Why do migraines make you nauseous ?
In: Biology
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.
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