Biology 11 Disease Essay "Migraine"

Migraines ARE A DISEASE

By Ryan DLC

A migraine is not just a normal headache, it is a disease. Migraines usually lasts between 4 - 72 hours and is said to be a "pounding" or throbbing pain felt in just one side of the head, but in some cases it may spread to the other side, the effects of a migraine may include: a severe headache, dizziness, a want to stay away from bright lights, feeling nauseous, or sensitivity to loud sounds. In this essay I will be showing you how migraines definitely has some impact on your quality of life, family, and financial issues.

There are 2 types of migraines, a common migraine (without aura) and a classic migraine (with aura) me and my mother and grandfather suffer from the classic migraine, however it usually occurs once every 2 - 3 months. An “Aura” is a disturbance of vision that often is unformed white and/or black flashes or zigzag lines which is a warning that tells you a migraine is about to occur, usually it last for 10 - 20 minutes before the migraine occurs, usually after the aura is gone, I take 1 - 2 pills of Advil to avoid the actual migraine itself, if I don’t, it can drastically effect my Quality of Life by having no appetite, or being too dizzy to even do anything else, like to be able to stand up, because the pain is just too tremendous, one of my friends gets migraines from certain foods until she was prescribed with a medication called “Zolmitriptan” after that, she had much more confidence of what she can eat but she had to take it once a day for 2 - 4 weeks, before she was prescribed with the medicine, she was very scared of what to eat because she was scared that she might get another migraine, so she only ate small portions of foods per day, as a result she passed out in her PE class in Korea due to starvation.

Migraines can have Financial issues, by buying these costly prescript medicines, however, my family would rather stick with Advil or Tylenol because it never failed to help. Personally, when I don’t have Advil or Tylenol handy, and I have a normal headache or a migraine, I turn to my pressure points, by pinching down hard on the bottom and upper and lower space between my thumb and index finger for usually 10 - 15 minutes, while your doing it, your brain is concentrating on the pain your creating on that one spot your pinching down on, and forgetting the pain that’s occurring on your head by the headache or migraine.

Most migraines tend to appear between the age of 10 - 45, sometimes they begin later in life. Most migraines are triggered by: alcohol, allergic reactions, bright lights, odors like perfumes, loss of sleep, exercise, loud noise, missed meals, smoke or exposed to smoke, certain types of foods, and stress. If a certain person gets migraines a lot it can have some Family issues by more personal care attention in general.

The actual cause of migraines are unknown, but you can help prevent it from ever happening by just getting proper exercise and eating a well balanced meal and avoiding some of those habits you're always warned about, LIKE SMOKING.


LINKS:
Picture of an Aura : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Migraine_aura.jpg

Hand pressure point Video for migraines : www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykse8uiaCdM

Video of an Aura: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLJ00o-vmh0