Headaches of any form are always painful to the sufferer. However, some headaches, such as migraines, for instance, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be nausea, sensitivity to light and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache acts on one side of the head, and other times you can feel the pain on both sides of the head at the same time.
The real causes of migraine headaches has yet to be discovered, although there are some theories why we experience migraine headaches. The most commonly held belief is that an alteration in the blood flow within the brain is one of the triggers that causes migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that maybe it could be caused by pain sensing chemicals called neuropeptides.
Many medical professionals think that neuropeptides relax the smooth muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation causes the blood vessels to dilate. This blood vessel relaxation increases the flow of blood and other cranial fluid to the brain. This increase in fluids is thought to be the cause of migraine headaches.
These cranial fluids are the reason for inflammation, pain, sensitivity, tissue and blood vessel inflammation during the time of the migraine headaches. Many people think that the aura that is sometimes seen during a migraine headache is caused by the constriction of the blood vessels that became dilated during the beginning period of the migraine headache.
Another theory as to the causes of migraine headaches has been linked to genetics and inheritance. These theories state that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% probability of getting migraine headaches too.
The chances of inheriting migraine headaches is even greater if both parents are sufferers of this painful kind of headache. If both parents have frequent migraine headaches the chances of the child inheriting migraine headache symptoms is about 70%.
Even though some professionals are persuaded that genetics plays a big part in migraine headaches, the genes that are considered to be the causes of migraine headaches have not been identified or even isolated yet. When we start to experience migraine headaches the only warning signs that we may expect to receive are a throbbing pain in the temple area and slight sickness.
As the symptoms of the migraine progresses, the pain becomes much more severe. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have yet to be discovered and we dont know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure this sort of headaches yet.