Migraine headaches is a type of headaches that affect a lot of people around the globe. This disease can create a lot of problems to the daily activities of the patients as the pain is sometimes intense and destructs you from doing any other activity. Migraines are more common to women than men and this is why they are known as the 'female headache'.
This posts describes the different stages of migraine headaches. It is important for migraine sufferers to know about these different stages so as to prepare for each stage. Their goal should be to take measures to prevent and migraine crisis and also to know what to do during the middle of the crisis when the pain becomes more intense.
A migraine headaches crisis has five different stages. These stages describe every phase of the migraine, before the crisis begin to the stage after the crisis. It should be noted that not all people experience all stages.
The first stage is the pre-headache stage. During this stage some people have mood changes, their energy levels are dropped, they may have aggressive behavior and their appetite is reduced. There are also cases that they experience some form of mild pain that goes away after a few hours.
The second stage of a migraine headaches crisis is the aura. This stage is common in about 25% of the cases. The aura symptoms include flashes of light, temporary blindness, problems in focusing and dizziness. The duration of this stage is between 20 minutes to one hour.
The third stage is the headache it self. The pain is intense and rhythmic and is only on one part of the head. Some of the most characteristic symptoms of migraine headaches at this stage are: nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, and the need of the patient to lie down in a dark and quiet room. The headache stage has a duration between 4 hours to 3 days.
The fourth stage is the post-headache stage. This is the stage that the headache pain starts to decline and goes away completely. A good way to enter this stage is a good relaxing sleep in a dark and quiet room.
The final stage of a migraine headaches crisis is the stage that the pain is eliminated completely and you get a feeling of exhaustion and tiredness. You can recover from this stage by getting some rest, eating well balanced meals and gradually getting back into your normal daily activities.
