What are migraine headaches?
Moderate-to-severe nerve pain that often affects one side of the head is a symptom of the neurological condition known as migraine headache.
What are the signs and symptoms of migraines?
If you frequently get migraines, you are aware that their duration can range from a few hours to a couple of days. This could significantly obstruct your daily routine and activities. You may feel symptoms like nausea, vomiting, fatigue, sensitivity to light, sound, and odors, as well as facial pain that may radiate to the jaw.
Migraine patients can detect the onset of their condition right away. This severe pain goes through four stages of progression:
1. Prodrome Phase
- During the prodrome phase, sometimes, warning signs can predict a migraine attack up to two days in advance:
- Neck discomfort
- Hunger pangs
- Difficulties passing gas or having a bowel movement
- Mood swings such as depression or elation
- Feeling more thirsty or having the urge to urinate
- Frequent yawning
2. Aura
Auras, serve as a kind of warning. They are mainly visual but could also involve other disturbances. The signs appear gradually, intensify over several minutes, and last from 20 to 60 minutes. Following are some of the symptoms of migraine auras:
- Temporary vision loss
- Visualizing dazzling lights, shapes, or spots
- Difficulty speaking full sentences or words
- Difficulty listening to music or sounds
- Numbness of one side of the face or body
- Tingling sensations in the limbs
- Uncontrollable jerking movements
3. Attack
The duration of a migraine episode varies from person to person and can last from around three hours to three days if left untreated. Migraines might come occasionally or frequently during the month. When you get a migraine, you might feel the following:
- A throbbing ache on one or sometimes both sides of the head
- Sensitivity to touch, smell, and occasionally sound and light
- Nausea and vomiting
4. Attack
After a migraine episode, many people report feeling drained, confused, and worn out for the whole day. A sudden head movement may trigger the ache to come back.
Why Do Migraines Happen?
Essentially, there is no established reason why people have migraines; however, there are some factors:
- Stress: migraines may be triggered by stress at work or home.
- Sleep changes: for some people, sleep deprivation or excessive sleep can cause migraines.
- Foods. Migraines may be brought on by aged cheeses, salty meals, and processed foods, as well as by missing meals.
- Excessive physical activity: migraines may be triggered by vigorous physical activity.
- Sensory arousal: loud noises and bright or flashing lights can also cause migraines. Some people experience headaches when they are around strong odors like perfume, paint thinner, or cigarette smoke.
- Female hormonal changes: many women seem to experience headaches when their estrogen levels fluctuate. It may happen before or during their menstrual periods, during pregnancy, or throughout menopause.
- Oral contraceptives: hormonal medicine can make migraines worse. However, some women find that using these medications reduces the frequency of their migraine attacks.
- Alcohol consumption: a lot of alcohol, especially wine, can trigger migraine headaches.
- Caffeine consumption: High doses of caffeine can also cause migraines.
- Weather changes: a migraine headache may be caused by a change in the weather.
Does ketamine infusion therapy work for migraines?
There is currently no recognized treatment for chronic migraines; there are, however, over-the-counter and prescription drugs that can help prevent migraines or lessen the intensity of the pain when they do occur.
On the other hand, over the past 50 years, ketamine has evolved from a potent anesthetic to a well-known alternative migraine treatment. Studies have focused on ketamine’s impact on glutamate, a neurotransmitter present across the central nervous system that is linked to memory, learning, and mood control. The majority of recent studies demonstrate that ketamine stimulates glutamate.
The increased glutamate activity reduces stress and increases cognitive processing speed. Though less directly than ketamine, several experts believe that many antidepressants’ beneficial effects may be related to glutamate modulation. Due to this indirect mechanism, it takes SSRIs weeks to begin reducing migraine symptoms, just as antidepressants and other conventional drugs can take months to start working, unlike ketamine, which instantly works and relieves migraine symptoms after the first session.
Final words
Have you tried various treatments already without success for your migraines? Do you believe that there is no hope left for you to find relief from your persistent migraine headaches? Ketamine infusion therapy may be the solution you’ve been looking for if you’ve tried any of them without experiencing considerable relief.
Ketamine, in small doses, has been reported to be a highly powerful pain reliever for people with persistent chronic migraine. Ketamine therapy provides patients with quick relief; in fact, some people claim to feel better within a couple of hours of their initial infusion round.