Answer #1 - Many individuals have a genetic predisposition to migraine headaches. Some individuals don’t and there may be a genetic predisposition to them. In those particular individuals there may be a cascade of events that starts. This cascade may be triggered by environmental triggers; it may be internal or external triggers that starts the whole cascade in motion. Once this cascade has begun, there are neuropeptides or chemical transmitters that are released in the brain, specifically through the trigeminal nerve. And these transmitters are referred to as serotonin, and vasoactive peptides. These transmitters when they are released cause vasodilation or inflammatory changes in the blood vessels. The blood vessels then become swollen, they become inflamed and they set off a series of other mechanisms that relay information to the brain telling the brain that there is pain at the level of the blood vessels and that’s what basically tells us that there is pain and migraine and headache.