probiotics, vitamin and mineral supplements, and detox applications should also be added.

Psychokinesiology and limbic system work are very valuable in psychogenic migraines where subconscious loads are at the forefront and contribute to the solution aimed at the cause.

Acupuncture also makes an important contribution to migraine treatment. However, it has no effect in the treatment of interference fields, so it is effective in relieving pain and reducing attacks, but it is insufficient to provide a radical solution.

Botox applications may have a partial contribution to relieving pain, but it is not a radical solution aimed at the cause.

Other complementary methods such as ozone, cupping, leeching, homeopathy, phytotherapy are also frequently recommended. Some may have temporary and partial benefits, but none of them have a therapeutic effect on the cause.