This explains some of the words you might hear doctors or other adults use when talking about migraine...

Abdominal Migraine: Some children get bad pains in their stomach from time to time. The pain is usually in the middle of their tummy, around their tummy button but sometimes the pain goes through to their back. They usually don't feel like eating and may also feel sick or be sick.

Acute treatment: This is medicine that is given to relieve a migraine attack when it actually happens.

Alternative treatments: see complementary therapies.

Analgesics: a drug that takes away pain.

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener used instead of sugar in food and drinks.

Aura happens about 15 minutes before a migraine headache and can include flashing lights or zig zag patterns in front of the eyes, pins and needles or numbness in the arms and legs, being clumsy or not able to speak properly.

Blood vessels: These are the tubes which carry the blood all around the body. There are 3 types, arteries, capillaries and veins.

Brain scan: This is done in hospital by a special machine, which takes lots of pictures of the inside of your brain. The machine can be quite noisy and you have to keep very still but it doesn't hurt at all.

Complementary Therapies (also called alternative treatments): are treatments that are not usually provided by your doctor but by other specially qualified people. These treatments aim to help your body to heal itself so that you feel better generally and don't have migraine any more.

Condition: a state of health either good or bad.

Cyclical Vomiting: Episodes of being very sick lots of times, which happen every 4-6 weeks. This can cause dehydration.

Dehydration is when you lose too much water from your body through sickness, sweat, or diarrhoea. It can also be caused by not drinking enough water.

Diagnosis: When the doctor tries to find out what is wrong with a person by examining them and listening to what they tell him or her.

Diary: a daily record of events. Click here for our migraine diary

Dietician: someone who can help you to eat healthily if you find there are certain foods you can't have because they trigger your migraine.

Digestive system: the parts of your body that break down the food you eat.

Disabling: when an illness stops people from doing normal things.

Drugs are chemicals used to treat illness.

Gastric Stasis: when your digestive system stops working properly so that things you eat and drink stay in your stomach (this happens during a migraine attack).

Genetic: means it runs in families.

Hypersensitivity: when light or smells or sounds bother people much more than normal, for example they might need sunglasses even on a dull day. They might not like to be touched or things they touch feel different, for example warm water might feel very hot.

Migraine Clinic: a specialist centre where the doctors and nurses know much more about migraine than your local doctor.

Monosodium Glutamate is a chemical added to food to make it taste better.

Neurological: concerning the nervous system of the body, especially the brain.

Neurotransmitters: chemicals that help to send messages through the nerves in your body.

Paralysis: when parts of a person's body feel numb and won't move properly.

Paroxysmal Vertigo: makes people suddenly feel very dizzy and sometimes fall over. They may also be sick. This sometimes, but not often, happens when children get migraine.

Postdrome: the time just after a migraine when people still don't feel quite back to normal. It is sometimes also called the recovery phase.

Preventative medication: medicine which you need to take every day to try to stop migraines happening. This is sometimes also called prophylaxis.

Prodrome: This can begin up to 2 days before a migraine and is a sign that a migraine may be about to happen. During this time you may want to eat certain foods, feel depressed, tired or need to go to the toilet more often. Some people feel very lively and excited just before a migraine.

Prophylaxis: see preventative medication.

Research: finding out more, investigation to establish the facts. This Association does not support research using animals.

Stress: what people feel when they have too much mental, physical or emotional strain in their lives.

Symptoms: the signs that show the doctor someone has an illness or disease.

Threshold: the starting point of a migraine.

Throbbing: often used to describe the pain of migraine. It means pounding, pulsating or like the banging of a drum.

Treatment: the care or medicine to try to make an illness better.

Triggers: things that cause a migraine to start.