Is that throbbing pulsating headache you are experiencing really a migraine? Over 40 million people experience migraine headaches. Migraine attacks are more common in women than men. In fact, they are about three times more common in women. It is one of the most common types of headache today.

How do you define migraine?

I’ve searched for a while for a migraine definition that is simple and easy to understand. Fellow sufferers describe it as a very painful and intolerable type of headache.

Medical practitioners define migraine as a kind of vascular headache. Researchers once believed the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in the head caused migraines. Scientists now believe migraines are inherited abnormalities in genes that control the activities of some of the cells in the brain.

My plain and simple migraine definition is a severe, throbbing and pulsating vascular headache that can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Attacks are usually accompanied by several warning symptoms such as:

• seeing stars or flashes of light
• blind spots
• tingling in the arms and legs
• nausea
• vomiting
• increased sensitivity to light and sound

These symptoms are “auras”. You can have headache pain on either side of your head, sometimes pain can occur on both sides of your and occasionally you can have a migraine without a headache.

Types of Migraines

There are two major types of migraine: classical and non-classical. The type of migraine with an aura is called classical. The aura usually begins about 35 minutes before onset of the headache. You’ve probably noticed that you can almost predict when an attack is coming because you get one of the early warning signals. Maybe you began seeing flashes of light or perhaps you became nauseated and started vomiting. In a classical migraine your blood vessels become constricted. Then when it attacks there is an increase in size of your blood vessels. To get a jump-start on treating your headache pain you may want to take your migraine medication at the first sign of an aura symptom.

The second type of migraine is non-classical. Non-classical migraines hit without an aura or early warning symptoms. Some also call this a simple migraine. This headache occurs from the closing of the blood vessels up to the point of the blood vessels increasing in size. When a non-classical migraine hits you should take your medication at the first sign of headache pain.

Classical and non-classical are the most common types of migraine but there are still other forms of migraines. These are: cluster migraines, abdominal, ocular, basilar artery, retinal, confusional, hemiplegic, status migrainosus and carotidynia.

No matter how you define migraine, you’ll want to keep a migraine diary. In your diary track the type of migraine, any auras or early warning signs and symptoms, and what you ate preceding your headache. You may also want to look into herbal migraine remedies and supplements to help reduce your migraine frequency.

Until recently, treatment for migraine has focused on the patient’s cry for help: “I have to get better; please get rid of my pain!” A wide range of medical and alternative medicine resources are available to address this plea.

Migraine sufferers who cannot find sufficient relief have developed a new request: “Please help me live my best possible life, despite my pain!” Professional coaches specializing in migraines can work with migraineurs to address this area.

In my view, the primary physician should be your initial resource for migraine treatment. Your doctor will be able to order tests to rule out any major physiological reasons, hopefully, for your headaches. Many patients will find that their doctor’s recommendations – whether for medications, stress relief, lifestyle modification, etc. – reduce the frequency, duration or severity of their migraine attacks. Others will be referred to neurologists or migraine specialists for more detailed consultations.

Every migraine sufferer is different and has their unique response to treatment. There is a wide array of treatment options available, both inside and outside the traditional medical system. Some of these alternatives include acupuncture, therapeutic massage, meditation, and so on. If you are fortunate, at some point you will find adequate long-term relief from one or more of these therapies.

Migraines, as described by Dr. Carolyn Bernstein in her excellent 2008 book, “The Migraine Brain”, are caused by a common neurological condition called cortical spreading depression, which is ‘superexcitement’ of the brain when it is confronted by one of your triggers. There is no cure for migraine at this time.

After trying a number of alternatives, you may come to the realization that there is no combination of treatment options which can give you sustainable pain relief.

Even though you don’t want to give up the ongoing search for relief, your focus begins to shift to versions of the second question:

“I want to improve how I deal with my pain.”

“Please help me live my best possible life, even though I have regular pain.”

You find yourself in the position of anyone else who faces a life-long medical condition, such as arthritis or heart disease. The condition, and your response to it, can only be managed in future; it is unlikely that it will ever be resolved.

But there is a silver lining to this new reality: in general, when you look around, you realize that people respond to the same circumstances in very different ways. The way that you have reacted to your migraine pain up until now is not the only way — there may are better migraine management strategies which will allow you to achieve the improved quality of life which you seek.

The manner in which you react to a migraine attack may very well be ingrained and habitual by now, and it’s hard to modify it by yourself. The better way is to bring in a third party like a coach who will recognize and identify your hard-wired reactions, and help you to transform them into productive responses that will set you in the direction that you would like your life to go. Working with a coach tends to be more beneficial if you have episodic (less than 15 migraines per month) rather than chronic migraines (more than 14).

Migraine sufferers should work through their primary physician to see if they can relieve their pain. Sometimes significant pain relief cannot be obtained. Even then, the coaching alternative can provide them with hope that the quality of life that they can achieve will still be better than otherwise expected.