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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

#71

Post by rconti »

orthecreedence wrote: post #63
rconti wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, that makes more sense now; with that explanation I can re-read the original quotes.

I think "travels with" is an odd phrasing that distracts from the meaning of the sentence. It took me a while to parse as well.

Right- even though I was able to figure that bit out on second or third reading, it threw me enough that the second clause didn't truly make sense. Also, the subjects of "That's not only false" and "to do something about it" are _different_. So my train of thought kept derailing.

And this is for a native english speaker!

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

#72

Post by Analemma_ »

tim333 wrote: post #59
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 sometimes get shimmering patterns which I think they call visual migraine or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma but thankfully mine don't go on to migraine proper. They often seem set of by a bright light outside the center of vision like I'm reading a book with sunlight coming in from 45 degrees.

I've mentioned this before in previous HN threads about scintillating scotomas, but it's worth repeating: in my case, the issue was entirely due to excessive caffeine consumption. When I got them frequently I was sometimes consuming upwards of 450mg/day, when I cut intake way down they disappeared entirely, and when I occasionally fall off the wagon and have way too much that's when they come back.

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

#73

Post by JKCalhoun »

tbirdny wrote: post #35

First, I know different people have different triggers from me. I used to have migraines every few days to every few months from age 13 to 23. These would incapacitate me. I would get the aura and be almost blind for an hour, then throw up a couple times, and have a bad headache for 2-4 hours, then I could function again but still felt crummy for the next 24 hours. I noticed that pickles were a trigger, and I thought…

I too had nausea, auras with migraines when I was a teen. I think I outgrew them. That or it was my girlfriend at the time (I was about 20) that gave would snap my neck — like some kind of self-taught chiropractor.

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

#74

Post by orthecreedence »

crazygringo wrote: post #66
orthecreedence wrote: post #19

I've thought for a long time now that everyone has a migraine all the time, but migraine sufferers temporarily lack the brain's ability to ignore the ever-present pain. In other words, the migraine isn't the addition of pain, but the absense of a pain relief mechanism. I have no sources to back this up, other than personal observation.

What personal observation makes you think everybody has a migraine all the time?

The pounding pain that corresponds with heartbeat. It makes me think there are nerves that register this all the time but there's some part of the nervous system that filters that signal out.

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

#75

Post by jen729w »

tim333 wrote: post #59
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 sometimes get shimmering patterns which I think they call visual migraine or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma but thankfully mine don't go on to migraine proper. They often seem set of by a bright light outside the center of vision like I'm reading a book with sunlight coming in from 45 degrees.

Exactly the same trigger here. I had one just the other day at the pub. Sitting outside, under shade, but to my left was a bright spot. It’s weird how I can sense it arriving ... something about the quality of my vision subtly changes, and there it is.

Fortunately for me it isn’t accompanied by a headache. It’s just really unsettling. At least now I’ve learned to recognise them and I just try to chill out while it does its thing.

(FWIW, also a tremendous consumer of caffeine here. But this was at 17:00, a good 5 hours after my last cup.)

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

#76

Post by kazinator »

> When May started researching migraine in the 1990s, the leading hypotheses were that migraine was either a psychological issue or a vascular headache disorder, with throbbing pain caused by dilation of blood vessels. The psychological associations came with stigma, May says. [...] A lot changed in the 1990s, when May and others began conducting brain scans of people with migraine.

Sure, who the hell is this guy, and his discovery of the cortical spreading depression phenomenon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristides_Le%C3%A3o

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

#77

Post by orthecreedence »

constantlm wrote: post #28
bootloop wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have migraine with aura. There are visual effects but also when I am looking into the mirror I can't see half of my face and give this is a wrong perception of reality you might consider it a hallucination?

When I have aura it's always morbidly fascinating to me how a part of my vision is not black, but it's just "missing"

Same, the fortification aura is really kind of amazing, putting aside the debilitating pain that's quickly approaching. It's really weird to have a part of your vision just "not there" as opposed to being black. It's even stranger when looking at a face or some recognizable object, and half of it disappears into nothingness while the other half still exists. Fun to play with.

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

#78

Post by munificent »

cf100clunk wrote: post #43

Any other migraineurs share what I call "Silver Bullet Fatigue" at trying new treatments? I've been at this for six decades with no magic solution for my own migraine problems, and I've lost count of all the neurological investigations, meds, scans, treatments, and helpful or sometimes utterly silly suggestions that have come up short over the years. Some have come close but had undesireable side effects, others made…

Last spring, I broke my ankle severely (trimalleolar fracture with dislocation). I had a very long string of complications following that: fracture blisters, nerve block rebound pain, opioid withdrawal, atrophy, infections, nerve pain, bone fragments, etc. It seems that right when things seem to start going well, a new complication arises.

I know it's not rational, but it's really hard to not fall into a mindset of "Why even try to fix this one, another one's going to happen anyway?" And once I start letting myself believe that, I just feel even worse.

Even before this happened, I have had a pet theory that agency (and perceived agency) is one of the most central components of psychology around anxiety and depression. This whole experience has reinforced it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

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

#79

Post by dboreham »

tiahura wrote: post #29
bootloop wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything backing this up except that one report? I haven't heard of headaches or migraines causing permanent damage.

Migraine Is Associated With Magnetic Resonance Imaging White Matter Abnormalities https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/7... "Research suggests that the answer is yes. Migraines can cause lesions, which are areas of damage to the brain." https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/migraine-brain-les...

Some kind of local thermal overload?

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

#80

Post by weddpros »

bootloop wrote: post #14
tiahura wrote: post #13

My eyes were opened a few years ago when I was reading my mom’s brain mri report. She had cancer and was undergoing radiation treatment. The MRI noted lesions and said they could be due to cancer/radiation OR MIGRAINES! Holy moly! Migraines can cause brain damage!

Anything backing this up except that one report? I haven't heard of headaches or migraines causing permanent damage.

Search Migrainous Infarction. I had one when I was 32 (53 now). It's very rare, but a migraine can cause a stroke (ie. permanent brain damage), because of impaired blood flow. It left me with a permanent scotoma ("black" hole in my fov, visible from both eyes and with both eyes open).

I was scanning the comments to see if anyone needed that information.

If the aura doesn't stop after an hour, better go to the hospital (aura means reduced blood flow). Also NEVER take triptans during an aura.

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