Migraine vs. Headache: How to Tell The Difference

You’re at work staring at your computer screen when your forehead starts throbbing. You pop an over-the-counter pain med and brush it off as “just a bad headache.” When in fact, it could be a migraine. Migraines affect over one billion people worldwide.1 While headaches are the textbook sign of migraine, they’re just one piece of the puzzle. So how can you tell if your headache is more than just a headache? Read on to learn the difference between migraines...

What is the difference between a migraine and a headache?

The difference between a migraine headache and a tension headache is that while a tension headache involves the muscles and fascia of the scalp and neck tightening and causing pain, a migraine involves a large chemical change that affects the entire body. Blood vessels in the brain become wider, serotonin is lowered, and nerves misfire – causing severe pain – along with a host of other symptoms like those mentioned above that usually do not occur in non-migraine headaches. Headache...