February 11, 2009 • 11 mins
Seventeen percent of women report migraine pain, but only six percent of men suffer from these debilitating headaches -- why is that? Tune in as our experts take a look at migraines in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom never told you from house top
works dot com. Hey Molly, Hey Kristen, I've got a
riddle for you. Okay, what does Susan Olson, who played
Sydney on The Brady Bunch, and Joan Didion have been common? Okay,
(00:24):
so we've got um Sidian Brady Sydy Brady adorable pigtails
and Joan Didion not as adorable. That's harsh. Author of
the Year, Magical Thinking and essay Collections from the What
do they have in common? I'm gonna go with fashion
sense and love of asparagus. You're wrong, although they both
(00:48):
were pretty fashionable. Uh. Didion and Olsen both had problems
with chronic migraines. Yikes. But they're not alone. No, they're
not alone. Um, they are two of many women who
have problems with chronic migraines. Because the fact of the
matter is women have far more migraines than men. So
real quick, before we examine why that might be, um,
(01:09):
let's talk about what a migraine is. Because I think
the first time I first time I had a migraine
for a long time, I thought it was some other
kind of headache. I thought it was like a sinus,
headache or something. But um, to have a migraine here,
you gotta have some of these. Moderate to severe pain
often described as pounding or throbbing, pain that affects the
whole head or shifts from one side of the head,
(01:30):
sensitivety sensitivity to light, noise or odors, yep, blurred vision,
nausea or vomiting, stomach upset, a dominant pain, loss of appetite, UH,
sensations of being very warm or cold, paleness, fatigue, dizziness
either and UH. You might have an aura, which is
bright flashing dots or lights that appear to you. And
(01:53):
this list of symptoms courtesy of web md, which also
notes that no migraine is really ever the same from
person to person. I always had teeth pain painted my teeth, Lana,
I had a migraine. Really Yeah. The few migraines that
I've had were always preceded by auras. So you were
an oora suffer. I was an aura sufferer. And I
think one thing also about about migraines is that if
(02:15):
you haven't had a migraine, you cannot understand or relate
to what it is. Oh No, I remember when I
had my first time. I was trying to describe it
to the coworker of mine. She like gave me a
hug when she realized that, like someone else understood that
she was going through. Well, maybe she have your hug too,
because you are a fellow woman who's had migraine problems. Um,
sevent of women, according to the Mayo Clinic, have migraine
(02:38):
pain will only six percent of men do. So it
begs the question why do women have more migraines than men? Well,
maybe first we should talk about um triggers. Okay, just
environmental triggers that might cause migraines. We've got things like stress,
bright lights, weird smells, changes in season, medication, alcohol, aged cheese,
(03:00):
I mean pretty much anything it seems like can can
bring on a migraine. Yes, it's actually kind of frustrating
because some of these things you really just can't avoid.
So it doesn't seem like the triggers would really be
gender specific. I mean men and women both encounter aged
cheese and alcohol at some point. But what you do
have to remember is that people might respond to triggers
in different ways. Um, Like, let's say there's a cup
(03:23):
of coffee and you have it, has this caffeine that
might trigger our migraine. Uh, it's probably gonna hit you
a little harder as a woman than it's going to
hit a man, just because men are bigger. And that's
one thought. Maybe maybe just these triggers affect people differently.
We also have to take family history into account. Um.
For instance, identical twins who have my are more likely
to have both of them to have migraines than fraternal twins.
(03:44):
The closer you are to a family member who has migraines,
the more likely you are to have migraines. Like my
mom had terrible migraines. I remember when I was growing up,
and so you know I have migraines, and I know
that at least one of my sisters also suffers from
migraines sometimes. So the fact that you knew that this
family history was there probably led you to understanding what
was going on when you've had your first migraine. You know,
(04:06):
there's family history. We got some environmental things. The way
that we process our bodies processing is different from men.
And then they're the hormones, the h words hormones. Women
seem to get screwed with hormones. I gotta say, I
know we have. We have many articles on our site
about all the things that hormones to screw up for us,
and the big one is estrogen. Well, I was going
(04:28):
to talk about how we just have more migraines, but
talk about the role of estrogen and migraines. Okay, Well,
there there's a pattern between the levels of estrogen and
a woman's body and the frequency of migraines. And we
can trace all of this to the menstrual cycle. Whenever
our periods come right before during our periods are estrogen
levels drop. And it's also during those times that estrogen
(04:51):
levels drop, migraine levels rise. So the more estrogen that
we have surging through our blood means the fewer migraines
that we have. And if you want some backup for this,
up until the time that girls go through puberty, they
have the same number migraines as boys. You know, if
you are a childhood sufferer of migraines, it's it's all
about the same until you hit puberty. Yeah, and as
(05:13):
many as sixty as seventy of women who get migraines
report that their monthly cycle is related to when they
get migraines. So when that you know that estrogen level drops,
then then the headaches come. So if you're on let's say,
a hormonal contraceptive as your form of birth control, that
might be helping it because it's getting your hormones a
little bit more level, or it can even worse than it. Um.
(05:33):
But the the positive side is that you know it
can be one of the things that you work with
your doctor to kind of regulate so that you can
find a form of breath control that both or leaves
the migraines and serves as an effective contraceptive. Yeah. Um.
And then there's also a chance that it could be
triggered by an underlying central nervous system disorder, and basically
when that happens, this disorder would cause a release of
(05:55):
neuropeptides or brain chemicals which would excite your brain too
much and then cause migraines. So those could be a
couple of other underlying reasons for it. But I think
so the newest research to come out about migraines and
why we get them has to do with something called
cortical spreading depression or CSD, and CSD is um sort
(06:15):
of a fancy term for brain excitability or a literal
brain storm if you will. Yeah, it's like your brain.
It's just there's just too much going on in your brain.
And maybe that's why women have more migraines, they just
have busier brains. No, Molly, that's not true. Cortical spreading
depression happens when you've got these series of waves, waves
(06:36):
of activity that move across your cortex or the outer
layer of your brain um And when these waves occur,
first you have a lot of rapid neuron firing okay,
and that causes your brain to get more excited, increases
the blood pressure and the blood flow to your brain
because all those neurons are firing. And then after that
there's a wave of what's called neuron inhibition, when basically
(07:00):
the the neurones aren't totally dormant, but they're really not
um they're not firing as much. And so once that
activity sort of slows down in the cortex, that reduces
the blood flow. So you have this sort of sudden
change in blood pressure in your brain, and that change
in pressure is where the headache pain from migraines comes from. Gotcha.
(07:20):
So it's like a roller coaster basically with drops and
then like even parts. Yes, and a study in Science
Daily was telling me was that women are just more
susceptible to these pressure changes. Women are have much lower
thresholds for this, about two to three times lower than men. Yeah,
it's just a lot easier for for women to experience
(07:41):
CSD than men. So okay, so now we know why
it happens. But I think really quickly should go over
what you should do if it happens, because web md
reports that even though more than twenty eight million American
women get migraines, only three to five percent of them
actually seek any help for it. Yeah, I just go
to bed if I can, I have to leave work
(08:01):
and go to bed. Well, that sort of attitude is
what is contributing to migraine being one of top four
disabling conditions. Yeah, that was reported by World Health Organization,
and they also contributed seventeen billion dollars a year, a
cord a Scientific American in lost work, disability payments, and
healthcare expenses. So these headaches are certainly not having imaginary effects,
(08:22):
even though some people don't sympathize with them. But what
can we do, Molly, if we have if the aura
comes on and our head starts pounding. Well, even if
you just want to go straight to bed, what you
should do is you should make a note of it
in a journal. Try and remember all the details, what
you might have eaten, how much sleep you might have gotten,
so you can start to figure out your triggers, because
that's really going to help the doctor kind of determine
(08:44):
what might be the best course for you. And then
once you figure them out. I mean this sounds, you know,
kind of overly silly, but then you just sort of
trying to avoid them. Avoid migraines, avoid your triggers, regular sleep, exercise,
no aged aged cheese, if that's what does it for you,
cut back on the caffeine. And then after that, once
you've got your journal and you know your triggers, then
(09:05):
you know then the doctor. Don't be one of those
people who don't seek help for it. Talk to your
doctor and see what kind of medications might be available.
And speaking of medications, there is a new drug that
they've been looking into that could be the key to
migraine relief. It's a drug called ment mementine. Mementine, it's
kind of hard to say, and it's being studied. Um
(09:26):
for its uh, the ability to block cortical spreading depression,
that brain excitability, so you might be able to take
mementine and um and it'll calm your brain down so
that you don't have all that active firing and the
changes in blood pressure and at the end of the
day a debilitating headache. And regardless of how that turns out,
they are you know, some things work like pain relieving medications, UM,
(09:49):
beta blockers, antidepressants, even botox injections have been studied as
a way to relieve migraines. Goodness, well, I guess they'll
make some women happy multit asking yep. But also on
the upside, if you are suffering from migraines. Okay, you're
a woman, you're suffering from migraines, and you don't you know,
mementene is not yet an option for you. You can
(10:11):
wrestle easier at night because you have a thirty percent
lower chance of getting breast cancer. Says that it's a
new study that just came out. Um that was reported
in a bunch of different sources actually, but the one
that I found was in CBS News, and um, it
all has to do with those estrogen levels. They're basically
saying that women who have a lot of migraines have
(10:33):
low estrogen levels, and if you have low estrogen levels,
and you're less likely to develop breast cancer because women
with higher estrogen levels are more likely to develop it. Christen,
you're always looking on the bright side of things. Lower.
I mean, that's a pretty big number, Molly though, that is.
But I'm more concerned about the number of women who
already suffer migraines, and I think that if you are
(10:54):
one of those women, you should maybe try some of
the tips we tried, and also find out more information
about uh beans in the brain on how stuff works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
visit how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to stuff Mom never told you from house top
works dot com. Hey Molly, Hey Kristen, I've got a
riddle for you. Okay, what does Susan Olson, who played
Sydney on The Brady Bunch, and Joan Didion have been common? Okay,
(00:24):
so we've got um Sidian Brady Sydy Brady adorable pigtails
and Joan Didion not as adorable. That's harsh. Author of
the Year, Magical Thinking and essay Collections from the What
do they have in common? I'm gonna go with fashion
sense and love of asparagus. You're wrong, although they both
(00:48):
were pretty fashionable. Uh. Didion and Olsen both had problems
with chronic migraines. Yikes. But they're not alone. No, they're
not alone. Um, they are two of many women who
have problems with chronic migraines. Because the fact of the
matter is women have far more migraines than men. So
real quick, before we examine why that might be, um,
(01:09):
let's talk about what a migraine is. Because I think
the first time I first time I had a migraine
for a long time, I thought it was some other
kind of headache. I thought it was like a sinus,
headache or something. But um, to have a migraine here,
you gotta have some of these. Moderate to severe pain
often described as pounding or throbbing, pain that affects the
whole head or shifts from one side of the head,
(01:30):
sensitivety sensitivity to light, noise or odors, yep, blurred vision,
nausea or vomiting, stomach upset, a dominant pain, loss of appetite, UH,
sensations of being very warm or cold, paleness, fatigue, dizziness
either and UH. You might have an aura, which is
bright flashing dots or lights that appear to you. And
(01:53):
this list of symptoms courtesy of web md, which also
notes that no migraine is really ever the same from
person to person. I always had teeth pain painted my teeth, Lana,
I had a migraine. Really Yeah. The few migraines that
I've had were always preceded by auras. So you were
an oora suffer. I was an aura sufferer. And I
think one thing also about about migraines is that if
(02:15):
you haven't had a migraine, you cannot understand or relate
to what it is. Oh No, I remember when I
had my first time. I was trying to describe it
to the coworker of mine. She like gave me a
hug when she realized that, like someone else understood that
she was going through. Well, maybe she have your hug too,
because you are a fellow woman who's had migraine problems. Um,
sevent of women, according to the Mayo Clinic, have migraine
(02:38):
pain will only six percent of men do. So it
begs the question why do women have more migraines than men? Well,
maybe first we should talk about um triggers. Okay, just
environmental triggers that might cause migraines. We've got things like stress,
bright lights, weird smells, changes in season, medication, alcohol, aged cheese,
(03:00):
I mean pretty much anything it seems like can can
bring on a migraine. Yes, it's actually kind of frustrating
because some of these things you really just can't avoid.
So it doesn't seem like the triggers would really be
gender specific. I mean men and women both encounter aged
cheese and alcohol at some point. But what you do
have to remember is that people might respond to triggers
in different ways. Um, Like, let's say there's a cup
(03:23):
of coffee and you have it, has this caffeine that
might trigger our migraine. Uh, it's probably gonna hit you
a little harder as a woman than it's going to
hit a man, just because men are bigger. And that's
one thought. Maybe maybe just these triggers affect people differently.
We also have to take family history into account. Um.
For instance, identical twins who have my are more likely
to have both of them to have migraines than fraternal twins.
(03:44):
The closer you are to a family member who has migraines,
the more likely you are to have migraines. Like my
mom had terrible migraines. I remember when I was growing up,
and so you know I have migraines, and I know
that at least one of my sisters also suffers from
migraines sometimes. So the fact that you knew that this
family history was there probably led you to understanding what
was going on when you've had your first migraine. You know,
(04:06):
there's family history. We got some environmental things. The way
that we process our bodies processing is different from men.
And then they're the hormones, the h words hormones. Women
seem to get screwed with hormones. I gotta say, I
know we have. We have many articles on our site
about all the things that hormones to screw up for us,
and the big one is estrogen. Well, I was going
(04:28):
to talk about how we just have more migraines, but
talk about the role of estrogen and migraines. Okay, Well,
there there's a pattern between the levels of estrogen and
a woman's body and the frequency of migraines. And we
can trace all of this to the menstrual cycle. Whenever
our periods come right before during our periods are estrogen
levels drop. And it's also during those times that estrogen
(04:51):
levels drop, migraine levels rise. So the more estrogen that
we have surging through our blood means the fewer migraines
that we have. And if you want some backup for this,
up until the time that girls go through puberty, they
have the same number migraines as boys. You know, if
you are a childhood sufferer of migraines, it's it's all
about the same until you hit puberty. Yeah, and as
(05:13):
many as sixty as seventy of women who get migraines
report that their monthly cycle is related to when they
get migraines. So when that you know that estrogen level drops,
then then the headaches come. So if you're on let's say,
a hormonal contraceptive as your form of birth control, that
might be helping it because it's getting your hormones a
little bit more level, or it can even worse than it. Um.
(05:33):
But the the positive side is that you know it
can be one of the things that you work with
your doctor to kind of regulate so that you can
find a form of breath control that both or leaves
the migraines and serves as an effective contraceptive. Yeah. Um.
And then there's also a chance that it could be
triggered by an underlying central nervous system disorder, and basically
when that happens, this disorder would cause a release of
(05:55):
neuropeptides or brain chemicals which would excite your brain too
much and then cause migraines. So those could be a
couple of other underlying reasons for it. But I think
so the newest research to come out about migraines and
why we get them has to do with something called
cortical spreading depression or CSD, and CSD is um sort
(06:15):
of a fancy term for brain excitability or a literal
brain storm if you will. Yeah, it's like your brain.
It's just there's just too much going on in your brain.
And maybe that's why women have more migraines, they just
have busier brains. No, Molly, that's not true. Cortical spreading
depression happens when you've got these series of waves, waves
(06:36):
of activity that move across your cortex or the outer
layer of your brain um And when these waves occur,
first you have a lot of rapid neuron firing okay,
and that causes your brain to get more excited, increases
the blood pressure and the blood flow to your brain
because all those neurons are firing. And then after that
there's a wave of what's called neuron inhibition, when basically
(07:00):
the the neurones aren't totally dormant, but they're really not
um they're not firing as much. And so once that
activity sort of slows down in the cortex, that reduces
the blood flow. So you have this sort of sudden
change in blood pressure in your brain, and that change
in pressure is where the headache pain from migraines comes from. Gotcha.
(07:20):
So it's like a roller coaster basically with drops and
then like even parts. Yes, and a study in Science
Daily was telling me was that women are just more
susceptible to these pressure changes. Women are have much lower
thresholds for this, about two to three times lower than men. Yeah,
it's just a lot easier for for women to experience
(07:41):
CSD than men. So okay, so now we know why
it happens. But I think really quickly should go over
what you should do if it happens, because web md
reports that even though more than twenty eight million American
women get migraines, only three to five percent of them
actually seek any help for it. Yeah, I just go
to bed if I can, I have to leave work
(08:01):
and go to bed. Well, that sort of attitude is
what is contributing to migraine being one of top four
disabling conditions. Yeah, that was reported by World Health Organization,
and they also contributed seventeen billion dollars a year, a
cord a Scientific American in lost work, disability payments, and
healthcare expenses. So these headaches are certainly not having imaginary effects,
(08:22):
even though some people don't sympathize with them. But what
can we do, Molly, if we have if the aura
comes on and our head starts pounding. Well, even if
you just want to go straight to bed, what you
should do is you should make a note of it
in a journal. Try and remember all the details, what
you might have eaten, how much sleep you might have gotten,
so you can start to figure out your triggers, because
that's really going to help the doctor kind of determine
(08:44):
what might be the best course for you. And then
once you figure them out. I mean this sounds, you know,
kind of overly silly, but then you just sort of
trying to avoid them. Avoid migraines, avoid your triggers, regular sleep, exercise,
no aged aged cheese, if that's what does it for you,
cut back on the caffeine. And then after that, once
you've got your journal and you know your triggers, then
(09:05):
you know then the doctor. Don't be one of those
people who don't seek help for it. Talk to your
doctor and see what kind of medications might be available.
And speaking of medications, there is a new drug that
they've been looking into that could be the key to
migraine relief. It's a drug called ment mementine. Mementine, it's
kind of hard to say, and it's being studied. Um
(09:26):
for its uh, the ability to block cortical spreading depression,
that brain excitability, so you might be able to take
mementine and um and it'll calm your brain down so
that you don't have all that active firing and the
changes in blood pressure and at the end of the
day a debilitating headache. And regardless of how that turns out,
they are you know, some things work like pain relieving medications, UM,
(09:49):
beta blockers, antidepressants, even botox injections have been studied as
a way to relieve migraines. Goodness, well, I guess they'll
make some women happy multit asking yep. But also on
the upside, if you are suffering from migraines. Okay, you're
a woman, you're suffering from migraines, and you don't you know,
mementene is not yet an option for you. You can
(10:11):
wrestle easier at night because you have a thirty percent
lower chance of getting breast cancer. Says that it's a
new study that just came out. Um that was reported
in a bunch of different sources actually, but the one
that I found was in CBS News, and um, it
all has to do with those estrogen levels. They're basically
saying that women who have a lot of migraines have
(10:33):
low estrogen levels, and if you have low estrogen levels,
and you're less likely to develop breast cancer because women
with higher estrogen levels are more likely to develop it. Christen,
you're always looking on the bright side of things. Lower.
I mean, that's a pretty big number, Molly though, that is.
But I'm more concerned about the number of women who
already suffer migraines, and I think that if you are
(10:54):
one of those women, you should maybe try some of
the tips we tried, and also find out more information
about uh beans in the brain on how stuff works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
visit how stuff works dot com.
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