Migraine Specialist
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One Health Medical Care
Internists & Primary Care Practice located in Reston, VA
Migraine headaches — and in fact all kinds of headaches — can be painful and interfere with your daily life. Dr. Mingliarti Tjahjana at One Health Medical Care in Reston, Virginia is ready to help you achieve freedom from migraines and other types of headaches through lifestyle changes, carefully chosen medication, and other customized treatments that truly work. Book an appointment online or call One Health Medical Care to schedule your appointment.
Migraine Q & A
What are migraine headaches?
Migraine headaches are a particularly painful type of headaches. They cause quite severe pain, often to the point that they interfere with your ability to function normally. Patients who suffer from migraines may have them quite often — even on a near-daily basis — or they may occur only every few months. Migraines can last for days at a time and may cause you to miss work, social events, and other obligations.
What is an aura?
An aura is a sensory disturbance that may happen just before a migraine starts. Auras usually happen about 10 minutes to an hour before the onset of the migraine.
Visual disturbances are the most common kind of aura, with flashing lights or blind spots in the vision being frequent. Brief loss of vision can even happen.
A migraine aura can also cause numbness in the face or hands. An aura is a very clear warning sign that a migraine is on the way, so it's best to begin treatment — taking your as-needed migraine medication — when the aura starts.
What are the other types of headaches?
The most commonly occurring kind of headache is the tension headache, also called the stress headache. While tension headaches are less painful than migraines, they're quite difficult to deal with for some patients. Tension headaches often feel like a tight band around the forehead, and they can cause intense pain.
Cluster headaches are uncommon, but they're a very serious type of headaches. Cluster headaches cause severe pain that's often described as an ice pick type of stabbing behind the eyes. This type of headache often occurs in groups. For example, you may have several of these headaches per day for a few weeks and then have no headaches for months afterward.
What are the treatments for migraines and other headaches?
The treatments for migraines and other types of headaches can vary based on the patient's specific symptoms and issues.
Migraine headaches may require several types of medications, including a preventive medicine and an as-needed medicine.
Tension headaches are often easier to resolve, and they may be treated with an as-needed medicine.
No matter what type of headache you're dealing with, Dr. Tjahjana is happy to create a treatment plan that will allow you to live free from chronic headache pain.
