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Living with migraines
Migraine headaches affect around 10 per cent of the UK population, and are often associated with other physical symptoms. The condition is much common in women than in men. Most people don't realise how incapacitating the pain from a migraine headache can be unless they've experienced a one themselves.

Migraine is thought to be a vascular (blood vessel-related) headache associated with changes in the size of the blood vessels inside and around the skull. In the pre-migraine phase, these blood vessels constrict; when the blood vessels dilate (swell), the migraine begins. It is believed that the pain of migraine occurs because the blood vessels become inflamed and the swelling causes pressure on the walls of arteries.

Current treatment methods include education about signs and symptoms, medication and stress management techniques, such as exercise and relaxation training. Often, migraine sufferers can avert or minimise attacks by identifying and avoiding the triggers that can precipitate them.

Doctors can find it hard to diagnose migraines for several reasons, including the similarity of migraine symptoms to those of other types of headaches or neurological problems and the variation in symptoms from one patient to another. There are several kinds of migraine headaches that share basic features, but each patient suffers in a unique way.

If you have severe headaches, it is important that you see your physician for an evaluation; no self-assessment (including this one) can tell you for sure whether your problem is migraine.

This self-assessment can help you determine whether your headaches fit the definition of migraines and what factors might trigger them.
 
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1. Do you have headache pain that is moderate to severe and lasts from four to 72 hours (or longer)?
  No
  Yes
 
2. Do you feel pain on one side of your head or pain that starts on one side and spreads to the other side?
  Yes
  No
 
3. Does the pain have a pulsating, throbbing or hammering quality?
  No
  Yes
 
4. Do you experience nausea and/or vomiting with your headache pain?
  Yes
  No
 
5. Does the pain become worse with regular activity?
  No
  Yes
 
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