Migraines-What You Need To Know

One in four women suffer from this neurological condition, and it’s costing them not just their health but their wealth, too.

- Emma Babbington

If you’re one of Australia’s 4.9 million migraine sufferers, chances are you’ve heard one of the following: “Isn’t that just a bad headache?” “Can’t you sleep it off ?” “You need to give up chocolate/ alcohol/exercise/screens …”

But if treating, and living with, migraines was that simple, 20.55 percent of the population who experience them would be a lot happier, healthier and financially better off.

As it is there are more Australians suffering from migraines than from type 2 diabetes, asthma or heart disease – and the cost is huge.

A Deloitte research paper published in 2018 revealed the economic cost of migraines was estimated to be $35.7 billion. It also found that some sufferers are living with significantly more pain-filled than pain-free days every year. More than a quarter of those experiencing migraines visit hospital emergency departments once a month, while chronic sufferers are 19 percent less likely to be in paid employment than the general population.