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Home » Articles » Cool Tools
What does a migraine look like? Bodyworlds offers some perspective
by Michelle Melin-Rogovin
I've just been to BodyWorlds2 and, frankly, I'm thinking about the phrase "wrap my head around it" in a whole new way. I learned that if one were to unfold the tissue of the cerebral cortex (that's the big, squiggly part of the brain that we easily see) and spread it out, it would measure 16 square feet.
My migraines make a bit more sense.
Before the BodyWorlds exhibits (there are three versions currently traveling around the world), you needed to have a medical degree to see and study an actual human body. The creator of the exhibit has invented a means to plasticize anatomy and has created BodyWorlds2 to educate the public about human health.
While BodyWorlds2 is designed to fascinate and engage visitors, I decided I would experience it from the perspective of a person living with a chronic condition. There is nothing fascinating or engaging about migraine, believe me. But I wondered if I could come away with some greater understanding about what is happening under my skin—a greater appreciation for a condition that up until this point I could only feel, but not see the cause of my pain.
How a migraine works
According to the National Headache Foundation (NHF), 29.5 million Americans have migraine. Women are three times as likely to have migraine as men. And if you don’t have them, you’re fortunate. Migraines are caused when the trigeminal nerve releases chemicals that cause blood vessels in the brain to swell. The brain stem registers the pain of a migraine, which then sends out pain signals to the head and sometimes leads to other symptoms like nausea. (For more, check out this primer on migraine from the NHF.)
As I walked around the "Yoga Lady," a woman without skin, I could see the nerves that branch from the base of the brain out along the side of the face. The "Man of Leisure" revealed a similar network of nerves along his skeleton, up the neck, around the head and into the eyes.
The nerves look like twine, quite fragile. It's hard to believe that pain impulses travel at speeds up to 249 miles per hour on threads only a bit thicker than dental floss.
In another area of the BodyWorlds2 exhibit, I viewed the blood vessels and arteries of the human head. Through a remarkable process, the exhibit's creators are able to leave the superhighway of blood vessels intact and remove the rest of the brain and tissue, allowing us to see how much blood the brain really needs to function well.
In fact, while the brain weighs only two pounds, it requires 15-20% of the body's blood supply.
I felt a little throbbing behind my eye. My left eye. It's the kind of throbbing I get when I start to think I'm getting a migraine. I remind myself I'm only thinking about one!
Looking at the complex web of tubes and fibers, shaped to deliver blood throughout the human brain, I could come to only one conclusion.
No wonder it hurts so badly.
Translating knowledge into action
Chemicals are released on one side of my brain, causing my blood vessels to open and flood them with more blood. This increases pressure and pain so intensely and so deeply, both on the surface of my brain and within its structures.
I can also understand why it makes sense for me to try caffeine in order to see if I can get through a migraine without medication. There was a time when I was having 3-5 migraines a week and I couldn't treat all of them. I had to save my big guns (prescription medication) for the times when it really counted. Because caffeine constricts the blood vessels (makes them smaller), a relatively small migraine might be short-circuited.
What surprised me most was how delicate and small the structures of my anatomy really are. I would have assumed, before going to BodyWorlds2, that the nerves encasing my brain were the size of a computer cable when I had a migraine. In actuality, they are more like my iPod cable. I would have guessed that my brain needed blood, but I would never have thought that 20% of my heart's work would have gone to the penthouse floor of my body at any one time.
I am on a preventive medication, a special diet and I take a medication when I have a migraine attack. I have to be wary of migraine triggers every day. Sometimes this, well, pisses me off. So what did I learn from BodyWorlds2? If nerves the size of iPod cables can give me a migraine (despite all of my precautions) that can last for days, I do not get a day off from managing my migraine triggers. That's something I can wrap my head around. For real.
Michelle Melin-Rogovin is a ChronicBabe with 17 years of experience in serving women and families with chronic conditions. Currently Michelle is the Director of Patient Advocacy for Emmi Solutions.
Want to check out Bodyworlds?
BodyWorlds is currently exhibiting in Charlotte, NC through October 28, 2007; Bodyworlds2 is in Montreal through September 16, 2007; and Bodyworlds3 is in Portland, OR through October 7, 2007. They just might be in your city soon, so check the schedule!
Posted: 7/5/2007 in Cool Tools
