What Does A Migraine Aura Look Like?

Most people think of a migraine as excruciating pain, but pain is actually the third step of a migraine episode. Before the pain, a majority of migraine sufferers experience the pre-headache phase and the aura phase.

If you have ever heard of the aura phase, you've probably wondered, "What does a migraine aura look like?"

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Although many people speak only of the aura's affect on the eyes, the aura is much more than that. Migraineurs (those who have migraines) and their physicians know that some or all of the following may be part of an aura.

* auditory hallucinations - you hear sounds that aren't there

* confusion in thinking - things aren't making sense

* decrease in your hearing ability

* difficult finding the words you want

* dizziness

* increased feel and touch - or reduced feel and touch

* olfactory hallucinations - you smell odors that aren't there

* partial paralysis

* sight loss - partial or blurry vision

* tingling or numbness of your face

* visual hallucinations - you see sights that aren't there: flashing bright lights, wavy lines, spots, or zigzag lines

For now, however, we will look only at the last symptom in the list: visual hallucinations. What does a migraine aura look like in terms of its visual hallucinations?

Migraine Aura - Visual Hallucinations

The visual effects vary from person to person, although there are similarities. The changing activity of the nerves that coil around the blood vessels can produce partial loss of vision or intense colors and patterns.

1. For some people, the effects begin as a small dot in front of one or both eyes. The dot is a blind spot - a spot resembling the effect of accidentally looking toward a bare light bulb. Over a period of 30 to 60 minutes, the dot begins to grow. It flashes. Gradually, it changes shape, becoming an oval, a broken circle, or the shape of a V on its side. Off-center, the changing dot grows further and slowly moves to the peripheral vision. It creates repetitions of itself, chaining them together like linked circles, triangles, or other geometric patterns.

2. Other people describe a migraine aura as zigzag patterns in complimentary colors, such as red and green, yellow and blue. The colors look good together, and are pleasing to watch as long as the migraine pain has not begun. These people may also feel that they are look through smoke or smog. At times, it seems their eyes are shaded by a mini-blind with a crescent shape.

3. Artistically minded migraineurs are likely to say that migraine aura look like op-art paintings. They describe psychedelic, neon borders around a primary zigzag design in black and white. In fact, more than one sufferer has observed that, were it not for the onset of excruciating pain, the visual phenomenon would be very entertaining - something you might pay to witness!

4. One German artist, Delia Malchert, undertook to represent her aura's visual hallucinations in paintings. Her migraine aura look like scotoma: points in her visual field where vision is absent or reduced. They usually begin with a small spot near or at the centre of her vision. The spot grows gradually, darkening her vision and developing a jagged, zigzag rim of black and white. The rim emits quick flashes as it rotates rapidly around the darkening center. Before long, the scintillating and darkening increase to become a temporary visual disorder that is almost like legal blindness. At that point in the aura, the center part of what she sees is very blurry. To her, the hallucinations of a migraine aura are irritating and annoying rather than entertaining, even though they are not always followed by migraine pain. She does admit, though, that they can be aesthetically pleasing.

What does a migraine aura look like?

These phrases sum up some of the many visual perceptions migraine sufferers may experience.

* lightning bolts like jagged "Z" patterns - most common

* psychedelic patterns of bright colors

* sparkling zigzag lines that rotate

* random patterns of curved and straight lines

* spider webs in front of the eyes

* lattice work, grids, or mini-blinds in front of the eyes

* a spiraling tunnel

* kaleidoscopes of changing colors and patterns

* objects seeming to be larger, smaller, nearer, or farther away

* objects seeming to be tilted

* double vision - seeing two of everything

* stationary objects appearing to move

Migraine aura sufferers agree that whatever the visual effects, they cannot be escaped. Closing the eyes or trying to look around the effects does not help.

You can get more information about migraine auras at http://www.migrainereliefblog.com. Dedicated to helping both those who suffer migraines as well as those who support them, Migraine Relief Blog offers information and practical help on migraines and their treatment. Visit now to continue your study of the migraine aura.

What Does A Migraine Aura Look Like?

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How Do I Know If I Have an Ocular Migraine?

To many people, a migraine headache is a migraine headache. They assume, falsely, that all migraines are pretty much the same. So when one of the 15% of our population that suffers from migraine says they have an ocular migraine, non-sufferers may raise a skeptical eyebrow. The truth is, however, that there are many different kinds of migraine.

Define Ocular Migraine

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An ocular migraine is a type of migraine that focuses on that part of the aura in which visual symptoms predominate. There may never be an actual headache.

Symptoms of Ocular Migraine

If you are familiar with regular migraine pain, and now hear of ocular migraine, you may very well ask, "How do I know if I have an ocular migraine? I have no headache."

An ocular migraine is sometimes called a migraine without headache. It is a migraine that distorts images when you look at them. The distortion usually begins in the image's center, and then moves to one side. Ocular migraine is likely to affect only one eye at a time. As an ocular migraine progresses, images may turn grey or wavy. You may even lose your sight temporarily.

Doctors differ in their understanding of ocular migraine. Some say that ocular migraine is more likely to occur as you get older. Others say it is typically seen in young adults. It can be quite frightening, as you may think you are losing your sight forever.

Physicians differ, too, in their understanding of ocular migraine symptoms. Some use the term to explain visual disturbances of aura without headache. Other use it to refer to one-sided blind spots in the field of vision, or blindness, that lasts less than an hour and is associated with a headache.

Do you have ocular migraine? With or without a headache, if you have the visual disturbances of an aura in only one eye, yours may be an ocular migraine.

Specific Symptoms of Ocular Migraine:

How do I know if I have an ocular migraine? I will have one or more of the following specific symptoms. See if any of these is true of you.

1. Holes in your field of vision - places where there is nothing. Perhaps you are looking at a flower, and the center of the flower is missing. Or you are watching television, and you can see the outside of the screen, but cannot see the center of the picture. When you close the unaffected eye, you can see that portion of the screen. The affected eye, however, has a blind spot.

2. When looking through the affected eye, you see everything as though hidden behind a shade of gray. It is as though you were watching television and someone slipped a piece of thin gray cloth over the screen.

3. Another test for ocular migraine is to see if the affected eye sees things as though looking through a window with rain streaming down over it. The watery glass effect will be limited to one eye.

Ocular Migraine Symptoms Are Temporary

Although you may feel, during an optical migraine episode, that you will never see clearly again, the symptoms are temporary and will not cause lasting damage to your eye.

While they are present, however, ocular migraine symptoms will interfere with daily activities such as reading and driving.

Why Ocular Migraine Is Not Just Another Migraine Aura

Ocular migraine and migraine with aura are very similar, and some people have difficulty distinguishing between the two. The source of the visual disturbances is the key. If it is migraine with aura, the source of visual trouble is the brain's occipital cortex. If it is ocular migraine, the source is the eye's retinal blood vessels.

Test Your Suspected Ocular Migraine

A relatively good test for ocular migraine is to cover or close one eye. If the symptoms remain, cover or close the opposite eye. If the symptoms stop, you probably have an ocular migraine. If the symptoms do not stop, but affect both eyes, you are probably experiencing traditional migraine aura.

CAUTION: Although yours may be ocular migraine, it may be something else. You are urged to seek advice from your physician. You will want to rule out serious eye disease, or a blood vessel disorder in vessels near the eye.

How Do I Know If I Have an Ocular Migraine?

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Hughes Syndrome - All You Need To Know And Exciting News

Hughes syndrome, sometimes referred to as antiphospholipid syndrome, or antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, is an autoimmune coagulation disease which causes thrombosis, or blood clots, in veins and arteries, and can also cause miscarriage, preterm delivery or other complications related to pregnancy. It is common to see Hughes syndrome following another autoimmune condition. Towards the end of the article we will look into recent developments that offer hope to those who suffer from Hughes syndrome.

Hughes syndrome - Symptoms

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It should be noted that if antiphospholipid antibodies are present, it does not indicate that the disease is present. The symptoms which occur most frequently with this disease are the thrombosis of the deep veins in the lower extremities and stroke, and sometimes even heart attack and pulmonary embolism.

Pregnant women suffering from the condition might experience miscarriage or pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension). It may even cause developmental or mental retardation of the newborn.

Other symptoms include skin conditions, heart valve diseases, epilepsy, oscillopsia, memory loss, migraines and thrombocytopenia.

Hughes syndrome - Cause

The cause of the Hughes syndrome is not fully known. Since it is an autoimmune disease, however, it can be asserted that there are antibodies attacking phospholipids, which are substances of cell membranes, and they are invaluable in blood coagulation, since they are involved in the process of blood clotting.

Genes may also be crucial in developing Hughes syndrome, and also some environmental factors. These include viral infections, bacteria infections (sometimes from food poisoning) and certain drugs (anti-epileptic drugs, for example).

Hughes syndrome - Treatment

Conventional approach usually includes anticoagulant drugs. These drugs interrupt the blood clotting process, and the ones most commonly used are aspirin and warfarin. If they turn out to be ineffective, a higher dose of warfarin may be administered, or you may be given heparin. However, there is a risk when using anticoagulants, since they can cause excessive bleeding (hemorrhaging).

Since conventional medicine does not offer many answers for the condition, many of the sufferers turn to alternative and complementary medicine.

Hughes syndrome is problematic because of the lack of knowledge in modern medicine on the causes of the disease. But, lately, some exciting news has been reported on the discoveries of underlying chemical imbalance and causes of the disease. Based on this, a new natural treatment protocol called The Norton Protocol is fashioned with amazing reported success rate that offers hope to all the sufferers. Read more about the news at the home page of the Norton protocol.

Hughes Syndrome - All You Need To Know And Exciting News

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