Miracle Medicine for a Migraine

Almost everyone has experienced a headache at some point in their life. In fact, ninety-nine percent of people have them at least once per year. Most of the time they just forget about it or take a common pain reliever, like aspirin or ibuprofen, and feel better soon. However, some headaches are so painful that they are completely incapacitating. They can prevent someone from working, driving, or generally participating in their life. These headaches can bring with them other nasty symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, and hypersensitivity to light and sound. Some people with these kinds of severe headaches will notice their limbs grow cold, their face is pale, and even simplest of movement causes their pain to intensify. These headaches are called migraines. The World Health Organization estimates that twenty million people have a migraine attack a day and they affect people of every race and in all countries.


Migraines have been around for a long time. There are people throughout history who are believed to suffer from this kind of head pain, such as Julius Caesar, Thomas Jefferson, Joan of Arc, Ulysses S. Grant, and Sigmund Freud. Some theorists believe that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was actually inspired by Lewis Carroll’s symptoms of a migraine aura. Vincent Van Gogh is another famous figure whose work is believed to have been derived in part by his migraine headaches.

Migraines are considered to be a “vascular headache” and, common as they are, doctors still don’t know exactly what causes them. The prevailing medical belief is that blood vessels in the brain swell until they press on nerve fibers, which give off chemicals that cause feelings of pain. The tendency to have migraines could be hereditary and may also be linked to changing hormone levels in women, who are more likely to suffer from migraines than men. They can occur as an isolated headache or happen in clusters, where someone may experience severe, reoccurring head pain that may continue for hours, days, or even weeks at a time! Since the pain from a migraine can be so bad; it’s commonly referred to as an “attack.”

People that are in the throes of a severe migraine can feel desperate for relief. In years past, patients with migraines suffered in silence. They went into a dark room, applied cold clothes to their heads, and lie still while waiting for the pain to subside. In time, people attempted to manage their migraine pain with aspirin and later analgesics like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen. However, most patients found these methods didn’t offer sufficient pain relief or they weren’t able to take such medication. For many migraine-sufferers, the advent of migraine-abortive medication was the equivalent of a pharmaceutical miracle. These drugs don’t just treat the pain but go right to the cause – the swollen arteries. Triptans are one type of migraine medicine which brings down the swelling of the blood vessels and reduces the amount of chemical substances which cause pain. Among those most commonly prescribed by doctors are Imitrex® (Imigran), Zomig®, and Rizatriptan (Maxalt®). Flunarizine (Sibelium®) is part of another class of drugs which can be used for migraines called channel blocking agents, which relax the blood vessels and encourage a better blood-flow. These medicines can all be purchased at reduced prices at http://www.pacificonlinepharmacy.com/ by both physicians and patients. Frequent migraine sufferers can also be treated with prophylactic medications such as beta blockers and calcium channel blockers. Even tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsant medications can be employed to help thwart a migraine While it is very good for the creative world that Vincent Van Gogh couldn’t take Imitrex® (Imigran) or any of other of today’s migraine-abortive medications, I’m sure at times the artist really wished he could have.