Why do migraines make you nauseous ?
In: Biology
The thing is, we don’t know. Migraines are really not understood well. It’s not really known what causes them or why the symptoms that occur during them occur.
Gosh. I needed info on this. The headache doesn’t kill me but the nauseous paralysed me completely.
There are theories about how the vagus nerve is responsible for the nausea. Breathing techniques have proven effective in reducing it. Try 7-12 (practice when you can): Breathe in for about 7 seconds and out for 12. on outbreath you may have to purse your lips to slowly deflate. Imagine the last of the air going out through the soles of your feet until the diafragm is completely relaxed / belly empty of air. It also lowers heart rate and bp, releases endorphines and adjust the balance between O2 and CO2 in the blood. Simultaneously you can use your fingers to press from both sides on the meaty area between the thumb and index finger. It’s supposed to hurt a bit. This alone reduces nausea.
Not answers, but interesting fact:
Some medicine used to treat migraines, such as triptans, work to increase the amount of serotonin in your brain. However, the side effect of increasing serotonin in your stomach is nausea and is consequently a side effect of triptans. Oppositely, some nausea meds, such as ondansetron (zofran), work to reduce serotonin for nausea, but result in the side effect of headaches.
So it is possible that serotonin issues are happening all around the body, with levels high and low in the wrong places, causing both a migraine and nausea?
Humming can also help. It releases cortisol and soothes you. A quick way to shrink the vessels is to put an ice pack on the back of you next and swing your arms around to get blood flowing. I personally think the nausea is from different pressures in different parts of your head. I was sent from the er to an eye dr to have the pressure checked in my eye balls. I know when the flashing kaleidoscope lights start that it’s time to get somewhere dark, cool and quiet. Hate those suckers.
I can’t say for sure because migraines aren’t totally understood, but I’ll do my best! I believe there’s 2 main reasons.
1. The headache isn’t the only hallmark of a migraine headache… most people have sensitivity to light and sound, some dizziness, and just like you said, nausea. Many people (myself included) get this funky thing called aura too, either just before or during the migraine. That’s a bunch of weird neurological symptoms that usually have to do with your eyes–seeing flashing lights or bright spots, having ripples in your vision, losing your depth perception, or even going *very temporarily* blind in one or both eyes.
Any of that can get super disorienting, and brains hate being disoriented. Kind of like getting sea sick. The horizon looks straight and level, but your body is rocking and swaying… the brain doesn’t like conflicting information and throws a hissy fit!
2. This is a little more science-y. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter. A chemical that works on nerves and helps them ‘talk’ to each other. You’ve probably heard of it in the context of mental health, how serotonin in your brain affects your mood. But oddly enough, you have *way more* serotonin in your *gut* than in your head. Serotonin has a lot of jobs, but one thing it does is constrict blood vessels, or make them tighter. This can hurt, especially if it happens really quickly.
One of the biggest theories that doctors have about how migraines work revolves around serotonin shrinking those vessels and causing a headache. Since it’s working on vessels in the brain, it could cause those other symptoms too, like seeing weird things. But if the serotonin in your *brain* is acting funny, it would make sense that *all* of the serotonin in your body might be acting funny. The rest of it is in your abdomen… so nausea or even vomiting would fit.
Hopefully that’s fitting for ELI5, and hopefully it answered your question a bit!
Oh and as a bonus fact:
There’s a such thing as *abdominal migraines.* The same intense pain, but located in the abdomen instead of the head. Usually abdominal migraines are suffered by children who have grown up family members with regular migraines. Then when the kids get a bit older, they stop having stomachaches and start having the headaches instead.
At first I read “Why do migrants make you nauseous?”
They don’t always. Essentially there’s a lot of buttons in your head and when you get pain there, all kinds of things can go wrong. Over sensitivity, compressed nerves, things getting de/prioritized, we don’t actually know. Some migraine meds can even cause nausea.
One of your body’s basic defense mechanisms against “something’s *messed up* right now” is emptying your stomach out in case you ate something toxic. It’s kinda like motionsickness: the input from your ears contradicts the input from your eyes -> your brain interprets the conflicting information as “AIEEEE WTF IS GOING ON” -> maybe you’ve been poisoned, better evacuate the stomach just in case.
Your body’s defensive systems are pretty good at keeping you alive…but sometimes, like Shel Silverstein said, “some kind of help is the kind of help we all can do without”.
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