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Scientists have discovered differences in the sensory areas of the brains of people who develop migraines.
Originally posted by Jazzerman
Interesting article, I haven't been keeping up with current neurological research as I've been busy with other things, but this is important. I also have migranes like most of my family members, but the only difference is that I have learned to recognize when one is about to happen and I can usually avoid the worst of it. My migranes are often triggered by claustrophobic like conditions, overheating, odd weather, or other such conditions. In fact, if I wasn't able to recognize the onset of symptoms before the migrane I would have roughly 10 or more migranes per month (at times I have had as many as 15 per month), but as is I do not take medication and have learned to control them before they happen.
I tend to go with the hypothesis that migranes have an essentially genetic characteristic in most patients as some disorders like Basilar type Migraines and Amigrainous Migraines do tend to be predisposed. Some migrane suffering patients acutally have been noted to have slight neurological damage in the Basal Pons and Medulla Oblongata region of the brainstem near the cerebellum. This taken with the fact that a good majority of people with migranes have them from an early age leads me to believe that either the neurological damage was present since birth and could therefore be genetic, or the damage came much later. The latter would make little sense in scientific terms as far as I could tell because of the isolation of the brain stem. I of course, wouldn't be so prude as to suggest that all migrane sufferers have a genetic predisposition for such, and perhaps this new research into the Somatosensory Cortex as pointed out in the article will shed further light on the issue.
I'll be curious to see where this new research leads as it will affect me as well.