How should you deal with migraines?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:08)

Now, migraines are much more than just a headache, and for some people, they can be hours or days of genuinely debilitating pain. So what actually causes migraines? How do they differ from other headaches? And what can be done to manage them? To answer all your migraine questions and do get them into us now, 87 1400 106 is the WhatsApp, is Dr Eleanor Galvin. Good evening to you, Eleanor. Thank you very much for joining us. I suppose, first of all, if people, some people will say, oh, I've got a terrible migraine. They might not suffer with migraine at all. It might be a headache. So what is the difference between an ordinary headache, if you will, and a migraine?

Eleanor Galvin (0:43)

A lot of it is in the severity of a migraine compared to a headache. I suppose you're talking kind of flu and cold. A lot of people would say a headache could be from stress, tiredness, people annoying you, whereas a migraine would be maybe one side of the head, be associated with symptoms like nausea and vomiting and maybe sounds and smells becoming louder or distorted and all, but some vision problems. So the aura, the zigzaggy lines.

So a migraine would be distinctly different to a normal headache because it wouldn't be just a pain in your head. It would be accompanied by other symptoms.

Ciara Kelly (1:23)

Other kind of neurological symptoms. And people tend to be migraine sufferers or not.

Eleanor Galvin (1:29)

Yeah. And there's about 13, 15 percent of people at some stage in their life have suffered from migraine. So it is quite common. So if you're a migraine sufferer, people generally know what are their triggers and they know what is their cure. And sometimes that can take a little bit of finding out what suits you, what you should have in your handbag or your pocket or your coat that you would have with you if you felt it was coming on. So quite a lot of times you would know what is coming on. It's called a prodrome and you might feel a bit discombobulated, a bit nauseous, a bit like everything's annoying you, tired and then you know, oh, goodness, now my zigzag lines are coming.

Here comes the migraine. And it's at that stage to intervene and to take something.

Ciara Kelly (2:15)

And there are atypical migraines as well that are even more peculiar than what you've just described.

Eleanor Galvin (2:21)

There's hemiplegic migraine, which is when people can have kind of numbness down an arm or a leg and they could have tingling in their nose and their lips.

Or they might even find it hard to speak and they can be mumbly. And I suppose the first time that happens to you is A&E really to make sure you're not having a stroke.

Ciara Kelly (2:37)

Yeah, very frightening.

Eleanor Galvin (2:38)

Very frightening.

And if you were to be neurologically impaired by a headache, it is A&E you should head for if it's never happened to you before to make sure that it is not a stroke. And also if you had a migraine for the first time after a certain age, so if you've never had migraines and suddenly getting these really bad headaches, migraines with vomiting or changes to your vision, you also need to go get yourself scanned.

Ciara Kelly (3:03)

You mentioned triggers. Eleanor, what kind of things trigger people and bring this on? What kind of things should migraine sufferers avoid?

Eleanor Galvin (3:10)

Well, stress is one of the big things. Some people get migraine after the stress has happened. So they have a really stressful week at work. They wake up Saturday morning and think, great, it's Saturday.

Ciara Kelly (3:21)

It's all over.

Eleanor Galvin (3:21)

It's all over. And then the migraine slams. So it's also like late nights, excessive drinking, too much caffeine, kind of disruptions to sleep, strong cheeses. So there's all sorts of things that people discover are their triggers. And sometimes by keeping a migraine diary, that you would jot down what kind of day you had, especially having frequent migraines, you'll see a pattern and you'll see what it is. There is dehydration, not drinking enough water, sometimes skipping meals, some of those sorts of things where you are kind of running low.

Those are the kind of boring, ordinary, everyday things that you may have to keep really good to keep your migraine.

Ciara Kelly (3:58)

So a migraine, if you're newly diagnosed with migraine or a new sufferer, keeping a diary is a good idea to see what the pattern might be that might kick off your migraine. And then I suppose we move on to treatment. What should people do? They've got the migraine, they're there, their light is hurting their eyes, and they've got zigzaggy visions, and they feel a bit queasy, and they're pumping horrible headache on one side of their head.