Primary Headaches

When the primary illness is the headache itself, this is known as a Primary headache. These headaches seem to have no known physical cause. It is generally believed that primary headaches are either inherited or the result of a problem in the brain. The 4 types of Primary headaches are: Migraine headache, Tension-type headache, Cluster Headache and the "Common" headache which is believed to be a mild form of either migraine or tension-type headache.We will be looking at Migraines in this article.

There is currently no known cause for migraine headache. For many years it was believed that migraines were vascular or blood vessel dilation headaches. The theory was that blood vessels were suddenly dilated around the head causing severe pain. Current thought is that a disturbance in the central nervous system causes miagraine headaches. This disturbance causes a series of chemical changes in the brain, which results in dilation of blood vessels, pain and other symptoms. Since migraine involves much more than pain, the other symptoms seem to be directly related to the brain. Studies have shown that the brains of people who suffer from migraines are more excitable and behave differently than the brains of those who don't have migraines. The visual and sound recptors of migraine patients appear to be more excitable than non migraine sufferers. It is felt that inflammation of the covering of the brain or blood vessels is the cause of the throbbing pain. The nerve endings in migraine sufferers have been shown to release inflammatory proteins around the blood vessels and covering of the brain, thus causeing pain

The most well known type of severe headache is most likely the migraine. They can occur at any age, but are generally more common in women than in men. Men tend to have migraines at a slightly younger age than women, usually between 30 and 40, where as in women it is more common between 40 and 45. There are a variety of different types of migraines. The International Headache society recognizes two major categories of migraine: migraine with aura, which are those that include some type of visual disturbance (previously known as "Classic" migraine and migraine without aura (previously known as "common" migraine.)

The "common" migraine is known as the migraine without an Aura. This is usually a headache that will last anywhere from 4 to 72 hours. Symptoms usually include some or all of the following: unilateral headache, pulsating pain, moderate to severe pain that interferes with the person's ability to function normally, the pain is made worse by any type of physical activity, there is usually nausea and/or vomiting, and the patient will often have light and/or sound sensitivity. Many migraine sufferers also complain of sinus problems and congestion. Yet, when examined, there is usually not any sign of an inflammatory problem or infection in the sinus. Many sufferers also complain of upper back and neck stiffness.


Classic migraine is refered to now as a migraine with an Aura. This term is applied to a migraine where a physical warning sign of some type occurs before the headache. The aura is usually visual and occurs 5 to 20 minutes before the actual headache, and can last up to 60 minutes. In some cases, the aura will continue throughout the headache. The most common aura symptoms range from visual floaters to moving figures, blind spots, distorted objects and even hallucinations. Using electrical activity studies we know that the migraine aura is the result of an increase in electrical activity along the brains surface followed by a loss of electrical activity. During this period there is increased blood flow followed by decreased blood flow, which is not the result of vessel contraction. This results in the visual aura. Understanding these electrical pathways help toward better migraine treatment.

There is another type of migraine with Aura known as Basilar migraine. With this type of headache, the aura before the headache may include double vision, temporary blindness, vertigo, ringing in the ears, and even fainting. Although the symptoms are extremely scary to the individual, it is not worse than a regular migraine.


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