Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => Personal Experiences => Topic started by: lianevalentine on December 01, 2016, 05:50:01 PM
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Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of silent migraine? I have managed to get most of my hormonal problems under control but the the silent migraines still plague me daily.
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Hi Lianevaletine
I can't help you in how to get rid of the silent migraine I'm afraid. Though there are some lovely ladies here who I'm sure will reply when they see your post.
I have had silent migraine several times in the past 3/4 years. I see the flashing lights and it can affect my vision during its bout. The last time it happened I looked at my granddaughter and the tip of her nose was missing. There wasn't a gap, it just wasn't there. It was scary. The episodes last around half an hour. Horrible aren't they!
My optician said there's nothing wrong with my eyes. My GP said cut out chocolate, cheese, caffeine, alcohol and the usual migraine triggers. Mine only appeared after menopause.
Hope someone can help you x
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Thanks Autumnlady, yes mine only appeared after menopause as well and they make me feel dizzy and sick as well as the visual disturbances. Migraine tablets don't help unless there is pain attached, so I'm hoping that someone out there has a solution!
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I had this in early perimenopause, going for a sports massage helped a lot as they worked on the trapezius and SCM. I also took magnesium which I think helped too.
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Had this problem several years ago. I had low level symptoms for several months, with peaks of bad optical disturbance.
Ended up at an emergency eye clinic because my optician thought my retina might be detaching.
The doctor there finally diagnosed 'silent migraine'.
He gave me a list of food triggers to eliminate one by one, to find the culprit.
Top of the list was caffeine, and within 24 hours of cutting out my symptoms had improved. Two days later they were almost gone. And a week later any remaining light sensitivity has also gone.
I would recommend getting a list of common triggers (you should find in on the net), and see if you can find what is causing your problem.
Just found this http://braincoretherapy.com/causes-silent-migraines/
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Thanks for your ideas I'll look at that link. I've lost so much weight over the 'post menopause' saga that I'm on strict FODMAP so not eating much at the moment, but do still have a black coffee that seems to help, but maybe there is a kick back effect? Interested also in the massage idea, that's something I havnt looked into!
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Hi lianevalentine
I'm really sorry to hear you're struggling with silent migraines: they are really tricky to treat as so many migraine meds are designed for the headache stage only.
They are quite common in menopause and peri though a lot of women just don't realise what's happening to them, as the symptoms can be quite subtle. My mother developed silent migraine just after meno and they lasted a couple of years and then totally disappeared.
I understand that acute meds can't help but there are migraine prophylactic meds that treat both migraines with headache and without, though it has to be said that most will produce some side effects. It may be a case of weighing up just how difficult it is to manage the symptoms of the silent migraine against the side effects of the meds. There are a number of possibilities; Topiramate and sodium valproate, Beta-blockers, Amitriptyline, Pizotifen and even a daily dose of Aspirin is sometimes prescribed.
I've tried a number of these unsuccessfully, but I'm assuming if the docs keep issuing them they must work for some patients. What I would definitely advise is keeping a daily diary for a few months to identify your triggers. These can be, food, drink, weather, stress, tiredness, lack of sleep, too much sleep, strong smells, smoke, bright lights, hormones: to be honest the list is pretty endless. If you have a record of your daily experiences and also plot when they strike, you may start to see patterns. To be honest the list of trigger foods that the docs quote very often don't apply to many migraine sufferers, we all react to things in different ways. The other thing too is that a combination of triggers is sometimes needed to trigger a migraine, so that one glass of champagne won't do it but if you are standing next to someone with an overpowering fragrance on, there's low winter sun in your eyes and you have a very late night, that could slip you over the edge.
There is a lovely lady on this site called MaryG who suffers with progesterone triggered silent migraine and she has a wealth of experience of trying to manage them: you could PM her as she may not see your post. I know she would be delighted to help if she can.
Finding a GP with a good knowledge of migraine is a gift as so often GPs just haven't had the experience or training to assist with real problem situations. I would do some research on the above, see if you can identify your triggers and if you have no luck with the GP ask to be referred to a migraine specialist.
I wish you well lianevalentine, I've lived with migraines for many years and know how disabling they can be. If I can advise further please don't hesitate to ask.
All good wishes.
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Hi again lianevalentine,
I just called my mother to find out how she treated her silent migraine. She said she used to take something called Asproclear which was a dissolvable aspirin and it used to work very quickly for her. Obviously it doesn't prevent an attack but may clear it faster. Interestingly I was told by a number of specialists that aspirin should normally be the first port of call with migraine (obviously not for seasoned migraine sufferers who would have prescribed meds): if you take it with a fizzy high glucose drink, it is more easily absorbed in the stomach which will be in stasis. Both of my kids suffer with migraine with aura and for both this is the line of attack, aspirin x3 with Lucozade.
Obviously, you know what you are able to take etc etc!! I'm not your doctor! :) x
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Thanks Elizabethrose, I will try the aspirin and sweet drink. Funnily enough I drank Coke yesterday which is supposed to be so bad but it made the silent migraine go away for awhile! I'm willing to try anything and everything to get rid of them. NZ doctors don't seem to know much about menopause matters (that I've come across anyway) and HRT makes things worse! Thanks Memomale for your suggestions and yes I do wonder about the pituitary gland. I'm reluctant to try anything in th AD department as I had a bad reaction to Citropram where it took all the sodium out of my body and made me really sick (I only took it for 10 days - yuck!) I am sending a urine sample for testing off to the USA to see if anything can be picked up. What tests can be done for the pituitary gland? I do still get hot flushes that make the symptoms worse, so am convinced it's part of hormone problems.
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lianevalentine, make sure it is a glucose drink not just a fizzy drink as it's this that aids absorption in the stomach apparently! Good luck x
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Hi Menomale, thanks for that link, gee so many tests! Sorry to hear about your migraines, are they everyday? Mine are all the symptoms like aura, nausea, hangover but the actual pain is not there, or if it is, it's very low level, and a cup of black coffee fixes it, but still leaves a horrid foggy, nauseas feeling. If I get a hot flush, it makes everything worse, so that makes it a hormonal issue don't you think?
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Menomale, I've cut and pasted this from the Migraine Treatment Group on their Silent Migraine page, (I haven't posted a direct link as it looks to me as if they are trying to sell a book and it would therefore be direct advertising).
The detail on this page is quite comprehensive and could probably explain many symptoms women have during peri and meno that they haven't associated with migraine. It's worth a read. It is very very common for migraine and indeed silent migraine to rear their ugly heads at this stage in a women's life.
Here's the detail.
SILENT MIGRAINE
Most people experience migraine headaches and everyone knows how exasperating these headaches can be to endure. However, some people have what is known as “silent migraine headaches.†What is a silent migraine? A silent migraine is simply a migraine without the symptom of headache pain. To understand what a silent migraine is, it would help to understand the different phases of a migraine headache. There are four phases that most migraine sufferers experience:
• Phase 1 – Prodrome: The prodrome phase warns that a migraine is on the way. Symptoms include changes in your mental state (irritability, confusion) and physical signs (thirst, diarrhea). One in four migraine sufferers experience the prodrome phase up to 24 hours before the headache pain begins.
• Phase 2 – Aura: The phenomenon called aura is best known by the unusual visual symptoms, although other motor, sensory, and language disturbances can happen. One in every five sufferers experience aura and this symptom usually lasts about an hour.
• Phase 3 – Pain: Migraine pain itself is normally on one side of the head. It can be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and great sensitivity to light and sound. This symptom can last from several to 72 hours.
• Phase 4 – resolution: After a migraine, many people experience fatigue and overall sickness for up to 24 hours.
However, not all migraines follow the normal pattern. There are migraines without aura. There are also migraines without the pain. Even in the same person, migraines can be unpredictable and display different symptoms at different times.
SYMPTOMS OF SILENT MIGRAINE
The symptoms of silent migraine include any of the symptoms of migraine but without the pain. I guess if you had to experience a migraine, this type may be the one to experience because at least you don't have the pain associated with the condition. Here are the physical, emotional, mental, and aura symptoms for migraine headache:
Physical symptoms:
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Food cravings
• Loss of appetite
• Thirst
• Increased urination
• Chills
• Fatigue
Emotional and mental symptoms:
• Confusion
• Irritability
• Euphoria
Aura symptoms:
• Wavy or jagged lines
• Flashing lights
• Dots or spots in your vision
• Blind spots
• Tunnel vision
• Disruption in hearing
• Auditory hallucinations
• Distortions in smell or taste
• Numbness, pins-and-needles, or other body sensations
• Difficulties remembering or saying a word
• Other language difficulties
In a study involving over 30,000 people with migraine, nine out of ten participants report that they could not function normally when they experienced migraines. Over half reported that they needed bed rest because the symptoms were so bad. Even with a silent migraine, the other symptoms can be enough to disrupt the day.
CAUSES OF SILENT MIGRAINE
To get a better understanding of what causes silent migraine, researchers are now looking into the pain and aura symptoms as separate mechanisms. Years ago, experts thought that migraine headaches were a problem of blood flow and mainly vascular events. Now, they believe aura is a “neurovascular†event. Neurovascular means the way the nerve cells are firing in the brain and the how the nerve cell activity relates to the blood flow in the brain.
Aura seems to be an overstimulation and then depression of nerve cell activity in the brain. This reduced brain activity pattern is referred to as “cortical spreading depressionâ€. It literally spreads across the cortex (top) layer of the brain. In doing so, it travels from the visual part to the body sensations part to the hearing part of the brain. This explains the visual, sensations, and hearing disturbances associated with aura. This depressed cortical function has been confirmed by MRI of the brain during an aura migraine.
Unlike aura, migraine pain is thought to be caused by inflammation of blood vessels that are dilating in the brain. The pain is produced through pain pathways in the nervous system.
TRIGGERS OF SILENT MIGRAINE
Silent migraine has a wide variety of triggers. Here are some of the most common:
• Physical or emotional stress
• Lack of sleep
• Skipped meals
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Environmental stressors such as weather changes or changes of heat/cold
• Certain foods such as chocolate, nuts, and pickled foods
• Hormone changes in women, such as birth control pills, pregnancy, menopause, and menstruation
• Bright or flickering lights
• Loud noise
COPING WITH SILENT MIGRAINE
Experts do not agree with everything but they do agree that keeping a daily journal is a necessary step in diagnosing and treating your migraine headaches. Here are five tips for coping with your headaches:
1. Keep a daily diary of symptoms and the conditions – If you know what triggers your headaches, you will be able to modify your conditions to decrease the frequency and severity of your headaches.
2. Talk with your doctor – Communication between you and your doctor is essential to getting a grip on the problem.
3. Weigh the pros and cons of medications – Many drugs have side-effects. Contemplate your goals and priorities to see if medication is an option for you.
4. Practice prevention – Knowing the triggers for your migraine is important in preventing them from occurring.
5. Practice good self-care – Eating well, getting rest, exercising, and using stress management techniques will help you control the symptoms and frequency of migraine headache.
Although silent migraine is not painful as other migraine headache, it can still be a problem because of the other symptoms. Using practical information like the above tips will help you cope with this type of migraine.
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Definitely sounds like a caffeine withdrawal problem to me lianavalantine.
You may have to go 'cold turkey' to solve it. This will probably give you a headache for a few days, but it will be worth it in the long run.
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Interesting reading, thanks for that.
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Hi Menomale
What a shame they started so early with you: I had Alice in Wonderland migraine when I was a child but no headache following them, my daughter had the same. Now those wretched things are really very scary!! I still remember how they made me feel and it was the best part of 50 years ago. My poor daughter thought she was going mad!
My pure menstrual migraine started when I hit peri, without aura in the early stages (though I'd had one episode of aura with a mild headache following in my early 30s). My migraines have morphed dramatically over the past 16 years but for me the worst stage was when the docs were using HRT to treat them. I had an 18 month period with no more than 3-4 days migraine free each month. It left me with chronic migraine which is only really easing now. HRT can help some women but 'one man's meat is another man's poison'!!
Caffeine can be a cause and a cure depending on the individual. It's used in many OTC painkillers and does assist in the painkilling process. Know your triggers - it's so important. Weekend migraine is common and occur because habits are changed at the weekend; less coffee drunk outside of office routines, later nights, later mornings, different eating times, more alcohol etc. Migraineurs need to be creatures of routine, however boring!
There is a brilliant doc, Prof Peter Goadsby, who is the migraine super wizard! I follow his advice very closely.
I am attaching a link to the Migraine Trust. It is an outstanding site with many internal links that explain all that you could wish to know, that is recognising that the medics still know very little about migraine. There are many theories about what causes migraine and different migraine types but the fact of the matter is that they still don't fully know. If you are reading an article dictating how a migraine is caused, recognise that they still don't really know, theories abound!
On the opening page of this link there is a highlighted link to The International Classification of Headache Disorders. Open this link and it will allow you to download a very informative PDF, top one in English but you can scroll down to a Portuguese version!
https://www.migrainetrust.org/about-migraine/migraine-what-is-it/more-than-just-a-headache/
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Really wish I wasn't!
It wouldn't surprise me if in years to come the scientists discover that many of theses so called brain conditions are linked Menomale. I read a study some time ago that was trying to find a link between migraine and epilepsy which is interesting because they use anti-seizure meds to treat migraine. There seems to be a real link between migraine and depression and I'm always very aware when I see my specialists and GPs that they are 'checking me out'! I'm exceptionally lucky that I've never suffered with depression or anxiety but I can certainly recognise that anyone having to manage chronic migraine may well be plunged into depression irrespective of whether there's a genetic link. I've taken part in studies over the years which were trying to prove a familial link re migraine. In my family the link is obvious. I think the scientific bodies now firmly believe that link exists.
I don't know Oliver Sachs, I'll check him out. x
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Hi Menomale
The reason caffeine has seemed like a cure is that your body has become dependant on its next fix. When it gets it the symptoms go. Try giving it up slowly and switching to decaf. You will feel so much better.
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Thanks so much for that ElizabethRose.
I don't think I have any specific food triggers as I could only drink milk for several weeks when couldn't get food down and the symptoms were as bad as ever (and never drank it before as dont really like it).
I have found that Red Bull instantly reduces my symptoms (but it's not caffeine addiction as not having a whiff of caffeine for 4 months made no difference - and it only has a strong cup of coffees worth) and never have more than one a day. I think the taurine in it may help migraines too and the endocrinologist said the combo of sugar and caffeine can be a remedy so interesting to read there about the fizzy glucose drinks.
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Sorry posted on wrong thread which linked to this one! Will pop it there too.
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I answered you on the other thread danger mouse but I'll copy my response here too.
You're welcome dangermouse, I hope it was of some use. I think if we know the reason why things are happening, those things are easier to handle.
I've had the conversations re caffeine with some top dog mig specialists. It helps some people whilst it's a trigger for others. Some migraineurs find that if they drink a coffee even after the migraine starts it helps reduce the intensity: it would seem it unites with the pain meds in some way. I've never found that food has been a trigger but I don't drink any alcohol and wouldn't drink high caffeine drinks. I feel so sick when in migraine that I couldn't stomach coffee but sometimes drink one or two a day, usually decaf.
The glucose can be absorbed in the stomach and takes the meds with it apparently. The stomach is in stasis in migraine and stops transit which prevents meds being absorbed. It may be worth trying when you're struck down with an attack of gastric migraine, especially if you can take aspirin which seems to work well on migraine. Worth a try, it may abort an attack earlier. Boy oh boy, it's finding a way to manage all this stuff!
Do read that link to The International Classification of Headache Disorders on the Migraine Trust link I posted. It covers all types of migraine, and there are many, and also all types of headache. I seem to remember gastric migraines are discussed, you may get some hot tips!
Good luck dangermouse, it's amazing you even got a diagnosis for this, they are so tricky to diagnose. x
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I use 4head and paracetamol. It's brilliant stuff that 4head. Rub it on the back of your neck. Temples and forehead. Back in June I was being treated for a mini stroke until I had a mri and it wasn't a stroke it was silent migraines. I used to get them on a Dailey basis but since using 4head they are almost non existent. I put it on first thing in the morning and then use it right through the day. Good luck xx
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I get silent migraines once every 3-4 years. I have no idea why. I started with the usual Aura:headache:feel washed out:throw up routine in my teens. Then in my 20s, I just got the aura and the headache didn't happen and that has been what happened ever since.
It would appear to have no connection with anything at all, but it happens so infrequently it is hard to know what the trigger would be. My husband has them too, and his reduced a lot when he stopped drinking coffee. I tried that for a while, then had a migraine.
It hasn't got any worse with coming off the pill, perimenopause, or hrt. Once I had one after another, but it went back to the normal pattern of every 3-4 years.
You would have thought it was hormonal since it started when I was about 13, but it appears not. I did have one a few days after my twins were born, but that could have been random.
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dahliagirl, for something that it supposed to be quite rare it's amazing how many people I've come across with silent migraine. I honestly think there are a great many people out there who don't get the visual aura and therefore just don't know what is happening to them. I'm really glad you only get them rarely: it could be that the hormonal upheaval at puberty and after your twins were born, combined with other triggers and then just 'pushed you over the edge'. It's darn tricky identifying these triggers sometimes and even more difficult avoiding some of them! x
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Thanks so much! It's actually about my 32nd diagnosis in a year but was from a private endocrinologist hormone specialist I paid to see but it does seem like it's the right one finally.
I think general docs put too much down to anxiety which is a bit of a cop out and just confuses the patient. I wouldn't mind if they said they didn't know but it might be that but I was told it was a fact when I knew I was being more rational than they were! Then once it's on your record... ::)
I can't take aspirin as it burns my stomach (even tried it with Omeprazole once but it still made it sore) but will look up those tips thanks!
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I used to think bright lights triggered it - but I think the bright lights are only a problem because the migraine is on the way, if you see what I mean.
I do avoid anything that gives that sort of feeling - so use sunglasses (sunlight does seem more irritating to my eyes as I have got older), drink one coffee as a treat, do yoga exercises to relieve stress, and drink plenty.
I do feel for anyone who has proper bad ones. My experience as a teen was enough. I used to hate being sick - I used to wake the next morning and not be able to get out of bed quickly enough. My mother claimed that I had been sick in the night once without noticing ??? but I blame the cat. ;)
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You raise a valid point there dahliagirl, people often mistake the thing that the migraine makes you crave in prodrome, carbs, chocolate, for the trigger. Flashing lights will do it for me every time, the new fangled car led lights at night are a killer as is driving through a cityscape with low winter sun flashing between buildings.
I do not miss the vomiting that stopped for me years ago. I used to do the school run with a bucket strapped into the passenger seat beside me. Enough said!! x