| Optical Migraine is one of the rare types of | | | | contraceptives, hunger, certain foods (cheese, |
| migraine. It is also identified as ocular migraine, | | | | chocolate, MSG, processed meats, red wine), |
| acephalgic migraine, amigrainous migraine or | | | | strong sunlight or too much exercise. |
| migraine aura without headache. Statistics reveal | | | | There are conventional treatments to optical |
| that more women suffer from this form of the | | | | migraine that sufferers can have. The more |
| disease and it is sometimes affected by the | | | | common of the conventional kind are the |
| menstrual cycle. | | | | medications, further subdivided into acute and |
| Optical migraine rarely occurs with a headache but | | | | preventive. Acute medicines halt symptoms that |
| many believe that it is more serious than the | | | | come with an attack. These are NSAIDs like |
| more common types of migraine since attacks | | | | aspirin and ibuprofen, triptans, ergotamine and |
| affect a larger part of the brain. Its exact cause | | | | analgesics. The group of preventive drugs is |
| is still not known but some experts contend that | | | | composed of beta-blockers, calcium |
| several muscles are involved when it happens. | | | | channel-blockers and anti-depressants. Preventive |
| When a person has a classic migraine attack, he | | | | treatments that do not include medications can be |
| mostly goes through three different stages: the | | | | implemented to reduce the incidence of attacks, |
| aura stage, the headache stage and the | | | | such as healthy diet and exercise; and avoiding |
| background stage. During the first stage, the | | | | triggers. |
| sufferer experiences visual disturbances such as | | | | Some migraineurs opt to be treated with |
| blurred vision, flashing lights and blind spots in his | | | | alternative therapies that do not include drugs but |
| field of vision. He may also feel nauseous or could | | | | use herbal remedies instead. Feverfew and |
| vomit. This stage usually lasts for an hour. An | | | | butterbur are two of the most common herbs |
| optical migraine attack only involves this first | | | | that have been found to be beneficial to |
| stage and does not proceed to the next one. | | | | migraineurs. Other therapies that are used are |
| Thus, episodes do not normally come with a | | | | acupuncture, chiropractic care and homeopath |
| headache. | | | | medicines. |
| Aside from the visual disturbance, other | | | | There is no single treatment that works for all |
| symptoms that might arise consist of tingling | | | | optical migraine sufferers. Migraine is a chronic |
| sensations, confusion, numbness, slurred speech | | | | disease and treatment must also be viewed from |
| and in some cases, a headache that starts on one | | | | a long-term perspective. An effective treatment |
| side of the head. Like the other types of the | | | | requires collaboration between a physician and the |
| disease, optical migraine starts with a trigger. | | | | patient and can take some time to arrive at, |
| Triggers include alcohol, stress, hormonal changes, | | | | after several trial and error methods. |