Facts about Headaches & Migraine

• Twenty-eight million Americans suffer from migraines. Of these people, 4,5 million have more than one attack per month. A quarter of the female population is affected and about eight in every hundred men.
• One can get a headache from taking too many headache medications too often. This is called a rebound headache. It will not go away until the person stops taking the headache medication entirely. Overdosing on painkillers can damage your liver of your kidneys.
• 95% of headaches are not associated with any disease.
• While most headaches are uncomfortable and sometimes disabling, they are mostly not dangerous. Most of them can be cured by over-the-counter headache medications and by lying down in a quiet dark room for a while.
• If you don't smoke, don't drink excessively, get regular sleep, eat a healthy diet and get daily exercise, you are unlikely to suffer from headaches frequently, unless you have a medical problem.
• Tension headaches can affect anyone and is the most common from of headache. Tension headaches are often the result of neck and shoulder muscles going into spasm, and can sometimes last for days.
• Headache signals do not come from the brain, contrary to what many people believe. These pain signals are caused by interactions between the blood vessels, the brain and surrounding nerves. The pain comes from activated nerves around the skull, the blood vessels, and the head muscles.
• More men than women suffer from cluster headaches. These are intense headaches that often occur at the same time every day or every few days. These are debilitating, but usually don't last longer than 90 minutes. People who are heavy smokers or drinkers often suffer from cluster headaches.
• Migraine most commonly occurs in people between the ages of 25 and 55 and predominantly affects women.
• The word "migraine" has its origin in the Latin word "hemicrania (the half of the skull)", and the Latin word was rendered into old French, thence getting to be called just "migraine".
• In the United States, prevalence of migraines is highest among Caucasians, intermediate among African Ameri- cans, and lowest among Asian Americans. Prevalence is highest in low-income and low- education groups in the United States.
• Food is probably the best known migraine trigger. About 25% of all migraine attacks is triggered by food (foods that contain tyramine, sodium nitrate or phenylalanine; red wine and sherry; cheese; chocolate; caffeine; citrus fruits ).
• A migraine attack can last for between 4 and 72 hours. Sufferers experience an average of 13 attacks each year.
• Research has confirmed that migraines may increase a person's risk of a stroke.
• The tendency to develop migraines can be inherited. Studies show that if one parent has them the child has a 40% chance of having them. If both parents have migraines the child has a 75% chance. 70% to 80% of sufferers have a family history of migraine.
• Migraine is a very individual condition and trigger factors and symptoms vary tremendously from person to person. A treatment, which works well for one sufferer may be completely ineffective for another.
• Lack of iron increases risk of headache development as a result of lowering of blood ability to transfer oxygen. To make up lack of oxygen, blood vessels dilate more, than they should, what can provoke headache.