Headache or Migraine?

Headache is a symptom that can come from multiple causes. Any of the structures of the head can suffer painful processes, including muscle, blood vessels, nerves, bones, teeth, eyes and sinuses. Among these components, the most commonly committed by processes called painful headaches are the muscles and vessels. Migraine is a type of headache caused by blood vessel changes.

In the beginning there is a vasoconstriction, ie, the vessel diameter decreases, there is less blood available to the brain tissue. After this vasoconstriction, vasodilation occurs. As the skull is closed, when blood vessels grow in size, there is an increase in intracranial pressure, which causes pain.

The most common types of migraine are classic and common. In classic migraine, an "aura" before the attacks of headache. It is caused by low brain tissue oxygenation during vasoconstriction, in which the patient may suffer from visual hallucinations, auditory or olfactory. Fainting can also occur or periods of mental confusion. After this phase, the patient begins to feel pain, usually on one side of the head (migraine), throbbing, moderate to strong, with variable duration (minutes to days), accompanied by nausea and vomiting, which worsens with the noise and with clarity and improves sleep.

The common migraine is very similar to the classic, except not be preceded by "aura". Outside of infancy, most people with migraines are women and often is related to the menstrual cycle, especially in the premenstrual period.