# Ocular migraine **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516 "2013-04-12T16:23:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/21 "2013-04-15T18:53:01Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > My sympathies. I get migraines fairly rarely, thank goodness, but when they happen I always have the pre-aura with either tunnel vision, pixilated central vision, or simply inability to read without really straining my eyes. About 40 minutes later the vision is fine and the headache begins. That pretty well describes mine. Only happens 2-3 times per year. Sometimes it’s triggered by intense excercize, other times it seems random. The odd thing is that I had only one migraine in my life prior to age 40 and it was clearly stress induced. The 2-3 times per year only started after I began taking biologics (alfa inhibitors) for psoriasis. My dermatologist thinks it’s coincidental, and I have no reason to doubt him, it just seems strange. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/22 "2013-04-15T20:21:57Z")
I used to get “normal” migraines, with auras. They went away for years. Now I get ocular migraines (though I haven’t had one in a while). Mine have a blank spot in my vision that gets filled with an endlessly turning kaleidoscope. The worst part is I get intense nausea with them, usually, and they often lead to a weird, dissociated feeling and and headache that is also nausea producing. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/23 "2013-04-17T04:25:21Z")
Here’s my experience with them: > [@Just had an ocular migraine - thanks to SDMB, I knew what it was](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-had-an-ocular-migraine-thanks-to-sdmb-i-knew-what-it-was/455886/21): > > Thanks for bringing this up. I get the same damn things, one of my brothers used to get headache-inducing migraines, and another used to get abdominal migraines (just bad nausea about once a month), my mom gets headache-inducing migraines along with abdominal migraines, and my grandmother gets ocular migraines. My visual disturbances are associated with a very mild dizziness, but no weakness in either leg, no pain, and no nausea. > > For the record, I’m a man. No gender is spared. > > Oh, and mine look like a piece cut out of my visual field and replaced with black static. The pieces are usually round, often half-moon shapes that ‘bracket’ the center of vision on one side or the other. > [@Could people that see "auras" just have synesthesia?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-people-that-see-auras-just-have-synesthesia/432687/13): > > I have optical migraines and mine begin as a field of random flashes in the center of my field of vision that gradually expands into a field of ‘black static’ (think old-fashioned analog TV static, but black instead of white) with the flashes on the periphery. This changes shape to bracket the center of my field of vision on one side or the other (usually the right side, I think), and grows outwards like a shock wave with constant width but increasing radius until it’s grown all the way out of my visual field. This is associated with, at most, extremely mild pain at some undefinable location in my head. I suppose I should also say that the visual disturbance and the dizziness make it difficult to read or write while the migraine is ongoing, but I can walk around just fine. Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/24 "2013-04-17T04:49:09Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Here’s my experience with them:I suppose I should also say that the visual disturbance and the dizziness make it difficult to read or write while the migraine is ongoing, but I can walk around just fine. > > Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? I think I’m the only lucky one in my family, that I know of. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/25 "2013-04-17T22:15:15Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? I get ocular migraines (an optician called it a “retinal migraine”) about once a month but I don’t get headaches with it. But when I was a kid I used to get these killer migraine headaches, accompanied by nausea, etc. My mom had a history of migraines and then they mostly resolved when she found she was allergic to certain foods that seemed to trigger them. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/26 "2013-04-18T04:21:30Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > … > Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? My mother used to get fairly bad migraines for most of her life. She never had the ocular variety though. Lucky me, I get both. ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/27 "2013-04-18T19:12:41Z")
My mother & her mother both suffered from severe migraine headaches, usually accompanied by nausea. My mother’s would go on for days where she would be confined to bed. Once she actually threw up I think she would recover. Thank goodness I’ve only been stricken with the ocular type. The scintillating, vibrating, flashy kaleidoscope of a curve or “V” right in my line of vision. It gradually enlarges and widens until it expands beyond my vision. They make trying to work on a computer or read nearly impossible. 20 minutes or so later I’m back to normal. These used to happen every month or two. No idea what triggered them, but I recently had begun to calendar then in the hopes of predicting them. I had a hysterectomy right at the end of last year and thankfully haven’t experienced one since then. Coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/28 "2013-04-18T19:23:43Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I had them together with nauseating headaches as a teenager, and now get them occasionally with relatively little pain. I don’t know what triggers them, but I know instantly when I’m going to have one; I notice a shift in my vision and then a tiny floating blind spot that grows and grows into a shimmering dragon’s tail on one side of my world. I have these as well - about once a month. Sometimes they are small, hardly noticeable, and I have no ill effects after about 30 minutes. Other times the aura will go away and I’ll be nauseous and have a pounding headache for the rest of the day. I know when I’m about to have one as well. It starts off as a discoloration in my peripheral vision - sort of like if you look at something bright and then look at a dark background. It’ll be very small and then grow. Once it gets a certain size, it starts to flash silver and black. Always in my peripheral vision. It can make doing just about anything difficult for about half an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/29 "2013-04-18T19:26:08Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? My father gets bad migraines - they aren’t ocular though. ---
**Author:** ![gjspring\_aol.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e19adc/32.png) [@gjspring\_aol.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gjspring_aol.com)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/30 "2020-05-09T23:40:29Z")
All, I was getting ocular migraines frequently until I read about using Niacin. Both auras and small area temporary vision loss. I take 500mg, time released daily and they have stopped. You can also buy25 mg chewable Niacin to stop the migraine as soon as The visual disturbance starts. Google Niacin and migraine, Try it. It has changed my life. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/31 "2020-05-10T03:05:18Z")
They are a frequent visitor when I go to bed. I’ve reached the point where I almost enjoy them because of the color and movement that I see. During the day though, I rarely actually see them, I usually just can’t focus. I squint at everything. I think I am suffering one now, actually. Occasionally, i do see an expanding ring of color that changes as it grows. The last 20-30 minutes or so. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/32 "2020-05-10T04:35:28Z")
A blasty from the pasty. I haven’t had one in a long long time now. Hope I haven’t just jinxed myself. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/33 "2020-05-10T05:22:38Z")
I hate the nasty little sawtooth flashy-lights. They aren’t painful but they’re freaking annoying. Maybe once or twice a year, sometimes with flashbacks when I think they’re gone. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/34 "2020-05-10T22:53:13Z")
> [@gjspring\_aol.com](#): > > Google Niacin and migraine, > Try it. It has changed my life. Thanks for the tip! And maybe that’s why rarely get the headache migraines any more. I’ve got more niacin in my diet than when I lived on nachos, popcorn, and corn dawgs. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/35 "2020-05-12T12:59:50Z")
I used to get them fairly frequently, in fact when I saw this was a zombie thread I searched to see if I posted here before, since it sounded familiar. Maybe I posted in another ocular migraine thread. Anyway, I haven’t had one for awhile. Maybe my diet has improved too. I remember the first time I got one, almost 20 years ago- I thought I had a brain tumor, scary :eek: EDIT: and BTW my trigger seemed to be bright sunlight. Maybe diet is a factor too, but these days I wear sunglasses outdoors all the time, even on cloudy days. Not so much to avoid ocular migraines but because my opthamologist told me that eventually getting cataracts is not so much a question of if, but when. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/36 "2020-05-12T13:22:48Z")
Me too, **solost**. The annoying thing is that mine will start with just a pinpont of light, but right in the center of my field of view, so I can’t read. But at lest I know what it is… now… For years, I’d get a distinctive geometric pattern, but only a few times a year. I had friends who’d get terribly painful migraines, so I knew it couldn’t be that. And a “aura”? That sounds soft and fuzzy… I honestly thought there was probably something in my brain impinging on an optic nerve. One day, I googled “migraine aura”, and there was my exact pattern! I was so relieved I shouted (in my worst Aaahnold accent)\* “It’s nahhht a tumor!”\* ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/37 "2020-05-12T14:31:04Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > Thanks for the tip! And maybe that’s why rarely get the headache migraines any more. I’ve got more niacin in my diet than when I lived on nachos, popcorn, and corn dawgs. [Be careful with large doses of Niacin.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4458328/#__sec5title) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/38 "2020-05-12T14:33:47Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Do any other ocular migraine sufferers have a family history of migraines of any type? My father indicated he had them when I mentioned I did. In my case, they’re more a pain in the neck, though I have found that looking into the distance makes them go away a little quicker. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/39 "2020-05-12T23:07:14Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I had them together with nauseating headaches as a teenager, and now get them occasionally with relatively little pain. I don’t know what triggers them, but I know instantly when I’m going to have one; I notice a shift in my vision and then a tiny floating blind spot that grows and grows into a shimmering dragon’s tail on one side of my world. So this is what a migraine is? I get that once in a while. I have my whole life, or at least my whole adult life (and I’m 60 now). It’s really disconcerting, and it makes some things difficult or impossible. It doesn’t happen too often, fortunately. But enough that I’m completely familiar with the sensation and vision disturbances, and I know it will go away eventually. Probably within a couple of hours. There’s no pain, I’m glad to say. Which is probably why I never realized that this is what a migraine is. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516/40 "2020-05-13T01:45:35Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > So this is what a migraine is? > > I get that once in a while. I have my whole life, or at least my whole adult life (and I’m 60 now). It’s really disconcerting, and it makes some things difficult or impossible. It doesn’t happen too often, fortunately. But enough that I’m completely familiar with the sensation and vision disturbances, and I know it will go away eventually. Probably within a couple of hours. > > There’s no pain, I’m glad to say. Which is probably why I never realized that this is what a migraine is. It is a \*retinal \*migraine, or possibly \*ocular \*migraine. There is also the migraine aura, a constellation of sensations that often precedes a migraine headache, and can include symptoms similar to a retinal migraine. [The three things are not the same.](https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/expert-answers/ocular-migraine/faq-20058113) Most people associate the word “migraine” with a migraine headache. Almost always if you hear someone say “I had a migraine” it means they had a headache that has severe pain, often on one side of the head, near the temple, possibly accompanied by nausea, and increased sensitivity to light. I used to get them when I was young. They can be triggered by stress, lack of sleep, alcohol. They can last from a couple of hours to days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocular-migraine/655516.md?page=3)