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Auras associated with Migraines |
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Written by Shelly B.
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Friday, 22 September 2006 |
Not all migraine headaches include the experience of aura. As few as 20% of migraine sufferers report the inclusion of any type of aura. Aura is defined as a distortion in ones perception. However, symptoms associated with auras are not limited specifically to visual distortion.
The aura stage of a complex migraine, usually lasts less than half an hour and its symptoms and effects can vary significantly from one migraine sufferer to the next. Depending upon how extreme these symptoms get, the aura stage can become something quite frightening and stressful.
Symptoms associated with auras can include but are not limited to: flashing lights, wavy or zigzagging lines, spots or shapes, blind spots or partial loss of sight, blurred vision, olfactory hallucinations the smell of aromas that are not really there, tingling or numbness about the face or extremities on the side where the headache develops, difficult speaking or forming words, mental confusion, vertigo, temporary paralysis, decreased or loss of hearing, reduced sensation, hypersensitivity to feel and touch.
An aura is caused by changes that take place within the outermost layer of the brain. With the depression of activity in the nerve cells, there is a resulting impairment in the function of the body part that is controlled by those cells. A slow spread in the depression of nerve cell activity is theorized to be the cause of the development of aura. The symptoms gradually build up and slowly make their way from one visual region to another.
An example of such would be the appearances of a squiggly lines or black spots appearing in the migraine sufferers line of vision. This might also include flashing lights or bright lines that zig and zag back and forth. The lines or spots will slowly grow in appearance over a period of a few minutes. This combination of vision loss accompanied by flashing lights or zigzagging lines distinguishes the typical migraine aura's so-called positive symptoms.
It is the combination of negative symptoms such as the loss of vision with the positive symptoms such as zigzagging lines that make up a migraine aura. The negative symptoms are caused by a depression of nerve activity. On the other hand, the zigzagging lines are caused by hyperactivity in the nerve cells. The origin of this sequence of neurological events leading to auras and headaches is still unknown. What is known, however, is that those suffering from migraines have been found to have an increased sensitivity to factors that generally are not headache triggers. Certain changes in the body and surrounding environment influence the severity of the auras and migraines associated with them.
In order to be officially designated as a migraine with aura, the headache sufferer is required to have had at least two headaches with three out of four of the following symptoms: One or more aura that originates in the cerebral cortex of the brain stem, an aura that developes slowly over a period of more than four minutes, the experience of two or more aura symptoms that occur at the same time, or symptoms that last for over an hour.
The headache itself may begin before, at the same time as, or at an interval of no more than an hour after the aura symptom occurs.. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 20 June 2008 )
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