Abdominal Migraines
Abdominal Migraines: What Are They? Most Americans are familiar with migraines, those headaches that take bites out of workdays, leave people weak and nauseous and come back in episodes over and over again. What many people don’t know is that migraines can attack different parts of the body. One example of this is the abdominal migraine. A Migraine In Your Abdomen? Believe it or not, there is such thing a thing. Although there have been reports of these types of migraines occurring in adults, it is most common in children. In fact, abdominal migraines are most common in female children. The symptoms often last from 1 to seventy two hours. Common Symptoms The most common symptoms of abdominal migraines include vomiting, nausea and abdominal pain. In addition,sufferers may or may not have a headache or aura during this type of migraine, but may still suffer from the fatigue and sleepiness. While headaches are pretty self-explanatory, aura is a little more complicated. Aura produces hallucinations such as flashing lights, smelling odors that don’t exist, vertigo, hearing things and much more. It’s A Migraine If… Abdominal migraines are hard to pinpoint, but there is specific criteria the International Headache Society has established to make it easier to determine if it is a migraine or not. These include: making sure that the symptoms are not contributed by another disorder, ensuring that symptoms include anorexia, nausea, vomiting, pallor or at least two of these, pinpointing that the abdominal pain is in the midline section, identifying that the abdomen is sore, or the abdomen pain is moderate to sever, monitoring that the pain lasts for 1 to seventy-two hours, and there are at least five attacks that relate include the above. Treatment Options Treatments for these migraines are similar to other types of migraines. These include triptans such as Imitrex, Zomig, Maxalt, etc. In addition, some doctors prescribe medicine for nausea and vomiting such as Phenergran and Reglan. As with all migraines, abdominal ones are often triggered by foods or other substances that our bodies react to. These migraine triggers include substances like anxiety, eggs, MSG, caffeine, sunlight, stress, etc. Reducing these triggers can help reduce the number of episodes that you experience.
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