What causes migraine?

Underlining the need for adopting an effective strategy against increasing cases of migraine, eminent neuro-physician Dr Syed Irfan Ali said people could avoid the disease by adopting preventive measures.
“The migraine headache is usually aggravated by daily activities such as walking upstairs. It leads to nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, facial pallor and cold hands and feet,” he said on Monday.
A typical attack lasts between 4 to 72 hours and an estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of migraine attacks were preceded by warning symptoms lasting hours to days. Symptoms may include sleepiness, irritability, fatigue, depression or euphoria, yawning, and cravings for sweet or salty foods.
Dr Irfan Ali said migraine attacks were commonly activated due to the sympathetic nervous system in the body and this system was often regarded as a part of the nervous system that controls primitive responses to stress and pain.
According to Dr Irfan, the increased sympathetic nervous activity in the intestines causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
“The absorption of oral medications for small purposes caused ineffectiveness of medications taken to treat migraine headaches,” he said.
Ali added that the increased sympathetic activity also decreases the circulation of blood, and this leads to pallor of the skin, as well as cold hands and feet.
He said for approximately 24 hours after a migraine attack, the migraine victims may feel drained of energy and may experience a headache along with sensitivity to light and sound. “Some of the patients may have recurrences of the headache during this period,” he added. Dr Irfan Ali said migraines can occur in any individual beyond the age of fifty as increasing age makes headaches very likely.
Regarding migraine treatment, he said it could include non-medicinal and medicinal approaches.
“Aspirin, Aleve, Motrin, and Advil are all similarly effective in relieving pain and fever and the main difference between aspirin and non-aspirin is their effect on platelets,” he said. He said platelets were small particles in the blood that caused blood clots to form and aspirin prevented the platelets from forming blood clots.
“Aspirin can increase bleeding by preventing blood from clotting, although it also could be used therapeutically to prevent clots from causing heart attacks and strokes,” he said. He said disturbances such as sleep deprivation, too much sleep, poor quality of sleep, and waking up frequently at night were also associated with migraine headaches, whereas improved sleep habits have been shown to reduce the frequency of migraine headaches.
Dr Irfan said caffeine was found in many food products like cola, tea, chocolates and coffee and the low dose of caffeine could increase alertness and energy, but it may also cause insomnia, irritability, anxiety and headaches. “The overuse of caffeine containing analgesics causes rebound headaches,” he added.
Dr Irfan Ali said some women suffer from migraine around the time of their menstrual periods while other women experience migraine headaches only during the menstrual period. He said the term “menstrual migraine” was used mainly to describe migraines that occur in women who get a headache from two days before to one day after their menstrual periods and the declining levels of estrogens at the onset of menses was the likely cause of menstrual migraines.