When She Says “I Have A Headache”, She’s Not Kidding
Studies done in UCLA confirmed what women have known for millenia — that females get more migraines then males. 29.5 million Americans have migraines — and two thirds of them are women. To know about the difference between a headache and a migraine, click here
So, WHY do women get migraines more than men? The theory is that females have “a more exciteable brain” and therefore are more open to migraine triggers than male brains. This is true in lab mice, anyway. The female rodents’ brains could be easily stimulated into brain wave patterns that indicate migraines. This condition is called cortical spreading depression. Male rodent’s brains took more jiggling. Apparantly this is because they wouldn’t stop and ask the scientists for directions on where the experiments were going.
Seriously though, it thought cortical spreading depression is what mechanicaly fires up migraines. It is still not 100% known just what causes migraines. The earlier theory that migraines were a contraction and dialations of blood vessels has been scrapped. Work is concentrating now on stopping these cortical spreading depression brainwaves with a drug called memantine. This drug is still in the experimental stages.
It’s not entirely sure just why women have “a more exciteable brain” than men. Women do have to deal with the tidal flow of the menstral cycle, which may cause a constant chemical change in the woman’s body. Women then go through more changes than men. When you add stress, an unbalanced diet and insomnia, then you have a brain more disposed to getting migraines.
Could it be that women think too much? Well, that still has yet to be determined. But making sure the toilet seat is down can help ease the minds of any women in your life.
For more deatils about the UCLA study, click here.
Hope this helps.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I have to ask because I may be missing something - you say more women have migraines than men do, but that out of 29.5 million sufferers, only one third are women. Which is it?
August 11th, 2007 at 10:52 am
You didn’t miss anything — I did. That was supposed to be “two thirds” are women. Is my face red! Thanks for the heads-up. It is appreciated
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:28 am
[...] For Women With Migraines? by Rena Sherwood Women get more migraines than men do (click here for further details). This is thought that women have “a more excitable brain” than men [...]
April 26th, 2008 at 11:06 am
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