Do You Have Migraine Headaches?

[irishgenes]

I am wondering if rosacea is related to the vascular hyper-responsiveness of migraines. I started having migraines about the same time the first symptoms of rosacea appeared.
Whether you have migraines or not, please respond.

[KHM]

Yes - and one of the first pieces of info I found when I started researching R was that there was a correlation between the conditions - but I never found a "why".

About 10% of the general population has Migraines, about 30% of Rosacearns (if my memory is still working anyway).

Related vascular disfunction?

[tryingtogetoverit]

No, never.

The only times I do get headaches is when I haven't had a coffee in a while or when eyes are acting up.

None of these headaches were migraine headaches...I assume I'd know it if I ever had one.

[irishgenes]

Yes, you'd know it. They are one-sided headaches with nausea and aversion to light. They can be mild to excrutiating. More common in women due to our changing hormones. I didn't have my first one until age 30.

[tryingtogetoverit]

I brought this in to my opthamologist: (You've probably read this though.)

" Fluorescent lighting has some properties in it
that when it penetrates the eye and is transduced back through the
optic nerve, it excites the visual cortex of the brain (normal
action), but also alters the production of two chemicals in the
anterior hypothalamus – norepinephrine and gabba (not normal).

These chemicals then stimulate dilatory nerve fibers to the face
and also releases cortisol, a dilatory hormone; hence rosacea
flushing. In the normal population fluorescent lighting is a common
trigger for migraines and cluster headaches because of the changes
caused to norepinephrine and gabba (blood brain vessels dilate, but
they don't flush because they don't have rosacea). So, fluorescent
lighting does not induce a rosacea trigger via direct interaction
with facial skin, but is in fact a visual cortex processing affect. "

Whole thread here:
http://forum.rosaceagroup.org/viewtopic.php?t=84&highlight=flourescent+fluorescent

sort of off topic...

[celticgirlie]

I thought I was having migraine headaches for quite a long time. It seems now that I am getting my eyes really under control with the help of Restasis, I have had no headaches whatsoever. After your description, Irishgenes, of the nausea, I never had that, just a pounding head so probably not a migraine.

Anyway, just wanted to add that with dry eye, there can be a lot of pain involved.

[KHM]

Not everyone gets every symptom - e.g you may not get nausea. But I found singular helped both my migraines (not light sensitive for me - noise sensitive, then I want to eat everything,then I get nausea. Bad combo)

Appartnely if it cuts other types of inflamation a drug or herb may also help migraines.

Hummm.

[Kelli]

I started having them after I had my son. I noticed one day that my eye started going dark in spots. I'd just had Lasik, so I was thinking it was caused by it. I called my eye doc and they said it could be that, just pressure from healing.

I got these little crystal looking things in one eye's vision. They'd go away, and then about 30 minutes later, BAM! My head felt like I had been hit by a sledghammer. If I was quick enough, like when I noticed the crystals in my vision, and I took something (Like Aleve) it wasn't AS bad. It was tolerable. I apparently got hit with one at night. I remember waking up in the middle of the night not feeling right, but couldn't wake up enough to figure it out. The next morning I couldn't get out of bed. to move hurt. I also puked a few times throughout the day. MAN that sucked.

*knock on wood* I haven't had one in quite some time now. I'm hoping it was just a phase that I'm out of now.

[irishgenes]

Tryingtogetoverit, that is very interesting about the fluorescent lighting. I didn't know that.

Kelli, my first migraine was during early pregnancy (age 25), then I didn't have any more until 30. Mine were definitely related to declining estrogen, but I didn't know that at the time, or I would have used an estrogen patch in the week before my period. I used to have them so bad that I gave myself Imitrex shots 2 or 3 times a week. You younger people may not remember that when Imitrex first came out, it was only available as a self-injection. Boy, those shots really stung! Sometimes the shots wouldn't work, and I'd wind up in the emergency room, where they always treat you like you are a drug addict.

Since starting on estrogen after menopause, I only have occasional mild migraines that can be stopped with Excedrin Migraine pills. I never would have thought an OTC drug would work, but that pill usually does if I take it soon enough. Your visual symptoms, Kelli, sound like the "aura" of classical migraine. I never had that. But the main symptom of a migraine versus a regular headache is that a migraine is one-sided. Oddly enough, I always got migraines on the left side, and now that I have rosacea, I flush mostly on the right side.

[Kelli]

The one thing I like about having the aura thing, is that I know to get somewhere that I can lay down and relax... because it's going to hit soon. Mine start from the base of my head/neck and travels up to the front. The closer to my face it gets, the worse the pain is.

My mother actually gets severe migraines. I remember growing up and having to comfort her when she'd get them. Or help her drive home if her vision was messing up. I'd brush her hair to calm her down, etc. They were probably bad, but she's a drama queen, so who knows if they were the same as what I have. She does not have rosacea, though.

[Nessie]

Although I have had rosacea since in my teens it as when I got the pimples that three years ago my migraines started. Funny vision with jagged lights. About the same time my mum died which under the circumstances of her illness were very stressful. I have only just read about this connection and it does make a lot of sense.

[KHM]

I am a migrainer also.

2 things have helped a lot -

Black Coash - taken consistently
Singulair - who knows why but the general anti inflamatory action is a HUGH difference. I get them 1/3 as often and they are about 1/2 as bad.

Much better!

[irishgenes]

I've heard Singulair is good for rosacea flushing, too, for some odd reason. Do you find this to be the case? I don't have allergies, but I might try it. Do you take it full time? Do you have any side effects from it?

Also, has anybody tried this OTC migraine drug called Gel-Stat? I tried feverfew as a preventive drug years ago, and it didn't work, but I've never tried this Gel-Stat. http://headaches.about.com/od/productreviews/fr/gelstat_mx.htm

[KHM]

I don't know if it helps with flushing, but I think it really helps with the P&P part. I seems to just generally work against inflamation.

I tolerate this drup much better than most. It has a list of side effects, but I take it everyday and don't seem to have trouble, and their are not many drugs I can say that about. I seem to be the queen of side effects.

I think I might have had a bit of a sore throat for the first week .

[irishgenes]

I found some interesting information about migraines on this website:
http://www.migraines.org/myth/mythreal.htm Below is a quote from the page. I had never realized that ordinary headaches are from vasoconstriction, while migraines are from vasodilation. Since rosacea is also a disease of blood vessel dilation, it makes sense that the two are related. My migraines have been really bad lately. I've been trying the Prochieve natural progesterone gel and have had non-stop pain for 10 days now. I've also been flushing like crazy. I call progesterone "the hormone from hell", even though so many women seem to like it. I wish I never had to use progesterone again, but I would have to have a hysterectomy to avoid it.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____
"Migraine is disease, a headache is only a symptom. Migraine pain is caused by vasodilation in the cranial blood vessels (expansion of the blood vessels), while headache pain is caused by vasoconstriction (narrowing of the blood vessels). During a migraine, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the brain, i.e., neurogenic inflammation, exacerbates the pain. Therefore, medicine often prescribed to treat a headache, such as beta-blockers, dilate the blood vessels and therefore can make a Migraine worse.

Unlike a headache, the Migraine disease has many symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, auras (light spots), sensitivity to light and sound, numbness, difficulty in speech, and severe semihemispherical head pain. One Migraine attack alone can last for eight hours, several days, or even weeks.

Migraine is a genetically-based disease....Individuals with a single parent having Migraine have approximately a 50% chance of having Migraine. This susceptibility is neither psychological nor induced by environmental causes."

[Kelli]

Very interesting. I think I may need to read more into migraines and see if that's why I get frequent headaches. Always have, but have never thought they were migraines, because I didn't get the auras until after I had my son.

[Sylvia66]

No migraines, thankfully.