I am sure that most of us have experienced headaches of some sort at one point, including myself. Although I have experienced them before, I never took the chance to learn more about them. Turns out, tension and migraine headaches are the most common types of headaches. Between tension headaches and migraines, migraines are more severe and can affect our daily activities. Migraines are often characterized by a throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation typically on one side of the head. Some of the more severe symptoms of migraine include nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to sound and light. These symptoms can last from a few hours to even days which can definitely get in the way of our daily lives.
As I was researching about migraines, I found out that migraines affect females and males disproportionately. Of the 38+ million Americans who experience migraines, 28 million are females. Not only are females prone to experience migraines more frequently, they often experience more severe symptoms as well. In order to explore the reason behind the sex difference in migraines, researchers from Shandong University, China, conducted a study. There are total of 92 participants in the study, 46 are patients with migraine without aura and (23 females and 23 males) and the other 46 are healthy controls. All participants were evaluated on their emotional characteristics such as self rate anxiety and depressive. The results suggested correlations between occurrence of migrates and higher levels of anxiety as well as greater attentive processing impairment. Those results also confirmed that females are more prone to migraines than males. Researchers stressed that attentive processing abnormalities are related to migraines which are more prevalent females. Since this study is only a correlation study, the explanation or reason for the sex difference in prevalence of migraines is still unknown. Although the study does not give us the answer for our question, it was another step forward to understanding migraines.
Before researching about headaches, I did not know much about them including the common symptoms, causes, or remediation. As this topic is such a prevalent topic to many and myself as well, it was very interesting and definitely beneficial for further references. Though this study is only a correlation study, it is actually like many scientific studies nowadays as it is very difficult to pinpoint one explanation or causation.
- Posted by Emily Wong (3)
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What are the differences between migraine and tension headaches? Before reading this post, I was under the impression that "migraine" headache was just a longer way of referring to a headache. Are both types of headaches just symptoms of various sicknesses?
ReplyDelete-David Frykenberg
Similar to tension headaches, migraines are one of the many types of headaches. However, migraines are sometimes recognized as its own category as they tend to have more severe symptoms. For example, migraines are usually associated with a throbbing sensation that could interfere with daily activities whereas tension headaches are characterized by a squeezing or clumping sensation. Between migraines and tension headaches, they differ in the types of pain, associated symptoms, as well as the severity and frequency of occurrence.
Delete- Emily Wong
As mentioned in this post, the study that was conducted was a correlational study. This type of study can only show a relationship between two variables. Thus, we only know that there is a relationship between gender and migraines. So then, what causes the differences between men and women in their susceptibility to migraines? I understand that that answer is not known, but could it be due to the differences in their physiology?
ReplyDeletePosted By: Nicholas Georgette (Group B)
I find this blog post very relatable. I have had my fair share of migraines before and the best way I cope with them is to lay in the dark with a heating pad over my head. They are the worst. However, I like that you discussed how migraines can affect different genders. In my family, my sister, mother and I are all more likely to form headaches, while my father has never had a migraine before. It would be interesting to dive further and research and find additional causes (other than anxiety) for migraines. I myself have not done heavy research so it would be interesting to know of other potential causes.
ReplyDelete-Elise Babula
i have always suffered from migraines. since i was 8 years old, i remember getting MRI'S done and all these studies because my headaches were so severed. After not finding anything, they declared it was migraines. this study is very interesting because the fact that more women are affected by migraines than men, could this be due to women being more emotionally stress than men? we tend to stress over the littlest things compare to men and i feel like this can be one of the causes why the number is so high.
ReplyDeleteposted by Pam Jimenez
I really enjoyed this post. I suffer from migraines that can last up to three days at a time. I get very nauseous and have a high level of sensitivity to light. It is the worst thing when it happens in the middle of a school week. The only way I know how to deal with them is by laying in a dark room with ice/heat on my head. I didn't know that migraines affected women more than men. The study you talk about confirms that this is true. I am curious why this is the case. Is there something different in the sex related hormones that causes women to have more migraines or men to have less? This is a very interesting read and I hope to learn more about why gender matters when it comes to migraines.
ReplyDelete- Sophie DeRepentigny
The study mentioned in the post was only a correlational study. It did confirm a relationship or correlation between sex and migraines, however, the exact explanation for why that is, is unclear. Although the cause is very difficult to pinpoint, there are many different studies with various hypotheses. One of the many hypotheses suggests that the reason why females are more susceptible to migraines is due to the fact that there are fluctuations in the level of estrogen which can affect cell activities within the brain. There are many more possible explanations for the sex differences, yet none of them have been confirmed or proven.
Delete-Emily Wong
I thought I had a really bad migraine once but I actually ended up having meningitis! I had never had a history of getting bad headaches, which is what led me to be suspicious of what exactly was going on. I thought going to the ER would be overkill just for a migraine so I heard off. Then I started throwing up and I was convinced I was dying so I went to the hospital. Figures. Very interesting article!
ReplyDeleteLiz Clark
This was extremely interesting to read. I have already noticed out through my life that girls seemed to get migraines more then men and this article proves it. I would've never thought it was by such drastic number though!
ReplyDelete-Joshua Gach