Ocular migraine issue

[Jenn]

I have blue light blocking lenses for my prescription glasses and am using f.lux

There's also Iris, which can be installed on the computer, it's supposed to be better than F.lux but you do have to pay a small amount each month. Apparently it reduces the flicker of the screen as well as reducing the blue light.

Strangely, I also had a migraine type episode back in April, I have only ever had one migraine when I was a teenager so it's not a regular thing for me at all. I got the flashy vision thing minus the colours and the headache came on fairly quickly. I felt so nauseous from movement & sound that it actually made me physically sick, after that, I felt much better and I haven't had another one since...

I hope you can get to the bottom of it because they are not pleasant!

 

[Beau]

I hope you can get to the bottom of it because they are not pleasant!

Thanks for the Iris rec, downloading now. Yeah, it's pretty scary in the moment when all of a sudden your vision is impaired a great deal, seeing a big zig-zaggy light in your vision isn't the most comforting! I have not suffered from migraines or persistent headaches either. I read that stress and lack of oxygen can play a part, which considering I was super busy at work and wearing a mask barely able to breathe, it's possible that brought it on. I didn't get the nausea or sensitivity thankfully. But definitely had me concerned that something serious was wrong with my eye. Hopefully taking the measures discussed can stop them from happening.

 

[Keyhole]

None that I'm aware of, but I'll ask.

No other physical sensations. Not even any pain in the eye.

I don't get headaches normally, other than a caffeine withdrawal headache if I forgo my morning cup of coffee.

OK if it is a visual migraine without any structural/organic issue (tumor, retinal detachments etc) then it can often times relate to a lack of energy (ATP) in the neurons located within the brain regions associated with vision.

I usually send everyone with any form of migraine to the Stanton Migraine Protocol website, which has around a 95-9% success rate in addressing it fairly quickly.

Angela Stanton's theory is that migraine is related to a loss of sodium, which causes electrolyte imbalance and energy deficiency in the brain.

You can try taking 1/4 tsp salt in a large glass of water 4-5 times per day as a starting point.

Drinking coffee AFTER or WITH breakfast, rather than before breakfast - is very important for someone with this issue. Coffee on an empty stomach will deplete potassium and can lead to the above electrolyte imbalance - which leads to migraine (of any type).

Also, riboflavin (vitamin B2) at 400mg per day can be helpful - and definitely make sure to take some magnesium at around 400mg per day in the AM.

Here is a very useful group on FB with lots of information of various types of migraine (including visual). Stanton also has a book which explains her theory and how to address it (which involves a keto/carnivore diet, LOTS of salt at multiple times throughout the day, and also copious amounts of water).

The website is here

Added: A good quality multi B complex once per day (away from coffee) and a cap of thiamine (ttfd) should also help stabilize energy production in the brain. Many people report improvement in visual disturbances of neurological origin with the B vitamin therapies.

 

[fabric]

Also, I remember that @fabric had found a website that was for eye exercises or something and if that might help here I would be interested in checking it out. Dunno if there's anything else I could be doing aside from time away from the computer, looking at stuff far away, taking some supplements and getting a better monitor.

Ah yes, the website I found is called: Endmyopia - Improve Your Eyesight With Science & Habits

It's aimed at general vision improvement, some people claimed to have restored their vision doing it. I'm not sure if it works but I've been able to reduce my presciption over the year, so I think there is something to it.

One of the things they recommend, which I did find very helpful, is to get a pair of weaker glasses for doing computer work. They say that one of the causes of eyestrain (and worsening vision) is that we use our full strength (ie, long distance correction) for doing close up work. Most people tend to be overcorrected which in turn causes eyestrain when doing close up work because your eyes need to work harder to change focal planes while wearing glasses designed to give sharp vision at a long distance. The term they use is called "ciliary spasm".

So, in order to ease the eyestrain, one would wear a pair of glasses that allows you to see just up to where your screen is located clearly. Beyond that it will be blurry but less so. This typically tends to be about -1 to -1.5 diopters less than your full strength glasses.

I suggest at least getting a basic understanding of the theory before getting a pair of close-up glases, however. There is a lot of information available there but the site itself isn't as organized as it could be so I recommend visiting the wiki instead: EndMyopia Wiki

 

[Oxajil]

Although my first thought is, there's so much to do that taking time away from the puter is going to be difficult.

Yes, but your health is important! I hope things will get better with the advice given. A mixture of eyebright, ascorbic acid, and magnesium in water seem to be helpful for my eyes. I hyperlinked them to the products I use.

 

[Arwenn]

One of the things they recommend, which I did find very helpful, is to get a pair of weaker glasses for doing computer work. They say that one of the causes of eyestrain (and worsening vision) is that we use our full strength (ie, long distance correction) for doing close up work. Most people tend to be overcorrected which in turn causes eyestrain when doing close up work because your eyes need to work harder to change focal planes while wearing glasses designed to give sharp vision at a long distance. The term they use is called "ciliary spasm".

So, in order to ease the eyestrain, one would wear a pair of glasses that allows you to see just up to where your screen is located clearly. Beyond that it will be blurry but less so. This typically tends to be about -1 to -1.5 diopters less than your full strength glasses.

This is exactly what I was referring to with a slight plus in the bottom of the lenses by way of an anti fatigue lens design, which reduces accomdative fatigue (ciliary spasm). I’d avoid just plain single vision distance lenses when much of the day is spent on digital devices. Being slightly undercorrected (set for about 1m as you said @fabric) is also an option, but then that means two separate pairs of glasses (one for long distance and one for the computer).

 

[sid]

I am not the expert but my wife sometimes gets headaches when sitting on the computer for too long. She has the usual prescribed glasses etc which helps but I tried to find some other connections as well. She also has mild long sightedness where distant objects are slighly blurry. Generally, any time spent away from the computer does her real good and all headaches go away. The headaches return if the work is stressful and emotionaly charged. Perhaps something to ponder in that direction and watching your emotional state a bit more. Just try to be as much non-emotional, non-attached and hold the urges to always do the right thing concerning work related matters.

Another thing to try is to lower your screen resolution which will increase the font size making it less strenuous to concentrate on fine detail. It helps in my wife’s case.

 

[istina]

Yeah, it's pretty scary in the moment when all of a sudden your vision is impaired a great deal, seeing a big zig-zaggy light in your vision isn't the most comforting! I have not suffered from migraines or persistent headaches either. I read that stress and lack of oxygen can play a part, which considering I was super busy at work and wearing a mask barely able to breathe, it's possible that brought it on. I didn't get the nausea or sensitivity thankfully. But definitely had me concerned that something serious was wrong with my eye. Hopefully taking the measures discussed can stop them from happening.

I’ve had just that problem with my eyes several times. The last time it was about five years ago. Everything I could find about it, it was related to a headache / migraine, but I never had a headache or nausea at the time (although I have suffered from severe headaches when I was young, and now I had it sometimes but it is very mild compared to the previous in past).

Also, I was told that it was optic nerve fatigue. I remember it was happening when I have to work a lot on the computer. It was pretty scary and fully fits the description of ocular migraine (always affected one eye) in the article you gave (although I remember it lasted longer than an hour):

Ocular Migraines Explained - All About Vision

Ocular migraines are painless, but the weird visual phenomena can be scary.

www.allaboutvision.com

Thank you for sharing, and to everyone else for the advice you have given here! Now I finally know what exactly it was!

 

[Ollie]

I’ve had just that problem with my eyes several times. The last time it was about five years ago. Everything I could find about it, it was related to a headache / migraine, but I never had a headache or nausea at the time ...

Ditto, usually just for one eye. For me, it lasted about 20 - 30 minutes, and during that time I could not read either on screen or a page of a book.

...
Thank you for sharing, and to everyone else for the advice you have given here! Now I finally know what exactly it was!

 

[Tauriel]

Sorry to hear this, Beau.
First time I manifested these ocular migraines was some years ago. It lasted for hours and was stronger on the left side, no pain just some feeling of pressure in my head. I panicked because I had no idea what it was.
The ophtalmologist couldn't find an eye related problem and just to be sure a scull MRI was done with no pathological results.
It never came back that strong but sometimes in a weaker form, just one sided and not lasting that long. What I figured is that stress and too much screen time can trigger these migraines BUT I also figured that for me it's also related to shoulder-neck-syndrome. I have 2 slipped discs and radiculopathy. When symptoms from these chronic conditions become stronger the danger of ocular migraines increases.
I do daily exercises for my neck and back and also get physiotherapy one time a week for some years now. With all these efforts the migraine shows up only rarely.
When it starts I usually know that it's best to stop any activity at once and rest. Usually that is doing the trick really fast.
I hope you also get a grip on it quickly.

 

[lainey]

You seem pretty covered with the advice from the health folks. There is one thing I will add though. Being a culprit of "there is so much to do!" myself, perhaps I can offer a little advice there. When thinking about screen time could you make a list of things that you must do, things Beau and only Beau can do and prioritise your screen time that way? For all the other responsibilities, you've got a whole network at your back who can hopefully help out with other online duties. Maybe this could be a good opportunity for beginning a new outdoor project?

 

[Seamus]

FWIW I've found that regular acupuncture is usually very effective for managing migraines and cluster headaches. I'm not sure if there's anyone near you so I will put together an acupressure protocol when I have time and post it here in case its useful for anyone else.

Also I'd like to echo what Arwenn posted about the liver being the organ of the eyes. Just based on your description it sounds like you may have "liver blood deficiency" which can easily be caused by too much screen time and eye strain and in modern physiological terms can correlate with a B vitamin deficiency or an electrolyte imbalance among other things. Here's a list of foods that were traditionally used to treat "blood deficiency":



I'm guessing you already eat plenty of beef, but it might be worth considering some of the other foods if they agree with you, especially the bone marrow and liver.

Nettles and dandelion can be quite helpful for a sluggish liver. Dandelions are everywhere so as long as they aren't close to the road (lead) or in a lawn treated with chemicals you can dig up the whole plant, wash them well, boil them and drink the tea. With nettles you need to wear gloves and you just need the leaves and stems. Dandelions help to improve liver detoxification pathways so they work well to treat jaundice and elevated liver markers and they're also a decent antibiotic so they also work extremely well to treat mastitis, and other sores, lesions, boils and abscesses and some urinary tract infections as well. Best of all they're easy to find just about anywhere in the world!

 

[woneill1701]

Hi Beau,

I recognize your pictures!

I have been suffering from migraines like these (actually the hemiplegic variant) for forty years!

Regular medical science does not yet have any REAL answers, but they are getting closer each year, and there are now a number of treatments that are generally effective if the pain (or other accompanying symptoms) becomes unbearable.

The latest theory is that these migraines start in the brain stem (which is the interface between mind and body - and the source of the sensory disturbances), and cause inflammation in the trigemenal nerve (which is the source of the “splitting” headache that normally accompanies these migraines.

My own research and anecdotal results have found that triggers can include:

1) Dehydration
2) High tyramine levels (the result of eating non-fresh foods, including nuts, tinned, aged, or dried foods etc.)
3) Low levels of vitamin B (my first “season” of migraines started at age 12, and ended with my first pint of beer at age 18...)
4) Inflammation of the neck vertebrae at the base of the skull (physiotherapy and improving my posture has worked wonders for me in my latest round of migraines)
5) Colds and viral infections can trigger migraines if they inflame the joints/nerves in your neck
6) Black pepper, in even minute quantities, seems to be an inconsistent trigger for me, and I cannot figure out why

After doing genetic analysis using data from 23 and me, I also confirmed that I am a “low methylator” which is why I am vulnerable to both tyramine and depleted vitamin B. You may want to check out some of this stuff, because you can uncover some underlying weakness that can easily be addressed.

I have, for many years, used caffeine + ibuprofen to stop migraines, and for many years I was successfully able to nip them in the bud and stop them from tearing me apart.

A couple of years ago, the caffeine stopped working and I was forced to seek medical help.

A neurologist I spoke to, offered botox, to kill the trigemenal nerve, and wasn’t interested in exploring triggers/causes. She told me it was genetic, and there was nothing that could be done.

I was lucky enough to find a more progressive doctor that was actually interested in solving the problem.

After multiple MRIs and CAT scans, I was declared healthy (no tumors/strokes), but the MRIs indicated inflammation In my top vertebrae.

The combination of physiotherapy and Sumatriptan enabled me to get my attacks down from two/three per week to one every three months.

I now only eat fresh/frozen food, supplement my diet with pre-methylated vitamin B and vitamin C, and only get migraines, now, the day before I develop cold symptoms...

Now, bad migraines share many symptoms with strokes and/or tumors.

The lesser occular ones can also be confused with retinal damage...

I learned that ANY new/different symptoms need to be thoroughly checked out because they could be the result of mini-strokes or an emerging tumor.

Please get your symptoms checked out by a doctor that actually cares enough to find out what is really going on!

 

[Beau]

These migraines are also known as scintillating scotomas.

Yeah that's definitely it. Checked out the Wikipedia, this is a good illustration of what I was seeing

File:Scintillating zigzag scotoma.gif - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[nature]

Hi Beau, sorry to hear about this issue.
I 've treated one of my patients for regular (not ophtalmic though) migraine, very harsh (long duration , intense, and resistant to anti-migraine pills), who had seen both her doctor and a neurologist but the various medicaments given to her since 5 years don't help. her brain CTscan and later RMN are normal.
So, I've treated her with hydrotomy (vitamines, magnesium and pentox, beside xylocaine) and she has been well relieved. After 3 sessions, she still has migraine but they are very tiny (much less intense and very short time). If it's available where you are, maybe you can look at it.