A big headache

With Migraine Awareness Week taking place in September, we look at what’s being done to clear our heads

- Julie Lucas

I suddenly get overwhelming cravings for chocolate and feel the tension in my shoulders increasing. When I wake up the next day, I am welcomed with a pounding headache. If this sounds familiar, you are probably one of the estimated six million people in the UK who experience migraines.

According to The Migraine Trust it is estimated that one in seven of us suffer from the debilitating headaches, with 190,000 attacks each day in the UK, costing the NHS £150m a year. It’s often dismissed in society as ‘just a headache’ because it’s intermittent, but many find themselves disabled during an attack.

‘We don’t actually know why people get migraines,’ says Una Farrell of the Migraine Trust. ‘We do know it’s genetic, and we know there are triggers for the attacks and the migraine brain doesn’t like change.’