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Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

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Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#121

Post by error_logic »

mh- wrote: post #116
e40 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I realized mine were caused by looking out the window while I brushed my teeth in the morning. One day it was really bright outside and really dark inside and the migraine started almost immediately. More than a year and I keep the blinds drawn while I'm in the bathroom in the morning and not a single migraine!

This is interesting. I frequently had them triggered by riding BART in the late afternoons in the winter, sun beating in through the dirty windows. Going through the tube (dark) and emerging in Oakland (raised track, clear view of the sky on both sides) had a double-digit % chance of giving me a migraine if my eyes were open at one point. I can get them triggered by riding in a car in similar conditions, too, especia…

Reminds me of wearing non-prescription sunglasses despite having myopia. It feels like the blurring of the world is due to the glasses, even though they're actually only blocking some of the light rather than distorting it.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#122

Post by wsc981 »

I tend to get migraines occasionally. For me the trigger is stress. So if I can try to avoid stress, I wouldn't get migraines as quickly. Sadly, in modern life it's sometimes hard to avoid stress.

Maybe 5 years ago, to treat my migraines, my girlfriend advices me to visit a massage therapist in Pattaya, as he's helped many people, Thai and foreigner, to get rid of migraines. I had a message session at his shop (including a lot of neck and head massages) and he gave me some herbal medicine to eat for 1 or 2 months. Afterwards, didn't have migraines for a couple of years. But the migraines came back, I think about 2 years ago. I might visit the message therapist again in the future if we plan to visit Pattaya (we live in Chiang Mai province, so it's like 800 km away).

I know of a girl in our village who also had a lot of migraines. She visited some kind of Chinese medicine doctor in Chiang Mai. He made some small holes in the head, blood would go outside. Not sure how many sessions the girl got, but from my understanding her migraines are gone now.

My migraines are usually as follows:

- usually lasts for around a day

- sometimes one side of the brain (temple area) is very painful (like a drill inside), sometimes both sides

- arteries around the area in brain where is pain are visibly thick

- pain in head & neck area, not so much in rest of body

- sensitive to light

Showering in hot water helps relieve the pain a bit, my guess is because it might improve blood flow. I tend to take hot showers a couple of times a day during migraine attacks.

Other things that seem to relieve a bit are ginger tea (fresh ginger), tiger balm on pain area in head & head and neck messages.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#123

Post by tptacek »

cdrini wrote: post #120
FloorEgg wrote: post #49

I got my first migraine in my early teens. I was over at a friend's house and we were playing in the basement on a summer day, then went outside where the sun reflected off a window into my eyes. It would start with a shimmering pattern obstructing my vision where the bright light was, which would grow into a c shape and get bigger until it surrounded my vision and then faded away. About 15 min after the shimmering p…

Same! My understanding of migraines is that it's something to do with blood pressure in your head. My hypothesis is that the visual disturbances are your blood vessels dilating and pressing against your retina. Then I think it can cause kind of a runaway feedback loop of some sort that causes the blood pressure to increase throughout your head, causing pain. Thinking about it now, I wonder if the light trigger could…

Just for what it's worth, the middle third of the article is about the proposed limbic system causes of migraine.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#124

Post by abrookewood »

iainctduncan wrote: post #25

I have been a migraineur for decades. Mine are classic aura, with the whole "looking through broken glass" thing for a half hour or so when they happen. This year one of my partner's doctors mentioned positive results from supplementing with Vitamin B-2 and Coenzyme Q10, and it has dramatcially lowered their frequency. Mine are especially bad when the air pressure is seesawing which it does a lot here in the spring a…

Just want to second this. I was getting migraines every 2 weeks (visual auras, thumping headache for 3-6 hours etc) mainly triggered by stress & lack of sleep as far as I could tell. Started taking Vitamin B and I haven't had a migraine since - for over a year).

There is research to back this up as well: - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33779525/ - Conclusion: Vitamin B2 400 mg/day significantly reduced the duration, frequency, and pain score of migraine attacks.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#125

Post by jongjong »

I get a migraine with aura about once every 6 months. It can last between a few minutes to several hours. When this happens, part of my field of vision disappears randomly and it becomes difficult to focus on anything or read. Then after the aura, I get a bad headache.

Sometimes, if I start to feel sensitive to light (a sign that I'm about to have a migraine aura), I take a paracetamol and it prevents it completely. The trick for me is to catch it early and notice the signs. My migraines seem to correlate with my stress levels, too much thinking and/or insufficient sleep.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#126

Post by beacon294 »

I had migraines which ceased when I switched from a steroid nasal spray to an allergy nasal spray. I guess the steroid spray was not good for my brain.

Edit: I even reintroduced the spray 2 years later (out of allergy spray) and had another migraine. It was surprising, as I only used it for a few days.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#127

Post by beacon294 »

FloorEgg wrote: post #49

I got my first migraine in my early teens. I was over at a friend's house and we were playing in the basement on a summer day, then went outside where the sun reflected off a window into my eyes. It would start with a shimmering pattern obstructing my vision where the bright light was, which would grow into a c shape and get bigger until it surrounded my vision and then faded away. About 15 min after the shimmering p…

I also discovered the dive / ice water reflex sometimes helped my migraine. The reason I tested it is because caffeine supposedly releases some chemicals related to the same chemicals that are released when you vomit. Since my migraines always ceased after vomiting, I used these other methods to induce the same chemical response in the brain.

I now keep Excedrin migraine on hand (has caffeine). However, my migraines completely ceased after I stopped using nasal steroid spray and started with an allergy nasal spray.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#129

Post by 01100011 »

caitlinface wrote: post #70

I've suffered from migraines all my life. It worsened as I've gotten older. One day long attacks turned into three day long attacks. Then turned into five day long attacks. I've taken various preventatives and abortives over the years to varying success. It runs in my family so I never thought to see a neurologist for them. A couple years ago I had a bad string of them and my medicine wasn't really touching it, so I…

I had them in my 20s on a weekly basis but since I could stave them off with massive water intake I thought they were something else. I didn't get optical symptoms, it was just a really bad headache, nausea and chills that felt like a bad hangover. It wasn't until my 40s when I started getting optical migraines (which are scary as hell since they mimic a stroke) that I went to a dr and he diagnosed me. Apparently it's common for migraine sufferers to transition to optical migraines when they're older.

Re: Migraine is more than a headache – a rethink offers hope

#130

Post by willy_k »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #51
markx2 wrote: post #2

I was around 13 when I had my first migraine. A solid block of pain on the right side of my head. That occasional migraine became more frequent over the years. I had a headache 24/7 in one specific place in my head. In my early 30's, after blood tests, food elimination, x-rays and finally an MRI I was told that I had Chronic Daily Migraines. Most days were 6-7/10 pain. Those days that were 10/10 I perfected the art o…

Research says it's no more effective than a placebo, but hey, if it works, it works. https://headachejournal.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

> Research says it's no more effective than a placebo, but hey, if it works, it works.

The paper you cited doesn’t say this, if anything it says the opposite. It found that it reliably works for some amount of time, but the mechanism is unclear.

“In all case studies and the retrospective study, patients reported substantial reductions in pain immediately after daith piercing; however, headache symptoms recurred several weeks to months thereafter. From the perspective of the Chinese and Western auricular systems, no sufficient explanation for the described treatment effect of daith piercing was found.”

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