Discover the science behind your head pain.
Ever wonder what’s happening inside your body to cause migraine pain and discomfort? While researchers still don’t know exactly what causes a migraine, you can learn the phases of what happens in your body—and how you can fight back. The video below provides a visual analysis of how a migraine impacts your brain and your body before, during, and after an attack.
Phase 1: Onset
At the start of a migraine, an external or internal trigger causes neurons in the brain to fire abnormally. These triggers are vast and varied, and include lack of sleep, increase in stress, dietary choices, strong scents, shift in weather, or hormonal changes during a woman’s menstrual cycle.1
Phase 2: Hypersensitivity
Those abnormally firing neurons cause hyperexcitability in various regions of the brain, leading to symptoms that affect the senses. You may experience nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, or difficulty with motor skills and speech, although symptoms vary for every sufferer. Some sufferers even experience aura—either a visual disturbance that appears as lights or lines, or a temporary loss of vision.2,3 It is important to talk to your doctor if you experience any of the above symptoms, as migraines can become severely debilitating if left untreated.
