Phase 1 · Understand the Body — Why the disease behaves the way it does.
The One-Line Truth
The whole disease in one chain
Everything on this page exists to explain this line.
Migraine is a brain disorder where waves of electrical noise and swelling in blood vessels cause headaches that come back again and again, often with warning signs and strange sensory symptoms.
Electrical Storm Triggers an Alarm System
Imagine your brain's cortex as a city power grid that normally hums steadily at the right voltage. In migraine, a rolling blackout (cortical spreading depression) sweeps across the grid at 2–5 millimeters per minute, like a slow-motion power failure wave. That blackout trips the security system—the trigeminal nerve, which is like the building's alarm panel—sending emergency signals to activate the sprinkler system (blood vessels swelling) and flooding the area with alarm fluid (CGRP). The alarm gets so loud and the sprinklers so strong that the normal wiring can't filter them anymore; every little vibration (normal light, sound, touch) now feels like an intruder (central sensitization). Unlike a real fire, this alarm was triggered by an electrical glitch, not danger, so shutting down the alarm system (triptans block CGRP, reducing the chemical flood) is the only way to stop the false emergency.
American Headache Society 2024 Migraine Guidelines · International Headache Society ICHD-3 Classification · American Academy of Neurology 2023 · Cochrane Review on Migraine Management · reviewed 2026-07-07