Not Tonight, I've Got a Headache

Thump. Thump.

The left side of my head is pulsating with pain streaming from under my eyebrow. My skin feels hot and painful, like a tightened rice paper. My hands and legs shake. I’m nauseous. When I look at the light and hear loud sounds, it’s like someone is squeezing my brain. A colorful spot has just appeared in front of my eyes, blocking my vision. The pain is so excruciating that I’m forgetting where I'm going. I sit down, covering my eyes and ears.

This has been just the beginning of my latest 3-day-long migraine episode. I spent three days laying in a dark quiet room, looking at the ceiling and sometimes throwing up.

Most people think that migraines are just strong headaches. Kind of, except for one thing: painkillers won’t help.

So when I do get a migraine, I like to read the latest scientific research about the illness. What are the causes? Is there a new cure? What I learn from research often makes me furious.

Migraines are mostly a women’s issue, with 15-17% of women suffering from the disease. It is also one of the most under-researched topics in healthcare. For example, Google Scholar finds 817,000 studies on migraine and 974,000 studies on testicular cancer, which develops for only 0.4% of men.

Of course, cancer is deadly. But so are migraines. Migraines are the second-leading cause of disability. Because of migraines, women take millions of sick days per year, losing billions of dollars globally. Even more, some research claims that migraines are bi-directionally associated with painkiller addiction, anxiety, depression, and suicide. People with frequent severe migraines literally kill themselves.

So what is the cause of this nightmare of a disease? No one knows. Scientists know of a strong genetic component, but what actually triggers migraines include monthly hormonal changes, changes in sleep, stress, sensory overstimulation, and many more factors. It takes months and years for a patient to learn what exactly triggers the episodes.

Learning the cause is crucial when there is no cure. And there is none yet. One of the migraine symptoms is temporal insensitivity to painkillers. Some claim that taking painkillers can even trigger migraines.

How do people escape then? It’s all really personal. Some can ease the symptoms with regular painkillers, anti-nausea medicine, acupuncture, or hot or cold baths. However, this helps when you notice the migraine episode before the pain even starts. In this case, I’m not sure how they measure the efficiency of the cure. Did it really help, or did you just mistake the upcoming migraine episode for Thursday’s tiredness?

After the 3-day-long migraine episode ends, I still feel drained and sleepy for up to a week. When you are suffering from migraines, you quickly learn what a debilitating neurological disease it is. You also learn that the illness is part of the health gap, meaning that because it is mostly present in women, it is so under-researched and underfunded.

The worst part is that if I had never experienced a migraine myself, I’d be completely indifferent to the issue.

Migraine? Oh, it’s just a headache. It’ll pass.