Headache vs. migraine: know the difference.

• Position: Neurological Disorders - Brief Article

If headaches consistently stop you from working or enjoying life, you may suffer from migraine--the most common neurological disorder in the developed world. Migraine affects an estimated 28,000,000 Americans--more than diabetes, asthma, and epilepsy combined--and it is believed that over half of them remain undiagnosed.

"If you are having more than two or three headaches a week, or if your headaches cause disability more than three days in a month, those are chronically recurring headaches," says Dion Graybeal, assistant professor of neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. "Regardless of how those headaches have been diagnosed in the past, 75% to 85% of them are actually migraine, and not tension or sinus headaches."

Migraine is a debilitating condition marked by...