6 Migraine Symptoms That Aren't Headaches

[ad_1] Almost 40 million folks within the U.S. undergo from migraines, making the painful dysfunction one of the frequent that neurologists deal with. It’s additionally among the many most complicated. Due to the various methods it may possibly present up, it may possibly take greater than a decade to obtain an correct prognosis.

“The overall idea about migraine within the frequent inhabitants is that it’s a headache syndrome,” says Dr. Hamid S. Hamdi, a neurologist who leads the Headache Clinic at UTHealth Houston Neurosciences in Sugar Land, Texas. And positively, many migraine victims—although not all—expertise a throbbing headache. Past that, nevertheless, “folks don’t learn about all the opposite signs that migraine could cause, in order that they're very stunned to start with,” he says. “At the same time as neurologists, we don’t all the time write off all of the signs to migraine till we’ve dominated out issues like a stroke.”

We requested Hamdi and different neurologists which non-headache migraine signs they see most frequently.

Meals cravings About two to 3 days earlier than growing a headache, folks sometimes enter the prodrome (early) part of a migraine. Signs embrace irritability and different temper modifications, fatigue and bother sleeping, issue concentrating, neck ache, and hyperactivity. Extra surprisingly, many report meals cravings—particularly for salty meals, sweets, and chocolate.

The best way that scientists take into consideration this type of craving has advanced. Whereas some as soon as believed that meals like chocolate precipitated migraines, analysis means that's not the case, and there’s no motive for folks to keep away from it. “Typically, it was believed that chocolate might set off migraine,” Hamdi says. “However what we consider now could be that it’s not chocolate that triggered it—it is that individuals had been having a longing for chocolate as a prodrome of migraine.” The urge to wolf down one thing candy could also be attributable to a sudden spike or drop in glucose and different metabolic modifications within the physique, researchers have discovered.

Imaginative and prescient modifications About 20% of individuals with migraines expertise a visible aura, or short-term modifications in imaginative and prescient. These can present up as shimmering spots, zig-zag strains, blind spots, tunnel imaginative and prescient, and even short-term blindness. Visible aura is probably going attributable to a wave {of electrical} and chemical exercise that spreads throughout the mind.

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“Individuals have described all of it other ways,” says Dr. Thomas Bravo, a neurologist and director of the Headache Heart at Loma Linda College Well being in California. “It may be disturbing to a affected person if it is the primary time,” however as soon as they realize it’s linked to their migraine and can move inside 20 minutes to an hour, it’s not fairly so scary. Some folks expertise imaginative and prescient modifications with each headache, he provides, whereas others report these signs solely accompany a portion of their complications.

Speech difficulties You would possibly recall the clip of a TV reporter that went viral greater than a decade in the past, when the journalist immediately turned incoherent—leaving many watching at residence apprehensive she was having a stroke. It turned out she had aphasia, or short-term language impairment, attributable to a migraine.

Somebody with aphasia might need issue forming full sentences, as a substitute repeating jumbled phrases, or will begin slurring. “We see this on a regular basis within the emergency division, and we’ll undergo an analysis, ensuring it’s not one thing like a stroke,” Bravo says. Medical doctors typically do imaging checks corresponding to CT scans or MRIs earlier than concluding—usually by technique of elimination—{that a} affected person is experiencing a migraine.

Sensory sensitivity Migraines are sometimes accompanied by elevated sensitivity to gentle, sound, and smells. The scents you’re uncovered to daily could strike you as a lot stronger and extra putrid than ordinary, for instance, and it's possible you'll must put on sun shades outdoors as a result of the solar’s vibrant glow irritates your eyes. “The sunshine and sound might be wherever from disagreeable to truly painful, relying on the particular person,” Bravo says.

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You additionally would possibly discover that you could’t stand even the gentlest contact. Some folks expertise tactile allodynia, which occurs when the central nervous system turns into additional delicate to issues that contact your pores and skin. “You've got a heightened sense of ache to stimuli that would not usually trigger ache, like a lightweight contact throughout your pores and skin,” says Dr. Brian Gerhardstein, a neurologist and director of headache drugs at JFK Neuroscience Institute in New Jersey. That additionally consists of gentle contact in your scalp from brushing your hair, the feeling of rubbing a blanket over your physique, or feeling a breeze brush in opposition to your pores and skin.

Motor modifications Hemiplegic migraines—that are uncommon however severe—are related to motor modifications, like one-sided physique weak point or paralysis. This sort of migraine has a powerful genetic part and is commonly handed down from a guardian, Gerhardstein says. “Principally, your face, arm, and leg get weak in the course of the migraine assault, after which it goes away afterward,” he says. “It may well look precisely like a stroke, so loads of these sufferers find yourself within the emergency room.” Looking for pressing care is a good suggestion, Gerhardstein provides, because it’s necessary for docs to rule out doubtlessly life-threatening situations.

Stomach ache An “stomach migraine” could cause a horrible stomachache, nausea, vomiting, and a scarcity of urge for food. “Individuals vomit time and again and over, and so they don’t even essentially have complications,” Gerhardstein says. Whereas there are totally different theories why this occurs, analysis suggests it’s possible associated to modifications within the gut-brain axis.

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These gastrointestinal signs are frequent amongst children and might be arduous to diagnose, particularly if younger sufferers don’t have a headache or are unable to articulate that they do. “I see pediatric docs loads of occasions scratching their heads attempting to determine what precisely is happening,” Gerhardstein says. “Once they've dominated out all of the extra natural causes, they arrive to migraine as the ultimate prognosis.”

Easy methods to deal with migraines There are a variety of theories why some folks get migraines and others don’t. Ladies are three to 4 occasions extra possible than males to expertise them, “which makes us assume the estrogen hormone has one thing to do with it,” Hamdi says. Genetic elements additionally play a job, as do neurochemical imbalances involving serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate. Migraines might be progressive, Hamdi provides, putting increasingly ceaselessly, particularly when folks don’t learn to handle them or have poor life-style habits, like inconsistent sleep or excessive stress ranges.

Happily, consultants say, there are extra choices than ever to deal with migraines, together with focused therapies and nerve-stimulation gadgets. Individuals who solely have these assaults sometimes would possibly depend on rescue drugs they take when signs begin, whereas these with extra common migraines usually take each day preventive therapy. “We often say, ‘OK, if it is greater than a day every week, then we'd take into consideration prevention,’” Bravo says. “It goes again to how disabling the assault is, and the way impactful it's on an individual's life.”