6 Common Myths About Migraines, Debunked

When it comes to head pain and neurological conditions, migraine is one of the most prominent and least understood. Recognized as one of the most disabling illnesses by the World Health Organization (WHO), this condition affects 37 million people in America and 147 million globally, and less than 5% of people have been appropriately diagnosed and received the care they need.

Migraine is also a highly misunderstood illness, often lumped in with other headaches and many other misconceptions that can make getting treatment harder. To help people dealing with this disabling illness during Migraine Awareness Month, let’s explore more about migraine attacks and what people misunderstand about them.

Norwood, Anderson, and Westside, Ohio, and Crestview Hills, Kentucky, residents struggling with the pain and other symptoms of migraines and other neurological problems can find help from the medical team at Riverhills Neuroscience.

Defining migraine

This neurological illness does a lot more than just cause head pain; the phases you go through uniquely create a constellation of symptoms:

• Prodrome: concentration, mood, and sleeping changes often occur at this stage
• Aura: a group of signs like ear ringing, vision, muscle, motor, and speech changes
• Attack: severe pain, vomiting, nausea, and auditory and light sensitivity
• Postdrome: the last stage comes with fatigue, focusing issues, and neck stiffness

The throbbing pain typical of migraine attacks is debilitating enough to leave you unable to do anything but lie in your bed and hope it goes away, and it can last anywhere from four hours to three days. This isn’t just a problem that comes and goes occasionally; many people endure it and go into another cycle of the same symptoms that keep them from performing basic normal functions during the day.

Common myths about it

With all of these symptoms making people miserable, let’s understand what people get wrong about migraines:

1. Myth: Migraines and headaches are the same

A migraine is commonly referred to as migraine headaches. While it’s a type of headache, it’s also a neurological disease with many unique symptoms and can lead to functional and structural changes in the brain in severe cases.

2. Myth: Migraines vs migraine, which is proper?

Migraine, unlike many other forms of headache, is a singular neurological condition that doesn’t go away even when you’re not dealing with symptoms. This means it is always present and can’t happen more than once, so you can’t have migraines; you’re dealing with a single problem with varying degrees of symptoms. It’s common for people to say migraines, but the singular is the correct use.

3. Myth: Caffeine causes migraine

Often, the opposite result comes from using caffeine to manage pain from attacks. Overuse headaches can come from using too much caffeine, but the correct dose can help you feel better.

4. Myth: It can be cured with diet changes

This comes from the idea of trigger foods that can increase the chances of attacks, but even removing those from your diet isn’t a guarantee of avoiding the pain altogether. There isn’t a specific diet that prevents migraine; there are only foods to avoid to lower the risk.

5. Myth: Aura is a part of all migraine

Not everyone experiences all the signs of the four phases of migraine; some people have pain with no aura, called common migraine, and others have just the opposite, called classic migraine. The way you experience this illness can also change with age.

6. Medications can’t treat it

Getting something to ease the pain of migraine attacks can seem daunting, but there are many different ways to approach treatment, and not everyone will respond to them the same way. It’s easy to feel like there’s no help for you, but it could be that you simply haven’t had the proper treatment.

We specialize in treating neurological conditions and offer many solutions to help reduce the impact of migraine attacks on your daily life. To find out what we can do to manage your migraine problems, make an appointment with the Riverhills Neuroscience team today.