Neeru Purohit, 35, is generally a soft-spoken and easy-going woman. But about once a month, she confesses, she transforms into a banshee, making her preteen children tip-toe around her. She would call in sick frequently, missing work days -the school where she taught has resigned itself to this eventuality.Purohit has been suffering from migraines for 12 years now, they started when she was 23 years old. “I would be in severe pain for at least two days,” says Purohit. “It is debilitating. The constant throb in the temple would increase if anyone even called out my name or knocked on the door. I would tie a cloth around my head, draw the drapes and lie in bed till the worst passed.”
According to a World Health Organization factsheet on headache disorders, migraines affect more than 30 per cent of the adult population globally. “Migraines are the most common headaches that people complain of,” said Dr Nitin G Sampat, a consulting neurologist who recently conducted a workshop on migraines at Bhatia Hospital in Mumbai. “They are also the most under-diagnosed and overdiagnosed ailment. People often dismiss migraines as just a common headache. The ramifications of ignoring it over a period of time can be far-reaching. A migraine is not as benign as people assume it to be.”
Migraine VS Headache
In a recent interview, actor Jennifer Morrison spoke in detail about her struggle with migraines and their debilitating nature. “It’s one of those things that if I had known about when I first started experiencing some of the symptoms, I would have been more aware of what the problem was,” the House and Once Upon A Time actress explained.”Mine started with blurred vision, I wasn’t sure what it was. So then on top of it, I was panicking like, `Oh my gosh, what is happening to me?” There are many like Morisson who are migrainers –people who suffer from migraines -but are in denial about the severity of the ailment.
“One needs to understand that a migraine is a headache, a severe one at that. But all headaches are not migraines,” shares Dr Sampat. A migraine can be distinguished from a headache by several factors, such as the accompanying throb or pulse-like palpitation in the head.He lists the factors that differentiate a migraine from a normal headache:
1 A migraine headache is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting
2 The pain is of moderate or severe intensity
3 It gets worse with any movement or physical activity
4 There is an increased sensitivity to light -photophobia, and sound -phonophobia
5 It lasts for about four to 72 hours
If your headache does not have these above mentioned tell-tale signs, then your headache in all probability is not a migraine, and could be a mixed headache or a tension headache.
When 19-year-old college student Aparna Singh suffered from frequent headaches, she quickly dismissed them as a result of spending too much time on the computer. But when one such episode left her nauseous, she consulted a doctor, who told her that she was suffering from a migraine. “I shouldn’t have been surprised, as my mother also suffers from it,” says Singh. “I just thought that I was too young to have them.” Young people, in fact, are more at risk for migraines, as are post-pubescent women. “Men start having migraines at a much earlier age compared to women. But there is a higher prevalence of women having migraines. For every one man, there are three women who suffer from migraines,” adds Dr Sampat. “There is also a high genetic and hormonal component involved.There is a higher chance of someone having migraines if their mother has them, or if it runs in the family. In addition to that, any hormonal change in the body -even something as routine as menstruation -can cause a migraine attack.”
When photographer Shireesh Rai, 23, moved to Mumbai from Delhi, he was plagued by frequent headaches.Once, the pain was so severe that he had to cancel a high-paying shoot. “I had such headaches before, when I was in Delhi. The frequency was less.But ever since I started working full time as a photographer, the instances of such attacks almost doubled,” informs Rai. “I never thought these were migraines. These attacks were brought upon by me not eating for long hours. I would be so engrossed in a shoot, that I would end-up skipping meals frequently.” Rai now carries a snack with him wherever he goes. While a migraine by itself is not curable, its frequency subsides with age.
