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If you or someone you love has ever had a migraine, you know how totally debilitating that condition can be. A migraine is not just a headache. And instead of simply impacting the person who unfortunately has the migraine, loved ones, friends, family members and coworkers are often affected as well.

From mildly unpleasant to causing someone to be unable to live a normal life, migraines are unfortunately experienced by about 15% of people in modern, industrialized nations.

That means between 5 or 6 of your friends, one of you has experienced, or will experience, a migraine this year.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to limit your exposure to this emotionally and physically painful situation. Incidentally, migraines are not the only types of headaches that lead to a lower quality of life. Since there are a number of significant headache conditions, it makes sense to understand how they all develop, what causes them, how to limit your risk, and how to effectively treat symptoms once they develop.

Once you master the secrets to preventing and treating migraines and other painful headaches, you minimize your suffering, and maximize the possibility that you can avoid these crippling conditions entirely.

How common are migraines and other serious headaches? Consider these statistics …

As many as 37 million Americans will have at least one migraine experience this year.

The National Headache Foundation believes more than 50% of those who suffer from serious migraines have never been diagnosed.

A migraine may last only 4 hours, and as long as 3 entire days.

Women are more likely to get a migraine, and the “sweet spot” is between 15 and 55 years of age.

3 of the most common migraine triggers are alcohol, caffeine and certain foods.

Look at that last migraine statistic. If you drink alcohol or caffeine regularly, especially to excess, migraines and other painful headaches could be your reward. Certain foods also cause migraines in some people, and not others.

Understanding which foods can begin the migraine process is vital to avoiding those particular foods, and other triggers, to keep you migraine-free.

There are plenty of migraine treatments and remedies out there. However, in the past, doctors and other health experts have preferred to treat migraines and other serious headaches as they develop, and haven't always preached prevention. That is a shame, because once a migraine starts, you can expect to experience some or all of the following symptoms:

Extreme pain in the face or neck

Dull, pounding pain in the head

Acute, frequent, severe or throbbing headaches

Dizziness and lightheadedness

Extreme sensitivity to light, smells and sound

Nausea or vomiting

Distorted vision and seeing "flashes" of light

A tenderness of your scalp

Irritability

Nasal congestion

Fatigue

Loss of appetite

In rare cases you may develop a severe fever. Remember, these symptoms can last for as few as 4 hours, and as long as a continual 72 hours. By the way, those debilitating conditions are just the most commonly produced migraine symptoms. If you have a tension headache, cluster headaches, sinus headaches or rebound headaches, there are more painful and restricting symptoms you may experience.

What is the answer to making sure you experience the fewest number of headaches in your life as you possibly can?

You need to understand what triggers migraine and other serious headaches. You need to see how those triggers affect you personally, how to avoid them, and you should also have effective treatment methods that work quickly to relieve symptoms of migraines and other headaches.

“It is possible to stop migraines before they occur?”

That's a fair question.

The first step is understanding how to manage headaches and migraines …

My Achy Breaky Headache:

Understanding Headaches and Migraines