The type of migraine I would get was called a 'visual migraine' or 'ocular migraine'. This type of migraine would only effect my vision, and not necessarily give me a headache -- I was lucky. So many millions of people have full blown migraines which last for days and days, and really knock them out of commission.
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| Ocular Migraine Disturbance http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Aura_ss.jpg |
I was getting these migraines about once a week, some weeks I'd get them twice in a week, and they were becoming more frequent. The visions would start at the center of my field of view, as a pin-prick size wiggling light, and then expand to the larger light field that you see above. Then it would move from the center of my vision to the side of my field of view. Then finally it would move out of my field of view. Again, no headache, just the visual disturbance. However, this disturbance can be troublesome if you're trying to drive, or have an important business conversation with someone across the table from you whom you now cannot see.
The first time I got one, years ago, I didn't know what it was. My vision got distorted, and it lasted for about 20 minutes, and then it went away. I asked my eye doctor about it and he was the one who diagnosed me. When I went into my regular doctor, she just told me it would get worse, and some day would start to be painful in addition to the visual disturbances.
I'm not sure how I discovered the solution.... I was probably googling around to learn more about it. Anyway, I think I stumbled upon a website and reference to trying magnesium for migraines.
That led me to ordering some Amazon Kindle books about magnesium:
All these books were great and eye opening.
What I learned from them, and reading other books, is that migraines are caused by a number of factors. Some people maybe have a vitamin B (complex) deficiency, some may have a gluten sensitivity, etc, etc, and some may have a vitamin deficiency. In my case, it was magnesium.
I started supplementing per the suggestions in the books -- which is scary at first. Doctor's aren't trained to know anything about vitamin and mineral supplementation, and they warn you against doing it. If it's a milligram above the RDA then they say, "ooohhh, that dosage is awfully high". Anyway, what I've learned in my multi-year quest for optimal health is that vitamin supplementation hasn't killed anyone over the years that drug deaths have been monitored. But prescription meds have killed A LOT of people. A LOT.
Anyway, so I started supplementing. Dr. Carolyn Dean is truly the magnesium expert. She suggests 4-6mg per pound of body weight, and she says that you should take as much as your bowels can handle (if you take too much, you have to go to the bathroom!!).
What she also teaches is that there are a lot of different types of magnesium -- oxide, citrate, glycinate, you name it. They all absorb differently. What you get in your Centrum multi-vitamin is magnesium oxide. It's the cheapest form of magnesium, and only absorbs 4% once it gets in you. What does that mean? It's no good -- and it will come right out of you via your bowels. So, unfortunately for alot of people they think, "oh I already take magnesium in my multi-vitamin, so that must not be my problem then." Well, if you have mangesium deficiency (as Dr. Dean explains, the whole world is mostly deficient!) then you need A LOT of magnesium. So taking a tiny bit of magnesium in your multi-vitamin, especially a kind that doesn't absorb well, is going to be like taking a sip of water when you're severely dehydrated. It's not going to do anything...
After oxide, citrate is the next best form, and easily available. After that is glycinate. There are more fancier types after glycinate, but they are harder to come by, are in liquid form, and I haven't tried them. But they do absorb even better than glycinate. Anyway, I've had great luck with magnesium glycinate. KAL brand on Amazon. I take the KAL Magnesium Glycinate 400mg. Two pills is 400mg. I take anywhere from 3-5 pills a day, depending on how I feel.
I started to get sick last week, aches and pains of the flu -- but never went into full blown flu, just the aches. I'm sure it was the flu because everyone around me at work was sick with flu! During that time I upped my magnesium dosage, because I had so many aches and pains (magnesium is good for muscle pain). The exciting thing was -- it didn't effect my bowels, even though I went higher than my usual standard dosage. That's a sign you're sick. You need more vitamins and minerals due to the illness, therefore you can tolerate more vitamins and minerals. Once I got over the illness (after a few days) I could tell I was well again, because the high dosage of magnesium started going right through me.
As I mentioned, I rarely get a migraine now, and it's been over a year. If I do get one, its because I screwed up my dosage on a particular day -- it happens pretty quickly, too.
So what do I suggest? Get some of the books I mention above and read up on it. Try some magnesium glycinate and see how much you can supplement -- see if your migraines go away. In rare occasions, some people can't tolerate any magnesium (it goes right through you). Carolyn Dean's Invisible Minerals Part I book talks about that. So if you're one of those people, get that book and read up!
Added benefit -- my heart flutter/palpitations also went away and my blood pressure stabilized!!!
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