| Aura migraines afflict around 15% of the people who | | | | The numbness and tingly feeling is also connected to |
| suffer from migraines in the world. These are special | | | | this symptom. This is more serious, as a severe aura |
| kinds of migraines that are heralded by odd visual and | | | | migraine can not only cause numbness in the victim, it |
| tactile stimulus that signal the onset of the migraine. | | | | can actually lead to temporary loss of motor |
| Knowing the symptoms of an aura migraine allow you | | | | coordination and control functions. The impulses in the |
| to get help before it hits in full, so in a way while | | | | brain that accompany the migraine can literally cut off |
| aura migraines are more severe than regular | | | | the person's ability to move his or her limbs. |
| migraines, they at least have the advantage of | | | | The original theory behind aura migraines was that |
| offering early warning signals that allow you to get | | | | blood vessels which supplied blood to the brain |
| medication quickly. | | | | contracted from the pain brought about by the |
| One of the symptoms of an aura migraine gave birth | | | | migraine, and the symptoms were brought about by |
| to it's name. This symptom is visual in nature, usually | | | | a loss of blood flow to the brain as well as an |
| manifesting as black spots dancing before a person's | | | | increase in trapped blood pressure inside the skull and |
| eyes or an odd haziness around the edges of a | | | | sinuses. The main support behind this theory came |
| person's field of vision, sort of like looking through a | | | | from the fact that the sympotoms of an aura |
| fuzzy fish eye lens. Other people experience bursts | | | | migraine are similar to that experienced by aircraft |
| of color or "stars" in their vision and sudden dizziness, | | | | pilots during blackout, when severe gravitational |
| akin to what happens to most people when they | | | | forces in a turn forced blood away from the brain. |
| sometimes stand up too fast. | | | | We now know this theory is false. |
| On the tactile level, and indicative of a more serious | | | | A study of aura migraines using an |
| migraine coming on, aura migraines also sometimes | | | | electroencephalogram shows a depression, or |
| leads to numbness in the face or the fingertips, and | | | | decrease, in brain activity and electrical impulses on |
| or a general feeling of "tinglyness", like pins and | | | | the actual afflicted area that the migraine is hitting. |
| needles, across the entire body. | | | | Unfortunately, this "depressed" zone on the surface |
| The reasons for the eye blurring is because aura | | | | of the brain is surrounded by an aura, or corona, of |
| migraines affect, to a certain extent, the nervous | | | | hyperstimulated nerve cells. It is this hyperstimulated |
| system of the sufferer. In a person with a migraine, | | | | area that actually cuts off any input and output from |
| the outer surface of the brain starts overloading with | | | | that section of the brain during an aura migraine. |
| pain stimuli that causes a blockage of transmitted and | | | | At it's worst, aura migraines have been known not |
| received impulses from the rest of the body. The | | | | only to cause loss of motor function and vision, but |
| brain continually transmits and recieves electrical | | | | unconsciousness in the victims. The lack of stimuli |
| impulses through the nervous system, and the pain | | | | from the brain to certain parts of the body, |
| of a migraine interferes with these signals. | | | | combined with the oveload of pain stimuli in the |
| The optic nerves, being the most closely situated to | | | | affected part of the brain, causes temporary loss of |
| the brain, are the first to be affected by this | | | | consciousness. |
| overload. This manifests in the optical symptoms of | | | | Physicians and neurologists have been studying the |
| an aura migraine. The pain feedback basically messess | | | | patterns of migraines, especially aura migraines, for |
| around with signals the eyeballs are sending to the | | | | several years. While to this day there are plenty of |
| brain. On a more serious level, aside from dancing | | | | theories surrounding the cause of it, there are as yet |
| spots and blurriness, severe aura migraines have | | | | no solid conclusions. Pain remedies and medications |
| been known to shut off input from the eyes, causing | | | | have been developed however which lessen the |
| temporary blackout and loss of vision during the | | | | effects of aura migraines and allow the victims to |
| migraine. | | | | get relief when they feel one coming on. |