One in seven people worldwide suffer from migraine headaches, according to an advocacy group called The Migraine Trust. 

This year, there are just over 1,400 students and teachers at Saratoga High, meaning that statistically, it’s likely that at least 200 of those regularly suffer from migraines.

Currently the third most prevalent illness in the world, behind iron-deficiency anaemia and mild hearing loss, migraines are headaches of varying intensity that are often accompanied by light or sound sensitivity and nausea. These headaches are especially common in women, with 28 million out of the 39 million migraine sufferers in the U.S. being women.

According to Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District nurse Lois Schultz-Grant, migraines are linked to genetics.

“There are some medical conditions that are genetic that can actually cause the migraines,” Schultz-Grant said. “There is a condition where the blood vessels in your brain get all jumbled up, and that is hereditary. When those get irritated, they can cause migraines.”

While most people tend to think that migraines in children are uncommon, according to the American Migraine Foundation, one in every 11 children suffers from migraines. Among teens, 8 percent of boys and 23 percent of girls have experienced a migraine before.

Junior Katie Dimock is a teen who battles the condition. She has had migraines since she was young, and they started to become more frequent throughout middle school.

“Sometimes they’re pretty mild, and I just have discomfort in my temples, brows and behind my eyes,” Dimock said. “When they’re moderate, it’s really hard to look into bright lights, and it’s often in my neck and the base of my skull too. At the most severe level, there’s really nothing else to do but lie down in the dark and not move — they can be totally incapacitating.”

For Dimock, blue light from phones and computers and dehydration often worsen her migraines. For other sufferers there are many other triggers, including changes in weather and changes in sleep patterns. 

“One trigger can be a really stressful day,” Schultz-Grant said. “Kids and adolescents, in particular, are under a tremendous amount of strain; it’s hard being an adolescent, if nobody’s told you that.”

Academic pressure, of course, is a major factor in stress at many high-performing Bay Area schools.

This is true for Mikaela Brennan, a senior at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, who says that the stifling focus on school work creates a very stressed environment for her.

“I think school stress absolutely impacts my migraines,” Brennan said. “I noticed that once I lessened my course load, it got a lot better, but college applications aren’t helping my stress levels.”

According to the American Migraine Foundation, the brain needs consistency and is especially vulnerable to changes in stress and sleep; this results in 70 percent of migraine sufferers naming stress as a trigger.

While Dimock acknowledges the impact of academic stress on triggering her migraines, she feels that not having enough time to relax because of her workload has a larger impact on her migraines.

“School stress can be the source, but I think the main problem is that sometimes I feel like I can’t relax or lie down to make them go away,” Dimock said. “I’ll stay at school with a migraine because I know I’ll just create more stress for myself by missing class or not getting things done.”

When dealing specifically with stress as a trigger, Schultz-Grant recommends mindfulness therapies to help relax.

Although many people point to certain foods as a trigger, such as caffeine, chocolate or MSG, according to a New York Times article, there has yet to be any evidence to support this claim. The article states that the idea of certain foods as triggers may have come from sugar cravings that often occur before migraines.

Schultz-Grant said that when students come to the office with a migraine, they are placed in a quiet, dark room, and their parents are called.

“It’s really important that they get their medication; if you can’t treat it here in 20 minutes by relaxing in a dark, cool room, go home and sleep,” Schultz-Grant said. “Sleep is a great healer, and high school kids don’t get enough of it.”

Treatments for this illness are mostly limited to taking medications such as ibuprofen, sumatriptan, rizatriptan, Execdrin or even forms homeopathic medicine to treat the symptoms; however, for women, birth control pills can be taken and be effective if their migraines stem from hormonal changes. 

Brennan is one of many females who suffer from monthly migraines that stem from hormone imbalances. In fact, according to the National Migraine Foundation, 60 percent of women who suffer from migraines have these kinds of migraines. 

Besides abortives, or medications used during migraines, there are some preventatives that can be taken to lessen migraine frequency and severity. 

Preventatives can include medication to control high blood pressure, like propranolol or verapamil, or antidepressants, like amitriptyline or nortriptyline. 

While many of these medications are necessary to combat the pain of a migraine, they also come with many side effects. 

“I recently had to swap out preventatives and one of the side effects made it really difficult to think,” Brennan said.

The drug in question, Topamax, has been proven to be effective against migraines and epilepsy attacks, but its side effect of mental confusion has earned it the nickname “Dopamax.” 

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Brennan said. “It’s like being high except it isn’t enjoyable because you’re aware of what’s happening to you.”

However, a senior boy, who asked to remain anonymous, said he experiences migraines but does not opt for any standard treatments. Interestingly, because of many allergies, he  uses an alternative medicine in the form of an ethyl alcohol extract. This treatment is not scientifically backed but has been the only thing that has worked for him. The treatment is meant to balance out the energy in your body, similar to many ancient Chinese medicines, he said.

Despite the obvious downsides to migraines, there may be some benefits to having them. According to an article published by Harvard Medical School, a 10-year study of almost 75,000 women showed that female migraine sufferers were 20 to 30 percent less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. The article also mentioned how migraine sufferers are unlikely to develop alcoholism, since alcohol can often be a trigger for migraines.

A nationwide study on migraines, posted on WebMD, showed that one-third of the 18,714 adolescent subjects met the criteria for taking preventative medicine, but the majority of those adolescents were not receiving medication.

That’s something Dimock said should change.

“Don’t wait until they’re full blown migraines to take medication,” Dimock said. “Prevention is usually more effective than trying to get rid of a severe migraine.”