Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Migraine Cause

Question:
Over the past few months I have been having pain in my head. Sometimes around the right temple area, mostly around the left temple area. Also around the face, sometimes in the front and back of my head and also some tingling on top. Does this sound like it could be a migraine headache? I am having a CT done tomorrow for the brain and sinuses. Until this a.m. I never considered these problems could be caused by a migraine headache. Is that possible and how do they determine if that is what is happening? I am new to this and I am scared. Any info you can give a newbie to this group is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer:
I hope I can help you not be scared about your CT. Doing a CAT scan and/or an MRI of the brain is 100% normal to do, for a variety of perfectly normal reasons, and shouldn't be a sign to you that something malignant is going on. Headache patients see the inside of those machines as a routine diagnostic test. The overwhelming majority of headaches/migraines do not show up on any tests! The brain structure, the sinuses, the jaw joints, the spine all look perfectly normal, when the patient can be in severe pain from what's going on in the subtler processes in the head: chemical imbalances, swollen or constricted blood vessels, and the like. Your doctor's most likely doing this scan just to have done it. Hope this helps!