Posted on 04/23/2012 4:04:02 AM PDT by shove_it
Most people have likely experienced brain freeze — the debilitating, instantaneous pain in the temples after eating something frozen — but researchers didn't really understand what causes it, until now.
Previous studies have found that migraine sufferers are actually more likely to get brain freeze than people who don't get migraines. Because of this, the researchers thought the two might share some kind of common mechanism or cause, so they decided to use brain freeze to study migraines.
Headaches like migraines are difficult to study, because they are unpredictable. Researchers aren't able to monitor a whole one from start to finish in the lab. They can give drugs to induce migraines, but those can also have side effects that interfere with the results. Brain freeze can quickly and easily be used to start a headache in the lab, and it also ends quickly, which makes monitoring the entire event easy.
The researchers brought on brain freeze in the lab by having 13 healthy volunteers sip ice water through a straw right up against the roof of their mouth. The volunteers raised their hands when they felt the familiar brain freeze come on, and raised them again once it disappeared.
The researchers monitored the blood flow through their brains using an ultrasoundlike process on the skull. They saw that increased blood flow to the brain through a blood vessel called the anterior cerebral artery, which is located in the middle of the brain behind the eyes. This increase in flow and resulting increase in size in this artery brought on the pain associated with brain freeze.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
More good ideas; thanks.
The only difference I’ve noted is that brain freeze is pretty short.
Migraines can last what feels like forever.
Does anyone get visual distortion as a precurser
to migraines?
When ever I get one, the first thing that happens is
I get a shifting band of rainbow light across my vision,
like looking at a CD or something, if I take a BC powder
or a large coffee, it will fade and I won’t have a
headache but if I do nothing oh my!
Yes I get rainbow drift, colored light shimmers and auras as well as see dark bird like figures swooping around. I also hear a rushing water effect like standing at the bottom of Niagara Falls. They have discontinued my migraine medicine, no longer manufactured. :(
Midrin was the best med for me but it was discontinued in 2007. Two of those before lying down and I slept off most of the headache.
That’s what I use...same effect too. 2 pills at onset, and then within an hour I’d be woosey enough to sleep a bit.
Even with that though, I generally feel like crap the rest of the day.
I used to do more than put my hands in warm water. I would sit in a very hot tub of water until my skin, that was under the water, turned bright red. That seemed to help. If it was a tension headache I would float (as much as possible, in a hot tub of water.
Last time I tried to refill it, I was told it is no longer available. No one makes it now because under newer FDA guidelines it doesn’t have proper approval for use and it’s too costly for the drug companies to gain necessary approval for continued sale.
I just checked the last bottle I had refilled...says Migrin...hadn’t noticed that before.
What do you use now?
I have tried all kinds of prescription and over the counter meds but nothing worked as well as Midrin. Looking at the info on Migrin-A it seems to be the same components that are no longer available as Midrin. I will call my dr in the morning to tell her! Thank you!
Most welcome!
};o)
Yes. I believe that it is called "migraine aura".
I am fortunate in that I experience migraine aura perhaps just several times per year but I do not suffer the migraine headaches that typically follow it.
Usually I notice the aura while reading or watching TV. I notice that I can't see some details in my field of view. For example, I might be looking at a face and while focussing on the person's left eye, I notice that I can't see the right eye.
If I close my eyes I will see a flashing, multi-colored area corresponding to the part of the field of view that is not working.
Typically the flashing area will become larger and will migrate toward the edges of my field of view, finally disappearing after thirty minutes. It's very like curved colorful lightening flashes
I had an episode once while driving in the fast lane on a freeway. The blind spot was directly at the center of my field of view. I couldn't see anything unless I used what is called "averted vision"; that is, in order to see where the lane markings were, I had to look slightly away from them and trust my peripheral vision of the markers. Needless to say, I carefully made my way to the next exit and parked. I have never had a session that didn't completely end in thirty minutes.
It's interesting that the vision disturbance is evidently a disturbance in the visual cortex of the brain; it is not a problem with the eyes. Both eyes are identically affected during the episode.
I'm hoping that the aura episodes don't eventually develop into the headaches. My eldest daughter has had aura several times and did have a slight headache afterward recently.
Thanks shove_it.
Brain freeze causes the weak-minded to vote Democrat.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.