WHAT IS MIGRAINE?  

To date, neurologists have identified 165 different types of headache. These different types of pain can be divided into three main groups: Tension headache (headache with a muscular cause, such as the straightening of the spine and, as a result a loss of the normal curvature caused by muscular contraction or spasm), which is the most common and the easiest to bear, rebound headache (perpetuation of headache as a result of analgesic abuse), caused by the consumption of analgesics (a type of drug that alleviates or eliminates pain from any cause without changing other sensations), and migraine (periodic headache, often temporal and unilateral at the start, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhoea and photophobia), the pain of which can be really unbearable.

Migraine is a chronic illness, of unknown causes, that manifests itself through periodic attacks of cephalea or headaches.

It should be pointed out that the brain in itself is insensitive to pain, therefore the source of headache is due to alterations in the different structures surrounding it: The tissues surrounding it (meninges), the arteries and veins of the brain, the skull bones, the muscles and fascia and the skin surrounding the skull. Although practically everyone in the world knows the discomfort that headache or cephalea can cause, only 16% of the population suffers from the intense pain generated by migraine.

Neurologists (experts on the nervous system and its diseases) and geneticists are getting closer and closer to understanding the complex biochemical processes of headache produced by migraine, and as a result, laboratories are developing more effective medication to combat it. However, it is possible that the solution does not always lie in drugs (chemical compounds use in therapy. Refers to an agent or chemical substance, simple or compound, administered for therapeutic purposes), since migraine continues to be a veritable torture. Due to its intensity and duration (from 4 to 72 hours), its frequency (generally several episodes a month); the variety of symptoms that accompany it, such as a sensation of nausea, vomiting, phonophobia(abnormal intolerance to sound or noises) (discomfort caused by noise in the sufferer's environment), photophobia (abnormal intolerance to sound or noises) (discomfort caused by light in the sufferer's environment), double vision, etc.); due to the variety of factors that can act as triggers, such as atmospheric changes, diet, sleep patterns, stress... and the debilitating effects on sufferers, it is clear that migraine is more than just a simple headache. Migraine is a veritable torture for whoever suffers from it.

The etymological root of the word migraine is hemicrania, in other words, half cranium, due to the fact that it is quite common for the pain to be felt on one side of the head.

Normally, migraines always present with a similar onset, identified in four or five phases:

1/. The first onset is of the prodromal stage. Three or four hours before a sufferer starts to feel headache, a feeling of discomfort caused by light (photophobia) can be felt, as well as excessive thirst and sleepiness. Noise in the sufferer's environment can also cause discomfort (phonophobia). A combination of all of these factors leads to a change in the sufferer's character. 2/. The second phase or aura phase (the phase during which the particular sensation or phenomenon preceding the migraine attack occurs. It can be of a motor, sensory, vasomotor, secretory or psychic nature), this is only experienced by a small percentage of migraine patients. Some people claim that they see bright, flashing lights, combined on occasion with dark shadows or "flies". This phase tends to last from one to two hours, before the onset of the pain. In reality, this sensation of certain ocular disturbances is due to the reduced flow of blood, and therefore oxygen, caused by arterial vasoconstriction. 3/. The third phase, or the second for the majority of sufferers, is when the headache starts, known as the cephalea phase (this is the phase during which headache appears. It is also common during this phase for other symptoms to present themselves, such as nausea and vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia). This involves very intense pain that can last for a long time, even up to 72 hours. It is normally accompanied by a pulsating pain (pain occurring intermittently in the form of pulsations or rhythmic beats) in the temples. After the first hours following the onset of pain, sufferers experience nausea and vomiting,and some patients experience intolerance of odours, or osmophobia (abnormal intolerance to odours or perfumes). 4/. Whether or not they take medication, migraine sufferers usually seek relief through sleeping, although they will not always be able to sleep. We could say that with sleep, sufferers enter the resolution phase - this is the stage during which the symptoms start to reduce gradually until they disappear.. 5/. Posdromic phase- the phase that occurs before the aura and cephalea phases.. Once the migraine attack is over, patients feel tired and weak, and tend to be in low spirits, although certain people experience an agreeable sensation, after the pain they have suffered.

The sensation of pain occurs in the cerebral periphery, and during migraine attacks, certain veins and arteries that irrigate the brain experience vasodilatation (dilation of the blood vessels, either as a result in the increase of intravascular pressure - passive vasodilatation - or the reduction in vasomotor pressure, caused by the relaxation of the vascular musculature) caused by an inflammation with non-infectious origins. The pain is caused by the dilation of the blood vessels in the head that stimulate the nerve endings, causing pain. When the blood gushes through the irritated area, it exerts pressure on the dilated vessel, causing intense pain.

Among the vessels that cause the most pain are the temporal arteries, which can be felt in the temple area. The majority of migraine patients claim that when the pain appears, they instinctively apply pressure with their fingers to this area, in order to alleviate some of the pain. Specialists have actually confirmed that the pressure on this area lessens the sharp pain caused by the flow of blood through the dilated artery.

This is precisely the principle on which MIGRACALM ® works, alleviating the sensation of pain by applying light and permanent pressure to the point where the greatest sensation of pain is focused.