There are all kinds of reasons why you may be on an information search on migraine headaches.

You may for example suffer from migraines yourself or someone you know and care about might have migraine headaches. You may have just had a family member diagnosed as having migraines or might be a student researching a paper on migraines. Regardless of why you are researching the subject of migraine headaches you will find that there is a lot of information to be had on the topic.

Migraine is a medical disorder called a neurological syndrome and its key characteristics for the majority of people are normally very painful headaches and nausea. This fairly common condition is suffered by more women than men.

Migraines create a pain which is frequently experienced on one side of the head and can on the whole said to be pulsating or throbbing in nature. The headache will usually last anywhere from 4 to 72 hours and might be moderate to severe in intensity. There can also be other accompanying symptoms such as vomiting or sensitivity to light or sound.

Another interesting feature of some migraines is the presence of an "aura" in at least one-third of people who suffer from migraines. The aura happens prior to the onset of the migraine and might include the appearance of bright lights, zigzag lines or distorted shapes in various sizes and colors that appear in the line of vision. Your field of vision may also decrease and can look like tunnel vision or perhaps a curtain-like effect sometimes over one eye or dark spots that slowly spread.

You might also witness auditory changes like hearing voices or sounds in the environment like buzzing. You may experience strange smells or possible feelings of numbness or tingling on one side of the face or legs and arms. You may get a feeling of being separated from your body or a feeling like your legs and arms are working independently of your body. You may experience anxiety or fear during the aura or an unsteadiness or weakness. Sometimes people who experience an aura are unable to comprehend words being spoken to them and they can become exceedingly tired and sweat profusely or feel warmth throughout the body.

As well as talking about migraines with or without an aura there are many other ways of describing migraines.

For example, familial hemiplegic migraines are those migraines that result from ion channel mutations. Individuals with this form of migraine more often than not experience limb weakness on one side of their body together with visual, sensory or speech problems.

Yet another type of migraine is the abdominal migraine in which children experience the symptoms of a migraine with the exception of the head pain. Typical symptoms like nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain might last anywhere from 1 to 72 hours.

Lastly, acephalgic and menstrual migraines are two other fairly common forms of migraine. Acephalgic migraines are those in which the individual usually experiences auras but no headache. Menstrual migraines have two characteristics and are either menstrual related migraines (MRM) or pure menstrual migraines (PMM). Menstrual related migraines are moderate to severe in terms of pain and occur around the same time as the monthly period and at other times too. The pure menstrual migraine occurs only around the same time as a woman's monthly period.