The Best Migraine and Headache Treatments Available

The three most common and most effective migraine and headache treatments are the triptans, the ergots and the midrins. These three families of medications all work on the same level: they go to the source of the headache instead of simply numbing the pain that results from the headache. Migraine headache treatments and medications should target the source of the pain if they want to truly take care of the pain; pain killers kill the pain for the time being, but do not relieve the problem where the headache actually started.

Getting Down to the Cause

The cause of migraines and some other headaches is the expansion of blood vessels in the brain. If you think of your brain as a very dense construction and imagine your blood vessels as long thing balloons, you begin to see the problem. On a day to day basis, these blood vessels are pretty much deflated. The cause a headache is the blood vessels growing larger and larger, like a balloon being blown up. As the blood vessels get bigger, they put pressure on the structure around them; this pressure is what causes a migraine. Migraine and other headache treatments should focus on this source of pain when treating the headache.

The Mechanics of Treatment

The migraine and headache treatments mentioned above go to work directly at the source of the problem. All three medications cause the blood vessels to constrict, relieving the pressure they had been causing and thereby relieving the pain. Over the counter painkillers do not address the blood vessels as a problem; all they do is numb the pain that is being felt and caused by the expansion of the blood vessels. It’s for this reason that the medical treatments for migraines and headaches listed above are the most effective when it comes to treating true, sever, headaches.

Is One Better than the Others

Of the three medical treatments above, the triptan family is, at present, thought to be the safest of migraine and headache treatments. This is because all three medications constrict blood vessels all over the body, not just in the brain; what this means is that people who have a risk of heart problems run the risk of having an attack following use of one of these vessel-targeting medications. Of the three medications, the triptan family has the least effect on the blood vessels around the heart, so it is said to be the safest one, especially for people at risk for heart disease.