Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I want to do a science project regarding migraines and how they react or what makes it react.
I want to find a way to make them better or how they are caused.

Hi Mimiekkins,

There are many different types of migraines, each with different causes. Have you tried doing some research on the internet for some information? I did a Google search for "migraines," and found several great sources of information. Here are a few to get you started:
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headache ... efault.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migrai ... he/DS00120
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148373.php

Take a look, try doing your own search, and please post again if you have more questions.

Heather

I have done research on migraines and know there are different types. I was diagnosed with migraines at age 7 so for all these years I have tried looking things up and tried to prevent these migraines.

Do you know what kind of migraines you have? Because migraines have so many different causes, it is difficult to help you come up with a project without knowing the cause. Perhaps you can research the different mechanisms of action for several migraine medications.

Here are some Science Buddies projects related to how drugs work:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p006.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p005.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p011.shtml

I think (from a different post) that you might also be interested in the ELISA technique. The best way to get involved with ELISA is to find a research lab (like one at a nearby university) to help you with the procedure, since the kits can be expensive.

Let me know if any of these ideas look interesting to you, and we'll go from there.

Heather

What is a migraine?

Hi Jacobie09,

A migraine is a severe type of headache. If you want to know more information, I posted some links earlier in this thread.

heatherL wrote:There are many different types of migraines, each with different causes. Have you tried doing some research on the internet for some information? I did a Google search for "migraines," and found several great sources of information. Here are a few to get you started:
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headache ... efault.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migrai ... he/DS00120
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148373.php

No wonder I didn't know. I'm not exactly in that field where I would recognize that.

Hi every one,
I'm looking for some projects(that they had done before)about Migraines .It's about one year that I have it,so I want to do a project about it with my friends but could you please help me and give some information to me
Is it possible to do a project about Migraines???
Thank you
Nazanin

Hello Nazanin,

Do you know other people who have migraines, or have any resources to contact migraine sufferers? I was thinking you could do some sort of survey, perhaps about the causes of migraines. You could give migraine sufferers a survey to fill out every time they get a migraine about time of day, what they ate that day, any activities they were doing. Then you could see if there were any patterns or correlations in that data as to what some common causes of migraines are.

Hope this helps get some ideas for a project on migraines!

Dear Nazanin,

You might want to look at some past research on migraines in order to obtain ideas. For example, the study "Food as trigger and aggravating factor of migraine" (Finocchi &Sivori 2012) argues that elimination diets may help prevent food hypersensitivity reactions that result in migraines. However, the causes of migraines are not precisely known. Although migraines occur in people of all ages, more women than men are affected by migraines. Thus, potential topics for your project may concern precipitating factors of migraines or the epidemiology of migraines. Lastly, you might want to contact organizations that do research on migraines such as the National Headache Foundation and the American Migraine Foundation for guidance.

Katherine Caras