The stress and irregularity that defines college life can lead to splitting headaches, known as migraines, which can take students out of commission for hours.

“When I get a migraine headache, I want to take half of my head off and put it on the wall,” said Jean Anderson, director of the dietetic internship at Iowa State.

Katie Bryda, junior in community and regional planning, said the throbbing in her head during a migraine becomes so intense she can take her pulse right through her temples. “It is even hard to walk,” she said. “It inhibits me from going about my daily routine. I have to stop everything and just deal with it.”

Anderson and Bryda are two of many suffering from these severe headaches characterized by extreme pain and throbbing on one side of the brain, said Peter Wolfe, family practitioner at McFarland Clinic, 1215 Duff Ave.

Wolfe said college students are very susceptible to migraines because of their “haphazard schedules,” which include irregular sleep patterns, skipped meals, poor diets and a lack of exercise.

While migraines are not well understood, even by physicians, Wolfe said it is known that migraines occur when the blood vessels in the brain dilate and muscles contract, resulting in pain. The headaches usually last six to eight hours, but the pain can last as long as 24 hours, Wolfe said.

Symptoms include visual disturbances such as flashing lights, throbbing pain in half of the head, nausea and vomiting, sensitivity to even soft noises, feelings of irritability and a tingling sensation in the arms and face, Wolfe said. There are many factors that cause migraines. Anderson said her migraines seem to occur more frequently with a change in seasons and with hormonal fluctuations.

Wolfe said stress, fatigue, inadequate amounts of sleep, illness and certain perfumes and colognes also can trigger a migraine.

Certain foods can induce migraines, said Becky Hammitt, dietitian at the ISU Student Wellness Center.

MSG, a flavor enhancer found in many Chinese foods, has been found to trigger migraines, she said. The protein tyramine, found in aged cheeses, sour cream and bananas also has been found to cause migraines, Hammitt said.

Bryda is on a tyramine-free diet to prevent the onset of migraine pain after the headaches began to occur on a daily basis. Also, her body had become immune to the medications she was taking. Bryda said she does not eat cheese, cured meats, pickles, bananas or yogurt, and she said her headaches have occurred less frequently due to the diet.

Other foods to avoid for those suffering from migraines are caffeine, chocolate, aspartame – found in Nutra Sweet – and red wine, Hammitt said.

Hammitt also said eating very cold foods, drinking cold fluids and skipping meals can cause migraines.

As many as 20 to 30 percent of the population suffer from migraines, Wolfe said. However, he said most of these people do not treat their migraines, but choose to “suffer through them.”

“It is surprising what people will put up with,” he said.

Wolfe said anyone with severe headaches should consult a doctor because, while there is no cure for the headaches, there are new medications that leave “no reason to suffer through a migraine,” he said. The newest medications to treat migraines are vasoconstrictors, which cause the blood vessels to return to their regular size, and stop the throbbing, Wolfe said. Imitrex, Zomig and Amerge are examples of new vasoconstrictor drugs, he said.

Anderson said she takes the drug Imitrex at the onset of her migraines, and it has proved effective for eliminating the pain.

Bryda learned of a technique called “biofeedback therapy” to ease the pain of her migraines when she was at the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago receiving treatment for her migraines.

She said biofeedback is based on the theory that when a migraine begins to set in, the body panics and goes into a survival mode where all of the blood is rushed to the vital organs. When she feels a migraine coming on, she breathes through her diaphragm, relaxes her muscles one by one and tries to increase the temperature in her hands, which has dropped due to the body’s “panic” response. This has a calming effect on the body, and the headache goes away, Bryda said.

Prevention is the best route to take with migraine headaches, Wolfe said. Sleeping eight hours every night, exercising aerobically three times a week, eating balanced meals with a multivitamin and learning to deal with stress and pain are all ways to prevent the onset of a migraine, he said.

When a migraine does strike, it is important to stop whatever you are doing and treat the headache, Wolfe said. “Take time out, go into the bedroom, turn the lights off and try to get some sleep,” he said.