神经学家解读:什么是偏头痛

There's nothing quite like the misery of a migraine. If you're among the nearly 20 percent of women who suffer from these headaches, you know how painful they can be. But there's new reason for hope: Researchers are finally shedding light on what was once a mostly misunderstood medical phenomenon.

没有什么比偏头痛更令人痛苦。20%的女性都患有偏头痛，如果你也是其中一员，那你便会对偏头痛深有体会！现在，希望来了：研究员终于揭示了这个一度被误解的医学现象。

"Even just 10 years ago, doctors thought migraines were a blood vessel problem," explains Geoffrey Eubank, MD, the medical chief of general neurology at OhioHealth in Columbus. "Now we know they are neurological, meaning they're caused by a burst of cellular activity in the brain. And that has contributed to innovations in treatment."

"即便是10年前，医生都认为偏头痛是一种血管疾病，"哥伦布市俄亥俄医疗机构（OhioHealth）普通神经病学的首席医师杰弗里·尤班克博士说道。"现在我们都知道，偏头痛是神经系统疾病，也就是说偏头痛是由大脑中细胞活动的爆发引起的。这种认知也促进了治疗手段的创新。"

This is especially good news for women, since we're three times as likely as men to get a migraine. You could blame estrogen, though the link between the hormone and brain pain isn't entirely clear. "Fluctuations in estrogen appear to trigger migraines," says Dr. Eubank, which is why some women are more likely to get a migraine right before their period, during or after pregnancy, or during menopause.

对女性而言，这无疑是一个好消息，因为女性偏头痛的概率是男性的3倍。你可能觉得'罪魁祸首'是雌激素，但人们尚不清楚激素和大脑疼痛之间的关联。"雌激素的波动似乎会引发偏头痛，"尤班克博士说道，所以有些女性在大姨妈来临前、孕中或孕后、或绝经期间更容易偏头痛。

But other common migraine triggers aren't gender-specific. Think alcohol, artificial sweeteners, cured meats (like hot dogs and salami), foods that contain the compound tyramine (including aged cheese, some soy products, and red wine), dairy, chocolate, gluten, nuts, and the additive monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. MSG.

但偏头痛的其它常见诱因并非只针对女性。比如酒精、人造甜味剂、腌制肉类（比如热狗和萨拉米香肠），含复合酪胺的食品（包括陈年奶酪，一些豆制品和红酒），乳制品，巧克力，麸质食品，坚果和谷氨酸添加剂（又名味精）。

Then there's the weather. Some migraine sufferers are especially sensitive to changes in barometric pressure-such as the drop that occurs right before a thunderstorm or when you're ascending in a plane.

天气也是诱因之一。有些偏头痛患者对气压的变化特别敏感--比如雷暴天气前或飞机上升时的气压降低。

Warmer temperatures may be another trigger: A 2009 Harvard study found that every 9-degree increase in temperature led to a 7.5 percent increase of severe headaches, including migraine. (With global warming on the rise, some experts think that could mean more pain for some women.)

温度升高可能是另一诱因。2009年，哈佛大学的一项研究发现：温度每升高9度，头痛严重（包括偏头痛）的几率就会增加7.5%。（随着全球气候日益变暖，有些专家认为部分女性的头痛情况会加重。）

Your day-to-day habits can play a role too. Skimping on sleep or an irregular sleep schedule (waking up and dozing off at different times most days) can prompt a migraine. So can stress; though plummeting cortisol levels after a tense period are sometimes even more likely to trigger an attack than tension itself-hence the dreaded "weekend migraine."

个人的日常习惯也是因素之一。睡眠不足或不规律（醒来或入睡的时间不定）也会导致偏头痛。压力也会诱发偏头痛，虽然压力过后，个人的皮质醇水平下降有时候甚至比压力本身更容易诱发偏头痛--因此才有可怕的"周末偏头痛"一说啊！