Getting headaches for eight days/month? Beware

BENGALURU: Are you suffering from headaches for eight or more days a month? Then it’s time to stay warned as your migraine headache may be turning into much more dangerous chronic migraine headache.Doctors claim the burden of chronic migraine has gone up in the recent past and it is important for people to identify the triggers, patterns and take the right treatment or else they may end up suffering from heart attacks, high blood pressure and severe depression.

“There are two kinds of migraine headaches -- primary and secondary. While secondary headache is due to medical-related problems, the majority are primary ones and a prototype headache is known as migraine. The incidence of this has increased over time,” explains Dr Anil Venkitachalam, Consultant, Neurology and Movement Disorder, Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai.

He explains that migraine is the third common disease and one out of seven patients are affected by it globally. Though there is no specific data available on the incidence in India, Dr Anil says the number of cases presented are usually in the age group of 20-40 in India too. Several studies have shown that women, due to the imbalance in estrogen levels, are more prone to migraine headaches than men.

On the reasons for the onset of migraine, the doctors say there is always a pattern and triggers for the migraine event. “While the lifestyle of a person is the major contributing factor, there are other factors like obesity, sleep-related disorders, neurological issues, hypertension, smoking, too much tech use, stress, hormonal changes in women, genetic forms of migraine etc are some of the reasons,” Dr Anil explains.

He adds that identifying the trigger is most important to manage migraine headaches. He says patients suffering from headaches for at least 8-15 days a month should know that they are going through chronic migraine and need proper evaluation by a neurologist or a physician. The person who is popping a lot of painkillers to manage headache could also be a potential migraine patient.

“Triggers like sunlight, over use of coffee, smoking, dietary habits, sedentary life, too much exposure to blue light from gadgets etc needs to be identified and avoided to prevent migraine headaches,” the doctor added.