There are two ways a migraine can stop—through abortive means (e.g., medication) or naturally. But for most migraineurs, there is a clear stopping point when a migraine ends, according to Andrew H. Ahn, MD, PhD, and K.C. Brennan, MD, who discussed the disorder in the January 2012 issue of Headache.
So how does it stop on its own? Ahn and Brennan reference findings from the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, which points to the very structures involved in forming migraines. These structures are part of “feedback loops,” or circuits on which the pain comes and goes. The circuits play a game of opposites, bringing the pain closer and further away based on migraine triggers. If stress is a trigger for you, then your migraine may stop when the stress is relieved. On the opposite end, if the release of stress triggers your head pain, then the migraine may stop when you’re most stressed out.
While researchers know of a variety of triggers that will bring the pain closer and further away, they are only aware of a few activities that can stop the pain altogether. Two of these are natural responses to pain, the most common being sleep. “The most striking (because the effects can be almost instantaneous) is [vomiting],” write Ahn and Brennan. While researchers haven’t yet figured out why these involuntary actions bring a cessation of pain, Ahn and Brennan hope that soon the “circuits may reveal their secrets.”
