Allergies and Migraine Headaches

Migraine headache triggers, migraine headache symptoms, sinus headache and migraine

Migraine headaches have been so common currently. It is in fact a chronic condition having an effect on roughly 6% of men but 18% of women. The symptoms may be severe or moderate, affect the daily activities of the person, need a lot of rest and sleep and can last for days in many people. The reason for the migraine headache is still not understood in spite of a lot of research. However, it is believed that migraine is associated with the body chemicals that can cause dilation of the blood vessels in brain, thus leading to headaches finally.

It is recommended to recognize the difference between sinus migraines and migraines. The International Headache Society (IHS) states that sinus headaches can be classified as
• Colored nasal discharge due to sinus
• Abnormal CAT scan or x-rays of the sinuses
• Sinusitis symptoms and headache or pain only in the involved sinuses
• Headache will not occur after the sinusitis is treated.

Hence IHS links sinus headaches to sinusitis and not migraine. But many of the diagnoses of these headaches are not consistent with that of sinusitis. Therefore there is a chance for sinus headaches to be migraine headaches in reality though not stated by IHS.

In order to understand this concept, the relation between migraine and allergies need to be established. It has been found that allergic rhinitis can result in a sinus headache most of the times. Some allergic reaction can lead to histamine release, and this in turn leads to dilation of the blood vessels in brain sometimes. This is the reason found for migraine headaches. Due to the dilation, it worsens the headache even more.

This discovery led to studies to verify if people who are allergic suffer from migraine more than the others. In more than one such study, this had been proved. People who had allergic rhinitis were found to more likely get migraine headaches than those without allergic rhinitis. And in reality, people with allergies were also nearly 14 times more prone to suffer from migraine headaches than people without allergies.

And some studies even prove the connection between allergic asthma and migraine headaches. There has been a rise in the occurrence of migraine headaches in children who have atopic diseases. In addition, nearly 40% children with migraines indicate the occurrence of allergies when tested for allergy.

It has been long argued that migraines are linked to food allergies. Some of the experts believe in the worsening of migraine headaches through allergic processes caused by food but other experts believe the food allergies to be just a trigger caused due to food intolerance. There are chances that migraine is triggered by both the allergic and non-allergic reactions of food.

So the question if allergies are treated, migraine also subsides occur. But research using anti-histamines for treating or preventing migraines are not effective enough. But if allergic rhinitis is aggressively treated including treatment with nasal sprays, allergy shots, etc, headaches in people with allergic triggers to migraine can be treated and prevented.