Migraine Headache Tips

Hi Everybody,

About three years ago I had my first ocular migraine.  It started out as a small blank spot in the front of my vision and then spread out to my peripheral vision.  I had a blind spot and sparkling lights for about 20 minutes.  During this time I also had trouble reading, which scared me, so I went to the hospital.  They told me I had experienced an ocular migraine so they sent me home.

 After about 6 months I had another similar experience and then went another year before having another.  Althogether, I have only had 3 of these migraines.

After my first migraine, however, I started noticing that almost daily I would see a single black dot in the center of my vision when I’d blink.  It lasts about 10 seconds and then disappears.  Eventually, I got nervous enough to go to the neuro about it and she tested me for epilepsy.

My EEGs (30 min and 24 hour ambulatory) came back slightly abnormal, but other tests (MRI, corotid artery) were totally fine.  I am currently taking 500 mg of Keppra 2x day but am still seeing the black dots.  They seemed to disappear when I wasn’t stressed out during the summer, but have reappeared this year (I’m in a one year Master’s program and am job hunting, etc. so I’m really stressed!!)

Does anyone have anything similar to this? I’m going to call my neuro today to see if it’s strange that the dots haven’t disappeared.  She said that it could only be simple partial seizures or migraines.

Ocular Sparkle Vision

Anyone know what an ocular migraine is? Let me walk you through it:

You begin to notice an area of your vision is blocked by a bright sparkly area, sort of as if you’d just looked right at a light bulb, but you haven’t.
As the area expands you grow more alarmed, holding your hands in front of you trying to see around the weird sparkly area.

Then you contemplate the possibility that you may have some exotic fast acting eye disease and you are actually going blind this very minute.
Then as the sparkly area begins to close around your frame of vision, limiting it to an area slightly smaller than looking through a paper towel tube and becomes more “shattery” looking, like mirror fragments,

Ocular migraines make can you slightly disoriented, partly because it’s disconcerting having your vision so messed up,
You know from experience unless you lay down, and, ideally, sleep for about a half hour this will become a splitting headache (think unanthesthitised dental work, somehow performed behind your eyeballs) in about an hour, so you lay down. When you get up about an hour later everything is back to normal .

• Identify and Treat Ocular Migraines - Ocular migraines often start with a small blind spot in the peripheral vision. Over five to ten minutes, the spot gradually increases to encompass the entire peripheral portion of vision. Either complete blindness or object fuzziness …

• Ocular Migraines and Simple Partial Seizures | epilepsy.com - Hi Everybody, About three years ago I had my first ocular migraine. It started out as a small blank spot in the front of my vision and then spread out to my peripheral vision. I had a blind spot and sparkling lights for about 20 minutes …

• Ocular Migraine Treatment - Most ocular migraines are harmless, albeit painful, although it is always worth a trip to your doctor for an accurate diagnosis if you experience these types of symptoms. While an ocular migraine is not necessarily dangerous, …

Opthalmic or eye migraine headaches, commonly called ocular

migraines, are irregularities in vision that may or may not be

accompanied by headaches. These irregularities may be caused by

changes in blood flow to the brain.

Causes of Ocular migraines

Ocular migraines can be triggered by changes in hormone levels,

flashing or flickering lights, chemical compounds in food, or

medications the patient is taking. Visual symptoms are a common

symptom of these headaches.

Some ocular migraine sufferers experience a scotoma, or blind spot in

their central vision. Sometimes the patient sees bright flickering lights,

or scintillations, around the scotoma, and sometimes they see a

shimmering jagged line inside the blind spot. The spot gets larger as the

ocular migraine headache progresses and may appear to move across

the patient’s field of vision.

An ocular headache may also be accompanied by gripping pain on one

side of the head, light flashes, and the impression of sparks appearing in

the field of vision. The headaches also come with nausea, vomiting, and

double vision.

Ocular migraines are usually harmless and do not cause usually

permanent damage or require treatment. That doesn’t mean you can go

on with your regular activities if you feel an ocular headache coming on.

If you have an ocular headache while you are doing something that

requires clear vision, like driving or working, you should stop

immediately and wait until the migraine passes or until your vision

clears enough to safely continue your activities.

Ocular migraines may be caused by a variety of factors. Common

causes include hormonal changes associated with menstruation;

changes in blood flow to the brain caused by alcohol consumption;

consumption of certain foods like red wine, hard cheese, milk,

preserved lunchmeats and bacon, and foods prepared with MSG. Thus

a strict vegan diet, which excludes all meat, cheese, and other animal-

derived food products, is thought to control the onset of the migraine

headache.

For some patients, bright sunlight or flickering sunshine and shadow

can bring on the onset of a migraine.

Ocular migraines are usually treated by allowing the patient to rest in a

quiet, darkened room until the pain passes. Patients who suffer from

frequent ocular migraine headaches should consult with their

physicians to see if, working together, they can identify and therefore

eliminate the cause of the ocular migraine headache.

If prophylactic treatment does not prevent the ocular migraines from

occurring, then a course of drug treatment may be recommended.

Migraine involving the eyes, with or without headache. Ocular migraines usually affect only one eye at a time. Image distortion generally

Migraines are a neurological disorder of the brain. There are many different types of migraine. One of them is Ocular Migraine or known as Acephalalgic Migraine. The different types of migraine are classified according to the symptoms that a sufferer experience and their causes.

Ocular Migraine is a neurological syndrome characterized by abnormal visual sensations, sometimes accompanied by headaches, nausea and vomiting. In some cases, the person may feel heightened sensitivity to sound and light at the early stages of the attack. This type of migraine is generally seen in people with a history of classical migraine.

Like other migraines, ocular migraine spells occur repeatedly and irregularly. That is, patients may experience many spells of ocular migraine within a week and nothing at all for months on end. The spells may last from 15-30 min in general.

Ocular migraine is to be distinguished with classical migraine or migraine with aura. In classical migraines, the aura can be a visual sensation (called visual aura) or something non-visual such as smell, dizziness, vertigo, parasthesia, or extremities. Generally aura is experienced by the patient after the prodrome, 10-30 minutes before the onset of the headache. Statistics show that nearly 20% of the migraineurs experiences aura.

Like in other migraines, the exact cause of ocular migraine is still a topic of debate. The most nearest and convincing explanation is that it is caused due to vascular spasm that affects the ocular blood vessel supplying blood to the vision center in the brain. Changes in the blood flow in the vessels cause the severe throbbing or pounding effects of headache.

It is believed that ocular migraine is triggered by over stress, oral contraceptives, premenstrual changes, alcohol, and certain victuals such as chocolate, red wine, chicken livers, meats preserved in nitrates, and milk.

As mentioned earlier, the most notable symptom of ocular migraine is the unusual visual sensations that block the normal vision to a large extent during the spell. At the earlier stages of an ocular migraine episode, the patient may experience a visual disturbance in his/her peripheral vision, mostly in the form of a jagged, shimmering, semicircular light, pale pastel in color. Within minutes, it expands and becomes more centric to the area of vision, leading to temporary patchy vision loss. Eventually, in another 15-30 minutes, the zigzag pattern travels outwards of the visual field and soon out of the side vision before disappearing completely, leaving the field of view clear again.

After the episode, the patient may feel fatigued and with/without a mild headache, but the eye sight will be normal as it was before.

Ocular migraines, in most instances, do not require any treatment. But the doctor may diagnose the patient to ensure that there is no serious blood flow issue.

In some cases, doctors may prescribe some painkiller to contain the following headache, if the pain is unbearable for the patient. But such instances are very rare.

Tail Piece: Even though it is true that ocular migraines can be controlled to an extent by adjusting the diet and reducing stress, it cannot be prevented or cured forever. Once an ocular migraine episode starts, the patient will have no choice, but to see himself/herself through those grueling 30 minutes, preferably with a calm mind. There is no use in panicking or getting worried. Relaxation techniques can be put to good use at this stage.

begins in the center of the image and then moves to one side. Images “grey out” or look wavy, and
sight may be temporarily lost.

Ocular migraine is a term which may have different meanings to different physicians. Many times migraineurs will have just the visual warning signs or aura of their migraine attack without the headache. This occurs more frequently as one gets older and can be a frightening phenomenon. This is also referred to as acephalgic migraine, or migraine aura without headache. Some physicians refer to ocular migraine as retinal migraine, where there are repeated attacks of one-sided blind spots or blindness lasting less than an hour and associated with a headache.

While 80 percent of migraine sufferers never experience an aura, there are a few people who have the visual symptoms of a migraine but don’t experience.The visual changes that occur during a migraine aura can take many forms. They are usually described as flashing or scintillating lights. They may have a zigzag or “fortress-like” appearance, or look like poor reception on a television. Migraine auras typically start small, march across the field of vision, and then fade away. An attack will last for at least several minutes but usually no longer than an hour. If a headache follows the aura, it usually does so within an hour. Most people who have migraine auras will have the same type of symptoms with each attack.

Tips for Migraine Headache Sufferers

..”Drink plenty of water!“
Hydration is paramount in the prevention of headaches and migraines.
And, although not a whole lot is known about the nature of migraines and their onset, it is a well known fact that many headaches can originate from dehydration. Drink More Water!

The data about migraine causing stroke runs all the way back to 1966. An interesting paper was published that pulled together data that examined the association between migraine and the risk of stroke. It showed that :
People who experience migraine are more at-risk of suffering stroke than people without migraines. If you see auras, you’re at even greater risk of stroke than if you don’t.

Some life-style behaviors for migraine patients can increase the risk of stroke.A woman migaine sufferer taking the birth control pill is 8 times more at-risk of suffering a stroke.

High stroke risk for migraine patients is caused by the reduction of blood flow to the brain which occurs when people suffer migraine attacks. The real condition, which is oxygen deprivation
The solution for both conditions (stroke and migraine) is to make sure you’ve enough good oxygen flow into the brain.

…Dark Rest
When you feel a migraine coming on, find a dark quiet place to lie down and close your eyes. Rest is the key to recovery here!

...Lavender
Get yourself some lavender oil and rub it on your temples it can help relieve some of the pain of your headache.

...Ginger
When you’re feeling queezy and sick, try just sucking and chewing a thin slice of ginger.If you prefer, you can make a ginger tea with lots
of honey. It’s much nicer.

…Exercise!

A little bit of exercise each day will be a great help in reducing severity and frequency of your migraines. Try walking around your block .

…Diet
You need to eat good foods. Some foods have a trigger that bring on
migraine episodes so if you can figure out which is causing them.,avoid them.
Avoid flavors, colors, artificial additives. Include in your diet; wholegrains, protein, seeds and nuts, fresh fruit and vegetables AND WATER!

Nobody knows for sure what exactly
causes migraines.