Sometimes I can prevent a migraine by laying down and relaxing no meds needed.  Or is it a vascular-type headache?  Get many kinds of headaches.  The auras are rare for me, sometimes I can wake up with one in the morning or I got a really colourful one once   after being on the computer too long.  Trippy stuff normally only last 20 minutes and then are followed by a full blown migraine.  Usually starts in the middle of vision and jagged lines spread and more to the outside, diamonds is a good description  .  Sometimes you can tell one is coming (prodomal stage) feeling clumsy, out of it, irritable, sore neck, heightened sense of smell/sight/hearing could be hours/days before the aura.  Come to think of it maybe I always have migraines!  

My migraine triggers: Changes in weather, stress, hormones (low oestrogen during menstruation), missed meals, too little or too much sleep, food containing amines (MSG, chocolate, fermented foods, red wine) flashing lights or too much light and sound or smell, can trigger them in me.  Often it takes a few of those things lining up at once like a perfect storm to trigger one.

Funny I used to think I was having sinus infections but tightness in the sinuses is often a symptom of migraine.  Apparently many people mix them up.  Took many unnecessary antibiotics in the bad old days for migraines.    Now I use a nasal saline spray everyday so sinuses are tip top (tip learned on here  ).  

Caffeine can sometimes stop or lessen a migraine if you have some early on during the headache phase.  It works cos it works as a vasodilator (opens blood capillaries, which are dilated during aura and then tighten (vasosconstrict) during the headache phase).  Even the small amount in green tea may be enough.  Not totally your friend, caffeine can trigger a headache if your body is used to having some and you forget to have the usual amount (like forgetting to have coffee on a weekend when you normally have one at work).  Gave up coffee but will have one if I'm out and about to get a migraine.

Unfortunately they are severe in my life and had to give up some favourite foods like raspberries (diamond) (full of natural preservative sodium benzoate) guaranteed headache.  Still have chocolate (neutral) in small amounts, though I wouldn't eat any during a migraine.  Tamari also can do it (black dot)(MSG).  Tomatoes also contain natural msg and I still love them (Diamond if I don't, avoid if I add my joint problems in).  Was glad that white wine moved above red wine in my SWAMI cos white doesn't give me as bad a headache.  My SWAMIXpress has put most amine high/fermented foods lower in the list like it knew me or something!  

Hard to avoid changes in weather and hormones so bummer I actually take some triptan medication (synthetic serotonin) when they are really severe.  Not sumatriptan which is a sulphur drug, but Zolmitriptan.  The excellent diet has reduced them in duration and severity and knowing what triggers them (maybe different for you) and a steady lifestyle really helps.

I'm not in the medical field but suffer migraines and have done some research, kept a diary to identify my triggers, read some books by neurologists.  Hope this info helps someone.  Pretty good if just having a cuppa can reduce a migraine.  

Quoted from zenphoenix

rya - as i mentioned in my post above yours, i went undiagnosed for around 20 years. In that time i saw about 20 different doctors and specialists (i lost count somewhere around 1. I've had every diagnosis under the sun... depression, bi-polar, chronic fatigue, SAD, MS, hypoglycemia, glaucoma, vertigo, fibromyalgia (although this one turned out to be true, just not as severe as diagnosed), whiplash, thyroid condition, high blood pressure (which is hilarious, i have very low bp!), anemia (pick one) etc...

Here is how i got my diagnosis...

Suspecting that i had migraines of some sort...

1. i first listed every symptom / ill feeling that i had.

2. talked to all the people i knew who had migraines to understand what their symptoms were. I paid attention to when my friends were getting migraines to see if there was a correlation to me (ie, one friend had a lot of problems with weather induced migraines... the days she was sick, so was i).

3. I tracked my episodes and what may have brought it one (ie the weather, stress, lack of sleep etc)

4. i called all of my family and quizzed them on whether or not they have ever had a migraine... i described the symptoms of auras, etc. Turns out that neither of my parents had a migraine condition, but paternal grandfather had rather severe migraines, as did a great aunt on my birth mother's side.

5. Tried to recount in writing my medical history / dr's visits and diagnosis

6. I took all of this in to the new doctor in my town and talked, showed him everything and asked him what this could possibly be. He took one look at everything i had written down and said... you have migraines, rather severe ones in fact.


I found out that in cases of "silent" migraine, they do use family history as a means of verification, so it is important to question everyone. My grandfather and great aunt's history was enough to show that there was family history.


The best treatment for me... at first, i willingly took the meds because i was so sick i had been unable to work for several months and i needed to get back on my feet so to speak. However, i actively started researching food and supplements, etc. I managed to figure out some of my triggers quite quickly, some took longer. But even then i was still getting more than 8 a month.

After i started following BTD they got somewhat better, but since i switched to SWAMI last august and did a liver cleanse (also august), i have had only 1.

l-arginine is really good for Bs... you need it! it helped me a lot. So did Vitamin D. Find out about your blood pressure... low bp can be a migraine problem, you may need to add sea salt to your diet. And visulization... Bs a re super good at visualizing and it works.

THank you so much!  This is really helpful.  

Quoted from Curious

I sometimes have a weird feeling around my eyes: It feels like I have a wave of diamonds coming from either the right hand side of my head or from the left hand side of my head. It moves in a flickering way into my eyes and even though I still see fairly clearly, I find it distressing. It usually last for 10-20 minutes and I have it about every 6-8 weeks. It only started about a year ago.

I have been trying to find out what it is and someone told me that it could be a migrane without the headache. She said the 'flickering diamonds' are like the aura preceeding a migrane and that I was lucky that I do not get the headaches. Does this make sense and does any of you know this?

I have had this all my life and could never get any satisfaction as to what it was!

I take a teaspoon full of "slippery elm powder" mixed into a 8oz glass of water every morning and never get the aura over the rest of the day!

An alternative practitioner told me that it is caused by leaky gut and is caused by undigested protein getting into the blood and causing problems for the liver and kidneys etc.

I don't reckon it is migraine and believe the the alternative medical practitioner is/was right, it's leaky gut or bowels.

I get it about 5 hours after eating a meal. (unless I take the Elm powder every morning)

Your symptoms are exactly the same as mine, try Slippery Elm, works for me!

I have been using the Slippery Elm (successfully) to prevent this for about 10 years now!

Cheers, John.

Quoted from pipnjohn

I don't reckon it is migraine and believe the the alternative medical practitioner is/was right, it's leaky gut or bowels.

I get it about 5 hours after eating a meal. (unless I take the Elm powder every morning)

Your symptoms are exactly the same as mine, try Slippery Elm, works for me!

I have been using the Slippery Elm (successfully) to prevent this for about 10 years now!

Cheers, John.

makes sense since the eyes & the liver are connected

Quoted from pipnjohn

An alternative practitioner told me that it is caused by leaky gut and is caused by undigested protein getting into the blood and causing problems for the liver and kidneys etc.

Right on.  It affects everything else, too, since your immune system identifies those proteins as "not self", and an inflammation reaction starts wherever they go.

I've been having migraines attacks since I was ten or so. They would start with shimmering/flashing diamonds, however you want to describe it. That would get bigger and bigger at one point almost blocking my view. Then it would disappear and at the same time the headache would start. When I was younger I would also throw up, and then a couple of hours in bed where it would hurt so much that even my pillow felt like brick.

I found out that if I get a bright flash (sun flashing of a window or something like that) in my eyes it could trigger the migraine. I also found out that as soon as the shimmering starts and I drank something with lots of sugar in it I would not throw up, but I did get the splitting headaches

Last time I had the shimmers I drank a lot of pineapple juice and it just went away, no head ache nothing. Last time I had a migraine attach was 3 years ago.