Migraine Tips

Migraines can be caused by a myriad of things. It's one of the reasons they are so difficult to treat. It's hard to find the cause. I can get one from bright lights, a strong perfume, or foods. A migraine trigger doesn't always trigger a migraine. I can eat chocolate and be fine one day and the next day eat chocolate and have a migraine.

My mother, with whom I've had an interesting conversation about her migraine, reports that it runs in her father's family. Her father had them, at least two of his four brothers had them, and both my mother's brothers had them. Obviously, menstruation is a stressor that men don't suffer from, and that explains why men are less likely to have them than women. On the other hand, there are plenty of stressors to go around.

I think it's the hormonal changes that go with menstruation that cause the headaches. Maybe some men also have hormonal fluctuation?

Now I want to read the Sacks book, and I don't even have migraines.

I have heard men have a "cycle" of sorts. It is all about hormonal fluctuation if I remember correctly. Would have to read up on it.

I use to have migraines every month before I got pregnant...I knew it was from hormones then...it has been a while since I have had them that regularly though. I think hormones play a huge part in some migraines. So many different reasons for those horrid occurences.

I think the best thing to do to find a trigger is to keep a diary...seems to help pin point when and what is going on when you are having them.

At the very least, men have stress, and stress causes our glands to release cortisol and other hormones. The stress levels ebbs and rises, so there's your hormonal fluctuation.

The book is fascinating. Very slow read for me. I may be half way through it by now (it's not thick either).

Some fascinating things to be learned.
1. Most migraines are common or classical migraines. Common migraines are the always-painful ones that last a long time (sometimes more than a week) and classical are the ones associated with auras (visual/perceptual hallucinations/disturbances) and are usually shorter and more intense. Symptoms between the two can vary and overlap widely.
2. There are also "migraine equivalents" which include cyclical vomiting (younger patients), periodic diarrhea, periodic fever, and sleep paralysis.
3. There are other migraines that don't happen to or in the head (abdominal and cardiac migraines).
4. Some migraines include no headache (even without the intervention of pain-killers)
5. Migraines have been discussed on record for 2,000 years (since ancient Greece).
6. Adult migraines are often preceded by car-sickness in youth.
7. Epilepsy seems very closely related and sometimes the two nervous responses are impossible to tell apart.
8. Allergies have long and often been suspect in the cause of migraines.

There's more to come. Like I said, I'm only half way through the book.....

According to Sacks, hormones are only one possible factor. Also, contrary to my understanding, men are equally likely to suffer migraines as women (I thought more women did). AND, also contrary to what I had understood before reading this book, hereditary causation isn't all that clearly established, but it is certainly associated.

Interesting. I haven't had a migraine in a while (knock-on-wood) but remember vividly how debilitating it can be.



I used to have car-sickness - big time when I was a child, although I always thought it had something to do with my father's driving skills .
I also got sick being in a boat and I didn't dare go without Dramamine.

littlek, I hope all is well; please do see your doc on Monday. When it comes to your health, it doesn't pay to gamble with it. Take no chances, please.

CI, I have been to the doctor recently to talk about it. All is well. Just a classical migraine.

Jane, I don't remember motion sickness as a child, but I have increasingly bad motion sickness as an adult.

9. Migraines can be analogized with plate tectonics! Apparently, the nervous system (in everyone) makes balancing adjustments. Sometimes these are fluid and small, but sometimes they are in fits and starts. So, migraineurs experience a neurological isostatic adjustments. The cluster-fvck of neurological adjustments can trigger a migraine.

Note: this book has most recently been revised/edited in 1999. I imagine there have been new studies on migraines since then.

I am sure there will be. Many headaches have been lumped together as migraine. It could be from other causes such as diabetes, unbalanced diet or whatever. Cancer was lumped together as one disease now we know there are several types of cancer.

Just finished the chapter where he writes about circumstantial migraines in which are included discussions on hormones (mostly just related to menstrual migraines specifically) and psychosomaticism which represent the main cause for a fraction of the migrainuers (but effects many more of us to some degree - in a bio-feedback sort of way).

10. migraines often involve several organs or organ systems. There is evidence to suggest that these organ/systems or in sympathetic communication with one another. So, if you culminate with a vomit (stomach/digestive) your headache (neuro/vascular) will go away in a positive feedback. Contrary to that is a negative feedback loop where the angst of your headache can make the nausea in your stomach worse and vice versa. ( A more obvious demonstration of this is, as cited in the book, the way that your bowel knows it's time to empty after your stomach has been filled up).

That's very interesting! My mother told me that once her paternal grandmother's migraine was beyond a certain point, she new it would never be over until it got so bad she'd vomit gall. Not just your regular, run-of-the-mill vomit; it had to be gall. The feedback loop you describe would explain this excruciating phenomenon.

Hey LiLk - my MaMa suffered her whole working life with migraines - owned self employed Nursing Home and worked 24/7 - her thing, believe it or not, was chocolate - if she had some this could put her out for days - she took migralieve (not sure if this is still in exsitance!) Oh and she is diabetic - dietary diabetes with help fro m meds later in life.

The cure... gonna sound extreme - hysterectomy - never had a migraine since

Drastic - but it worked

(kinda goes along with a post back up above)

not suggesting that... unless its a consideration from before - but.. maybe worth talking to the doc about it...

good luck hunni - I know the pain my MaMa suffered and it could last for days where she couldn't even stand up but was laid out with cold compresses on her forehead and tears in her eyes.

Not every time, all the time - but some were too awful to cope with. Was horrible to see her in that pain, trying to stand etc.


Good luck - hope you manage some sleep - and best wished LiLk - healing thoughts and love to you.x

So... gall... how did she know? Was it blackish?

Sorry for your MaMa, Izzie. Happy for me, though, because mine tend to be the other kind of migraine (classical rather than common or cluster). My headaches tend not to be all that painful or long-lived (knocking profusely on wood desk, floor, door frame, etc).

I don't know about the color, but gall has a very specific, and quite disgusting, smell. (And taste, I'm sure.) She would have known it when she vomited it.

yellow-green and bitter as hell...