Migaines without headaches

head aches

Overview Of Migraine Without Headaches

Migraine without headaches, commonly known as silent migraine is not at all unusual. This is the type of migraine that attacks without any headaches. This type of migraine should be should be considered as a diagnosis in anyone who has recurrent episodes of transient symptoms, especially those that are visual or neurological or involve vertigo.

Visual or Neurological symptoms caused by migraine without headaches mainly affects older people who have a known history of migraine.

 Migraine without headaches or aura( as is commonly known) has gone by many names such as

1. acephalgic migraine
2. sans-migraine
3. eye migraine
4. migraine equivalent
5. visual migraine
6. ocular migraine
7. painless migraine
8. or migraine without headaches (aura)

The term that is used to refer this kind of migraine nowadays is migraine without headaches or simply aura. The term aura is commonly used to refer symptoms related to migraines, but can be specifically used for visual symptoms of migraine.

This is symptoms can be anything such as, but not limited to-

1. visual blind spots
2. vertigo or dizzy spells
3. zig zag motion

It's estimated that only about 15% of migraineurs deal with aura.There are actually a host of possible symptoms that can hit, usually before a headache stage, such as slurred speech, numbness, pain in other parts of your body such as in the face or on the skin, and ringing in the ears.

Interestingly, migraine aura without headache more often occurs later in life, and more often in men than in women. 

The biggest problem with this odd condition is that these symptoms can be mistaken for other ailments. Without being able to tell a health care provider that there is headache pain it is difficult to get a correct analysis of this condition.

For example, the symptoms are very similar to those of stroke indicators. Many people have been misdiagnosed because doctors thought their patient might have suffered a minor stroke instead. These symptoms can also be attributed to seizures or serious visual problems. With all these more obvious options it is not a surprise that doctors look to them first. You should allow your doctor to do whatever tests they feel are necessary to eliminate the more serious health issues. In case one of them is the problem you will want to be sure. 

They may do a CT scan, an MRI, will order blood tests to be taken and likely want an eye examination. Once these tests are completed and everything comes back negative its time to point your health care provider in a different direction. The way to get them to take a serious look at the possibility of a silent migraine being the cause of your symptoms is to explain your family history first. Almost all migraine sufferers have other members of their immediate family who also get migraine headaches. Then closely describe your symptoms, again, and show them how they resemble those associated with migraine. If you’ve had these episodes more than once that should also go a long way to convincing them that you are indeed suffering migraine symptoms without the headache pain.

You can take any of the medications that are used in regular migraine treatment. This includes the medications some people use to try to prevent a migraine from coming once the aura has begun. Injectibles and nasal sprays are better to use because they are fast acting.