You are working on your desk on a sunny morning, feeling like today is going splendidly, when suddenly a head-splitting pain attacks you. You clutch your head in defeat, unable to continue doing anything except groaning and waiting until the pain subsides, but what if it doesn’t?
Migraine is a very common medical condition, it affects one in every 15 men and one in every five women, with varying degree of severity. Typically, it lasts from 4 hours to 3 days. Of course, when you have migraine at work (or whenever, actually), you don’t really have the luxury to wait for four hours (that’s if it’s really last only for four hours).
So, what can you do to lessen the pain of migraine? There are several ways to do it, but first you should understand why and how migraine happens to check which one will be most effective for you.
Types of Migraine
There are three types of migraine that health experts recognize:
- Migraine with aura – it is migraine that is preceded by aura or symptoms such as ringing ears, flashing lights on your vision, and such.
- Migraine without aura – it is migraine that comes without any aura to warn you for it
- Migraine with aura without headache – it is migraine when you experience the symptoms but not the headache itself.
Migraine in a person occurs in varying frequency. Some may get it once every week, while others may only get it several times in a year. If you have recurring migraine, the best way to treat it is to visit your GP to get preventive treatment.
Migraine is not fatal even if it can seriously affect your ability to perform daily tasks and reduce your quality of life. However, if your migraine is accompanied by paralysis, stiff neck, fever, mental confusion, seizures, or a rash, or if your migraine is so much more severe and painful than usual, you should immediately call for emergency because it can be a symptoms of a more serious illness – like stroke.
Why Do Some People Have Migraine and Some Others Don’t?
Up until today, health experts haven’t found the most satisfying answer for this question. The closest answer for this is that migraine is hereditary. Nerves in some people’s brain are more sensitive than others, and that’s why some people have migraine and some don’t.
As for why the migraine attack happens, health experts have an explanation already. Migraine happens when some nerves are triggered either by inner or outer environment, which causes the body to release hormones called serotonin and CGRP. These two hormones cause blood vessel in the brain to widen. This makes the brain swells, and it will send pain signal.
The trigger itself may come from inner or outer environment. Trigger that comes from inside the body are fatigue, certain food such as caffeine and MSG, and stress. Trigger that comes from outside the body are overly bright light, noisy surrounding, and change of weather. Every person’s trigger is unique and so is the exposure needed to trigger the nerve before releasing hormones.
How to Relieve the Pain?
Because the pain starts from the trigger, then the most logical way to do it is to remove the trigger away from you (or remove yourself from the trigger). For example, you can try to find a dark room and lies there for a while, if it’s bright light that triggers your migraine. You can also try to find a quieter place if it’s the noise that causes your migraine.
More often than not, however, you don’t always know what your trigger is, or you are unable to remove it from yourself (for example, you can’t exactly get the caffeine out of your body in a short time). In this situation, consuming pain reliever can help you relieve the pain.
OTC pain reliever such as ibuprofen, paracetamol, and aspirin sometimes works and sometimes don’t. It depends on the severity and the person consuming. Moreover, they usually only relieve the pain instead of addressing the problem, and consuming too much of them may actually worsen the migraine.
A better choice is triptans – a medicine specifically made to relieve migraine. Triptans works by reversing the process of migraine attack. It helps the blood vessels that previously widened due to the release of serotonin and CGRP to return to its original size, reducing the swelling and the pain that follows.
Triptans are available in the market by the name Imigran or Sumatriptan. Sumatriptan is the generic version of Imigran. It works just as well with significantly lower price. If both don’t work for you, other triptans are also available, such as almotriptan (available by the name Almogran) and frovatriptan (available by the name Migard).
Compared to let the migraine subsides on its own by removing the triggers, medicine works faster. Sumatripan should already give the effects in 30 minutes. If after two hours you still feel the pain, you should take one more Sumatripan.
Where Can I Get Sumatriptan?
Triptans is significantly stronger than its OTC pain reliever counterpart, therefore you need prescription from your GP to buy it from the pharmacy. Alternatively, you can buy Sumatriptan online.
If you are worried about ordering medicine online, just make sure to buy it only from registered company with clear contact info. The Independent Pharmacy is one of the registered one, and it is regulated and secured by MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), General Pharmaceutical Council, and NPA (National Pharmacy Association).
Before you can order Sumatriptan from there, you have to do a short and free online consultation. Answer the question honestly, so the pharmacist can ensure that you are safe to consume Sumatriptan. If you’re interested to get Sumatriptan online, you can start your free online consultation right now.