Migraine: When Every Touch of The World Becomes Unbearable

Those who have never experienced a migraine rarely understand what stands behind this word. It is not just a headache and not the fatigue after a hard day. A migraine seems to switch a person off from life: light becomes unbearably bright, sounds - deafening, and even slight movement intensifies the pain. In such moments you want only one thing - to hide in silence, darkness, and rest.

On such days, it is impossible to work, study, meet friends, or even talk - any interaction feels overwhelming. People suffering from migraines often feel isolated: on the outside they look as usual, but inside there is a struggle that no one sees. It feels as if the whole world has become too loud and too close, and all that remains is to wait until the pain inside the head subsides.

Migraine Is Not Just A Headache

A migraine is a complex neuro-inflammatory process in which the nervous system becomes excessively sensitive and reacts to ordinary stimuli as to a threat.

During a migraine attack, the fibers of the trigeminal nerve - the main conductor of pain in the head - become activated. In response, substances are released that cause inflammation and dilation of blood vessels. One of them is CGRP - a molecule that enhances inflammation and makes nerves even more sensitive.

If attacks are repeated frequently, the brain “remembers” the pain: neurons become more excitable, and even usual sensory stimuli can trigger a strong reaction.

Modern research clarifies that blood vessel dilation during migraine does occur, but it is not the cause of pain - it is a reaction to the activation of the trigeminal nerve and the cascade of neuro-inflammatory processes. A kind of “electrical wave” - a chain of depolarizations - spreads across the cerebral cortex, disrupting the balance of excitation and inhibition.

This is how a typical attack forms: first internal tension, then pulsating pain, and after that - a recovery phase with fatigue, brain fog, and increased sensitivity to light or sound. This is not weakness, but a natural reaction of the brain as it returns to a normal rhythm after overload.

Why Some People Experience Migraines and Others Do Not

Migraines more often develop in people whose nervous system is initially more sensitive and reacts faster to external stimuli. Sometimes this is a hereditary trait - certain genes make neurons more excitable and less resistant to stress and internal fluctuations.

But even without a genetic component, such vulnerability can form over time - due to chronic stress, insufficient sleep, inflammation, or toxic exposure. Constant tension depletes the resources of nerve cells and disrupts the balance between excitation and inhibition.

In women, attacks are often associated with hormonal fluctuations, especially when levels of estrogen and progesterone change. In adolescents, common triggers are overload and irregular sleep - during this period the brain is intensively developing and is especially sensitive to the lack of energy and nutrients required to support its functioning.

When the body lives at its limit, the system that filters signals stops coping, and ordinary sensory stimuli can trigger a burst of pain.

Additional vulnerability is created by inflammatory processes, elevated histamine, microbiome disorders, or exposure to toxins (for example, mold). All of this increases the sensitivity of blood vessels and nerve cells.

Essentially, a migraine appears when the brain’s sensitivity has risen and its resilience has decreased. Some people’s protective mechanisms work better - sleep, energy recovery, hormonal rhythm - and they go through the same factors without attacks. Others have fewer resources, and then the brain signals overload - with pain.

Therefore, it is important to distinguish migraine from other types of headache - they have different causes and require different approaches.

Main Types of Headache

A headache can be a harmless signal of fatigue, or the first manifestation of serious disorders. Doctors conditionally divide it into primary and secondary.

Primary headache is when the nervous system itself malfunctions: for example, in migraine, tension headache, or cluster headache. They are not life-threatening, but can significantly worsen its quality.

Secondary headache is a symptom of another problem: inflammation, infection, intoxication, trauma, blood pressure disorders, or vascular events (for example, stroke, thrombosis, hemorrhage). Some of these conditions require urgent diagnosis and early intervention.

Now let us look at three types of primary headache:

Migraine

The pain is usually pulsating, moderate or severe, more often on one side of the head.
It may be accompanied by nausea, sensitivity to light and sounds, sometimes flashing lights before the eyes or numbness (this is called aura).

This type of pain lasts from several hours to three days, and is repeated from one to two times per month to several times per week. Migraine often worsens with movement and physical activity.

Tension Headache

It occurs due to overstrain of the head and neck muscles - with stress, prolonged computer work, head flexion, poor posture. The pain is usually bilateral, dull, pressing, without pulsation, and may last from half an hour to several days. When touching the scalp or neck, one can find painful “knots” - trigger points, pressing on them increases the pain. Such headaches are not accompanied by nausea, and movement does not worsen the symptoms.

Cluster Headache

Extremely strong, burning or piercing unilateral pain in the eye area.
The attacks begin suddenly, last from 15 minutes to 3 hours, and may repeat several times a day in series - for weeks or months in a row, with periods of complete remission between these “clusters.”

During the pain, tearing, eye redness, nasal congestion, or eyelid drooping on the same side as the pain are often observed.

This is a rare but very severe type of headache: common painkillers almost do not work, and oxygen therapy (breathing pure oxygen through a mask) often brings rapid relief and is used by doctors to stop the attack.

If the pain appeared suddenly, became unusually strong, or is accompanied by weakness, speech, vision, or balance disturbances - this is a reason to urgently see a doctor even if you already have a diagnosis of primary headache.

When a Headache Can Be Dangerous

Sometimes behind pain that resembles a migraine, a completely different condition is hidden. The danger is not in the pain itself, but in the fact that it may be a sign of a serious process: inflammation, vascular spasm, thrombosis, hemorrhage, or tumor.

It is important to pay special attention to a headache if:

• it appeared for the first time in life or became the strongest of all you have previously experienced;
• it arose suddenly and rapidly intensifies;
• it began for the first time after 55 years of age;
• it appeared after a blow to the head, fall, or other trauma;
• it is accompanied by drowsiness, nausea, confusion, or desire to sleep;
• it is accompanied by double vision, weakness, numbness, speech or vision disturbances, impaired coordination or balance;
• it worsens with coughing, bending the head, or straining;
• it is accompanied by fever, neck stiffness, rash, or vomiting without relief;
• if a typical migraine has changed its character - became different in intensity, duration, location, or does not respond to usual measures that helped earlier.

In such cases, it is important not to wait for it “to go away on its own,” but to seek medical help immediately. A doctor may order MRI or CT of the brain to check for inflammation, hemorrhage, or other dangerous changes.

Even if the result turns out normal, such examination is necessary because it is important to know for sure whether there are conditions that may pose a danger. In vascular disorders, the first three hours after symptom onset are crucial for a positive outcome.

What Can Trigger an Attack

In some people, migraine is literally encoded in their genes: if one parent suffers from migraines, the risk for the child almost doubles. Such a nervous system is initially more sensitive to external and internal changes.

But in most cases, there isno single cause of an attack - it appears when several factors add up. For example, insufficient sleep + stress + skipping a meal - and a burst of pain occurs, although each of these events separately might have passed without consequences.

The most common triggers include:

• Dehydration;
• Skipped meals and blood sugar fluctuations;
• Sleep disturbances - both insufficient and excessive sleep;
• Hormonal fluctuations - PMS, puberty, change of contraception;
• Sensory overload - bright or flickering light, loud noises, strong odors;
• Prolonged screen time - especially with monitor flicker or no breaks;
• Certain foods - aged cheeses, chocolate, processed meats, wine, vinegar, citrus, coffee (especially if beans are contaminated with mycotoxins);
• Mitochondrial dysfunction - reduced cellular energy;
• Infections - especially those causing persistent inflammation;
• Toxic exposure - mold, exhaust fumes, strong chemical odors;
• Weather changes - rapid shifts in barometric pressure;
• Stress or sudden relaxation after stress - “weekend headache”.

It is not always reasonable to avoid everything at once - it is important to track the patterns.
If pain repeats several times after the same event (for example, insufficient sleep or weather change), this may be your personal trigger.

Sometimes a migraine diary can help - brief notes about the day, sleep, food, weather, and stress levels. After a couple of weeks, it becomes clearer what exactly triggers the attack - and then one can work not only with the pain but also with the causes behind it.

Major Migraine Triggers

Let us consider the main triggers in more detail.

Dehydration

The brain is 75% water and is very sensitive to its lack. Even mild dehydration changes vascular pressure and hinders venous outflow from the head. Under such conditions, ordinary stimuli are perceived more painfully and may trigger an attack.

Headache often worsens by the evening, after physical exertion, in stuffy rooms, or if you barely drank water during the day.

Blood Sugar Fluctuations

The brain needs a constant supply of energy. If there are long gaps between meals or the diet consists of fast carbohydrates, blood sugar drops sharply - the body responds with stress hormones, and the vessels react with spasm, the brain experiences fuel stress. Adrenaline and cortisol are released, causing vascular spasm and pain.

Therefore, migraine often appears in the morning on an empty stomach, after a missed snack, or after “sweets instead of lunch.”

Brain Energy and Migraine: When the Cell “Batteries” - Mitochondria - Lack Power

The brain needs a lot of energy to calmly process sensory signals. This energy is produced by mitochondria - small structures inside nerve cells.

The brain consumes more energy than any other organ, and if its “power stations” - mitochondria - work with interruptions, the nervous system loses stability. Then what is usually tolerated calmly becomes an overload: bright light, loud sound, stress or even skipping a meal can trigger an attack. The energy deficit is amplified by chronic inflammation, toxic burden, infections, lack of sleep and inadequate nutrition - when cells simply do not have enough resources to handle normal stimuli.

When the brain does not receive enough energy, it stops filtering stimuli - and migraine attacks occur more easily and are more severe.

Migraine, Allergies, and Histamine

Many people notice that a migraine attack occurs after certain foods - wine, cheese, chocolate, or smoked products. This is not a coincidence. Such foods contain histamine or enhance its release in the body.

Histamine is a substance involved in immune reactions. Normally it is needed: it helps defend against microbes, regulates vascular tone, influences digestion.

But if there is too much of it, symptoms similar to allergy appear - nasal congestion, skin itching, fatigue, headache.

People with migraine often have increased sensitivity to histamine. Sometimes this is associated with a deficiency of the DAO enzyme, which is supposed to break it down. If DAO functions poorly (due to intestinal inflammation, microbiota imbalance, toxins, or nutrient deficiencies), histamine accumulates and irritates cerebral vessels, triggering the inflammatory cascade typical for migraine.

Female Hormones and Migraine

Migraine is more common in women than in men, and this is related to hormonal fluctuations. Before menstruation, hormone levels change sharply: progesterone drops earlier and more strongly, and estrogen temporarily becomes dominant.

Estrogen activates the nervous system and makes the brain more sensitive to light, sounds, and pain. Progesterone, on the contrary, calms and protects nerve cells. When its level becomes low, the natural “brake” disappears, and the nervous system reacts to even minor stimuli.

Therefore, in the premenstrual days migraine attacks occur more often - this is not “low estrogen,” but an imbalance between estrogen and progesterone.

During pregnancy, when the hormonal background is stable, migraine often disappears.
And in menopause it depends on how this balance changes: in some women attacks vanish, while in others they intensify.

Sleep And Migraine: When The Brain Does Not Have Time to Recover

During sleep, the nervous system “repairs” itself: the level of inflammatory molecules decreases, neuronal and vascular function is restored. If sleep is insufficient, shallow, or constantly shifts in timing - the brain lives in a state of constant alertness and responds more quickly with pain.

Insufficient or excessive sleep, night awakenings, jet lag - all these can directly trigger an attack. And in people prone to migraine, changes in sleep often trigger a series of repeated episodes.

Sensory Overload and Autonomic Nervous System Imbalance

The nervous system must flexibly switch between tension and relaxation. But in people prone to migraine this balance is often disrupted: the sympathetic system (“alert mode”) activates too easily, while the parasympathetic (“recovery mode”) fails to turn on in time.

When such an imbalance is present, the brain becomes sensitive to any external stimuli. Normally these signals are filtered automatically. But under autonomic overload they pass “without protection” and can trigger an attack.

A typical picture: a person finds themselves in a noisy, stuffy, or crowded place, and after 20-60 minutes headache, fatigue or a desire to hide in complete silence appears - this is a sign that the nervous system has not coped with the load.

Toxic Triggers and Migraine

The body constantly encounters chemical substances from the air, water, and the environment. Detoxification systems usually cope, but in people prone to migraine even a small excess of this load can become a provoking factor.

Such triggers include:

• mold and its toxins indoors;
• exhaust gases, paints, solvents, construction materials;
• perfume, air fresheners, cosmetics with strong fragrances;
• household chemicals and plastic (especially when heated).

These substances can cause an inflammatory response, increase the sensitivity of nerve endings, or reduce the energy resources of brain cells. As a result, even ordinary stimuli - noise, light, physical activity - are tolerated worse and can trigger an attack.

Post-Infectious and Immune Factors

After viral and bacterial infections, especially if recovery is prolonged, the immune system may remain in a state of increased activity longer than necessary. This is accompanied by mild but persistent inflammation, which makes nerve fibers more sensitive to pain.

This is often observed after influenza, mononucleosis, COVID-19, and other infections affecting the nervous system and nasopharynx. If headaches appear or worsen after an illness, this may be a post-infectious mechanism.

Weather Factors

Fluctuations in atmospheric pressure and changes in temperature affect vascular tone and the autonomic nervous system. In people with migraine, the sensitivity threshold is lower: abrupt shifts may provoke an attack, especially when combined with other triggers - lack of sleep, dehydration, sensory overload.

Stress and a Phase Shift

The nervous system can maintain increased activation for a long time during stress. After it decreases, regulation of vascular tone and pain mediators may become temporarily impaired - a migraine attack occurs.

This explains the episodes of migraine during “unloading periods”: on weekends, at the beginning of a vacation, after a demanding period of work.

How to Reduce The Frequency of Attacks

To make migraines occur less often, it is important not only to relieve pain in time, but also to strengthen the resilience of the nervous system. Each person has their own causes, and usually there are several at the same time. Therefore, a comprehensive approach is the most effective:

Water and Electrolytes

It is important to drink water regularly, not “sometimes,” especially for children and adolescents. With increased sweating, sauna use, intake of sorbents or diuretics, add magnesium, potassium, and a small amount of sodium - electrolytes help retain water inside cells and stabilize blood pressure.

If attacks are accompanied by dizziness, tachycardia, or weakness upon standing, this may indicate autonomic dysregulation. In such cases, it is especially important to maintain fluid volume, as well as sodium and glucose levels, to stabilize blood pressure and brain nourishment.

Stable Blood Sugar Levels

Regular meals every 3-4 hours including proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats reduce the risk of attacks. It is especially important to have breakfast within the first hour after waking up.

Mitochondrial Support

In clinical practice, nutrients involved in the production of cellular energy are used to support mitochondria:

• magnesium - reduces neuronal excitability;
• vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - helps form ATP;
• coenzyme Q10 - supports energy metabolism and oxygenation;
• L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid - improve transport and processing of energy;
• omega-3 fatty acids - reduce inflammation and improve neuronal function.

With toxic load or inflammation, antioxidant support is beneficial: glutathione, NAC, curcumin, resveratrol, selenium.

When the brain has enough energy, it filters signals better - and migraine attacks occur less often and are milder.

Gut and Histamine

What helps neutralize the reaction of vessels to elevated histamine levels:

• restoration of the intestinal barrier and microbiota;
• elimination of dietary triggers for a limited period while recovery is underway;
• quercetin, vitamin C, boswellia - support mast-cell regulation and reduce inflammation;
• addressing sources of toxic load, if they are identified.

Gut support is not a “universal solution,” but in histamine-dependent migraine it significantly reduces the frequency and severity of attacks.

Hormonal Balance

Restoring sleep, normalizing magnesium and vitamin B6 intake, and gentle support of progesterone or phytoestrogens help reduce hormonal fluctuations. If necessary, a doctor can assess estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and thyroid hormone levels and prescribe hormone therapy based on test results.

Sleep and the Nervous System

Regular sleep for 8-9 hours (for an adults), avoiding screens one hour before bed, and a consistent wake-up time are powerful preventive measures. During the day, relaxation techniques help: breathing exercises, biofeedback, short meditations.

Light, Noise, and Sensory Overload

Soft lighting, breaks from screens, blue-light filters, noise-canceling headphones. Sometimes it is useful to literally “retune” the nervous system through gentle neuromodulation methods: neural therapy (procaine injections), RG3 spray, microcurrent stimulation.

Detoxification and Mold

If mold is suspected in the environment, the space must be inspected and further steps taken based on the results.

Gradual detoxification helps: binders of mycotoxins (enterosgel, myco-chitosan, cholestyramine), sauna, clean water, liver support (milk thistle, alpha-lipoic acid).

Medication and Nutraceutical Prevention

If migraine occurs more than four times per month, preventive therapy should be discussed with a doctor. Its goal is to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks, not only to stop them.

Natural substances with proven potential to prevent migraine attacks: magnesium, vitamin B2, coenzyme Q10, butterbur / Petadolex® (PA-free), feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) - used in several preventive regimens.

Prescription options may also be used (as directed by a physician): beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, anticonvulsants, CGRP blockers - a modern targeted approach for chronic migraine.

Preventive choice is always individualized: age, comorbidities, tolerance, and hormonal status are taken into account.

Lifestyle and Recovery

The nervous system requires a stable rhythm: regular sleep, meals without long breaks, adequate hydration, moderate physical activity, and periods of rest. These are the basic conditions under which the brain maintains a normal balance of excitation and inhibition.

A consistent daily routine and timely replenishment of the body’s resources help reduce the sensitivity of the nervous system to triggers and decrease the frequency of migraine attacks.

What Helps During an Acute Attack

When a migraine attack begins, it is important to act within the first hours, before the pain has fully developed. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to stop: the vessels react more and more intensely, neurotransmitters increase inflammation, and then even familiar remedies stop working.

The first and most important steps are quiet, darkness, and rest. Close the curtains, put away your phone, slow your breathing. A few minutes of calm breathing with a long exhale helps reduce tension and stabilize vascular tone.

If the pain lessens with cold, apply a cool compress to the temples or the back of the head. If you are drawn to warmth instead - a warm heating pad on the neck or feet can provide the opposite, relaxing effect.

Drink water: even mild dehydration worsens a migraine. Magnesium (if tolerated) may sometimes help relieve spasm and calm the nervous system.

If your doctor has prescribed migraine medications, it is important to understand that they fall into two categories:

• medications for the acute phase - used at the beginning of an attack to stop the pain;
• preventive medications - reduce the frequency and severity of attacks if taken regularly.

In practice, both approaches are often used: prevention reduces the risk but does not eliminate acute episodes. For prevention to truly work, regularity is essential - following the schedule even when there is no pain at the moment.

Conclusion

Migraine is a signal of overload, not a separate “breakdown” of the body. The nervous system responds with pain when stress factors exceed its ability to adapt: sleep, nutrition, hormonal balance, inflammation, toxic environment, sensory stimuli.

Therefore, working with migraine means not only managing acute attacks but also consistently addressing the causes that make the brain vulnerable to ordinary triggers. When the key mechanisms of overload are identified and corrected, attacks become less frequent, less severe, and more responsive to treatment.

A comprehensive approach restores predictability and control - and this is the real goal of migraine therapy. It is important to remember: improvement occurs gradually, and every step toward recovery increases the body’s reserve for a life without pain.