Any of you with experience, please weigh in

Do you have the scotomas with the headaches? The visual disturbances? Does your head ever hurt for extended periods of time, or a little bit each day, it seems? Do you get the visual problems off and on throughout the day?

Not sure what you want people to weigh in with...I guess I'll just describe mine. I get them occasionally and they're awful. I get them when I've not been sleeping well and I've just finished being under a lot of stress. I get it in this order - first the blind spots, then flashing lights (auras), then unbearable pain right under my eyebrow/at the top of my eye. I take some imitrex, but it doesn't do much, and go to sleep. The next day I have a migraine hangover, with a slight headache, an inability to really think clearly and quickly and muscle aches and fatigue. It sucks a lot. The day after that I'm usually back to normal.

Migraines are awful. Their frequency seems unaffected by being on Atkins.

-j.

I used to get these but very, very rarely now, like maybe one every few years.

I know a lot of people who have gone gluten free say they no longer get migraines or the frequency and severity is greatly reduced. Not sure but dairy free might help too.

I want to weigh in here because I do have migraines, but I should caveat it too. I have a whole HOST of issues that cause my migraines so I don't know if my advice or information is at all relevant to you. Basically, my answer to you is yes to all of the above. I get visual disturbances, my head hurts for an extended period of time, sometimes I get pain off and on, etc. Now, I do get an indicator right away if I am getting a migraine though. My right pupil will dilate REALLY big and I know one is coming. I have Maxalt for arresting migraines, which helps sometimes, but not always. I get major light shows sometimes too, kind of like someone is just flashing a pen light in and out really quickly all the time all over my eyes. It will often times get to the point that I will even get sick to my stomach. My migraines are usually triggered at night and when I am tired. I have to take medication to make me sleep so I won't get them because otherwise I get them that frequently, as in nightly.

Now, that being said, I will tell you why you may take what I say with a grain of salt. I have a seizure disorder due to calcifications on my brain. This is due to previously uncontrolled hypoparathyroidism. I got the califications when my calcium got so low for so long, it caused these nice little additions. In addition to the seizures, I now get migraines. In addition to this, I have hypothyroidism, low potassium, and anemia. So, you can see where I said you might take what I say with a grain of salt. Seriously, I am a walking medical record! I don't know if you got anything out of what I said, however, there are medications to help with migraine sufferers, if nothing else. You do not have to be in agony. I am on some pretty potent stuff, but I know it works and it has made me actually able to function, whereas I would NOT be able to without it!

I get migraines... I hadn't had one in a few years, but I've had three now in the lat 6 months. Two in the last two weeks.

Like J, mine are generally a two day cycle. They start with sort of an off-balance feeling (like if I close my eyes I will just about fall over), then I get little flashes around the edges... a bit after that, my stomach gets slightly nauseated, and then after that the pain hits. With that comes light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, the whole bit. That lasts most of that day. Imitrex doesn't do a thing for me, either, my best bet is to take tylenol w/codeine and sleep it off.

The next day, my balance is still a bit off, and everything just feels a bit wrong... lights are still too bright, noises can sound tinny, stomach still off... but there's usually no pain. Today I had a bit of a headache and it's day 2, but that's rare.

Robin

J, Nancy, Bel, and Robin, thank you all A lot to think about for me.

Appears that a lot of cases are related to nutirion.

I think the prescription drugs are playing with your serotonin and norepinephrine. But you can do it naturally. Check out

http://www.nutricology.com/Seratoni...es-p-16670.html

http://www.allocca.com/

http://www.vitacost.com/articleResu...=1&Ntt=migraine

http://www.lef.org/protocols/health...migraine_01.htm

I have a friend who can control her debilitating headaches by completely avoiding absolutely all fermented products, as well as a raft of other stuff. Including vinegar.

Hi Daryl,

I have been getting migraines for over 25 years. Until about 2002, they came like clockwork in 28 day cycles (I am female). Then they became more and more frequent and with greater intensity. This past spring and winter I started getting them about twice a week.

Strangely, in July the trend suddenly stopped. I have no idea why. Now I'm back to about twice a month, and less intense.

As for aura, no, I've never had that. To answer your question about how I experience it, I have shifting intense pain, severe nausea, photosensitivity and it feels like the tops of my eye sockets ache. It is usually continuous for 1 - 3 days.

I know I do better when I stay away from wine, which contains sulfites.

Here's the most useful piece of information I can offer you: there was a period of two years when a doctor put me on the antidepressant Cymbalta and my migraines ceased completely. Every time I missed a dose, a migraine would set in (until I took the thing). I am sure that the Cymbalta prevented the migraines but every time I told my doctor she insisted it was only a coincidence. It didn't do much for my depression and I lost my insurance coverage when I left my job, so I stopped taking it. Since then, Cymbalta has been approved for relieving pain. If you don't have insurance, though, it's very expensive.

I hope you find a solution. They are agonizing and debilitating.

I never had migraine. But my mother suffered most of her adult life. She said after years she realized sometimes eggs and eggs products would trigger it.
Beside imitrex some people use maxalt or emerge. I seen in pharmacy Cymbalta , neurontin, amitroplyn(sP) or any thing that ease neuropathy's pain has been used.

I never have scotomas with the headaches but one of my friend have this problem and he generally use almond carrier
oil with two drops of Lavender to get rid of this headache.
And i don't know the results which he found after using it.

I don't get visual disturbances I just get extreme hypersensitivity to light and noise, and sometimes my head will hurt for DAYS.

I know this is an old thread but I didn't want to make another since this was the very topic I came to the health forum to post about.

I have tried gluten/soy/dairy free diets (alone and in combination with one another) I have gone caffeine free (and allowed sufficient time for withdrawl to go away-I mean months)

I have tried ALL of the triptans, topomax (weirdly amplified my dyslexia so much so that I had to d/c it-I'm in grad (vet) school and can't afford to make mistakes on exams or with patients)

Tried SSRIs-HAH! made me gain even more weight.

Tried naproxen, nortriptilene, advil, tylenol, aspirin, excedrin, tramadol, pounding head against the wall....

I drink lots of water.

I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Any suggestions?

Mine have returned since I last posted on this thread. I completely understand your desperation.

I just picked up The Brain Trust Program by Larry McCleary, MD. It's a low carb book about brain health. I haven't read it yet, but here's his Antimigraine Cocktail (yes it's a copyright violation, but I don't care -- she's in pain):

Take this twice a day:

- 400 milligrams magnesium
- 1 gram taurine (ie, 1000 mg)
- 100 milligrams coenzyme Q10
- 100 micrograms huperzine A
- 10 milligrams vinpocetine

Also, he recommends Ketogenic Cocktail twice daily:

- 1-2 tablespoons MCT oil (about 15 grams/tablespoon)
- 1 teaspoon to tablespoon flaxseed oil
- 50 mg EPA

My note about the anti-migraine cocktail: don't take the magnesium within two hours of any calcium or you won't absorb it.

I hate to ask you this because I know you're miserable and have worked hard to resolve this problem, but are you sure you were gluten free when you tried that? Gluten's hidden in nearly every processed and prepared food, and even a tiny speck of it will throw off your results. I'm currently on a gluten-free trial for this same reason. It's really hard to find food without it -- it's in soy sauce, salad dressing. Seems like you have to just go down to fresh meat, fresh veggies, eggs. I just started April 1.

I'm guessing that you have already eliminated aged cheese, wine with sulfites, cured meats, chocolate, right? Sleep and stress control are important too.

I hope you feel better soon.

Reading further in the same book, he cites a case study from the medical journal Headache:

A woman had severe headaches from childhood. They became migraines when she was a teenager. She tried everything for decades. Everything. Nothing helped. At one point she went on a high protein, low carb modified fast. 600 -800 calories per day of shakes under medical supervision. Once under ketosis, all migraines ceased. She remained on modified fast for 7 months. case study is published 14 months after end of fast. Migraines have not returned. Success attributed to ketosis.

Book author says this makes perfect sense.

If the gluten-free thing doesn't work out for me, and my migraines persist, I may try this. I don't hurt today and so I can talk about it casually, but when the pain and nausea hit, I am miserable beyond what anyone can understand unless they've suffered migraines too.

I remember! When I was on birth control pills I had migraines all the time. Nausea, vomiting, aura and very intense pain. It was horrible. Mine started when I was very young, in grade school. They didn't get frequent until I started taking hormonal contraception. When I got off, they got less and less. Last time I had one was probably 2 years ago, before that, it was probably a year or more. And nowadays they're very light. Often times it'll be the aura and no headache.

I also remember not liking to talk about them. Like talking about them brought back the feelings. Ugh... a bit of this is all coming back to me.

Daryl, my sister suffers from them still. Her diet is nasty though. She uses one of the newer drugs they have to treat them, I can't recall the name.