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Might sound weird to people who have not experienced the hammer pounding nails into your head pain, but I am trying to connect with people in the north parts of Idaho who have migraines.
Where I live at 5,500 feet may be what is causing mine. I would like to know about the lower altitudes and if they prove to be a better choice.
I adore winter.
If you are constantly living at one altitude I'd guess you don't have a constant headache right? If you are driving up and down from one elevation to another that could very likely be the problem, not the altitude itself. As you increase your altitude the barometric pressure drops. As the pressure drops it affects blood vessels and pressure against nerves and muscles. If you are driving from one elevation to another in a relatively short time and the change is significant enough, here comes the headache. A severe headache is one of the symptoms of mountain or altitude sickness.
One thing you might track is whether you also get them right before or after a significant change in weather. High pressure to low pressure before or after storm fronts arrive. Different geography but similar effects.
One thing about migraine triggers....many are predictable so you can do a bit of symptom prevention if you know one is going to arrive. I've tried all sorts of supplements, herbs without much success, and even prescriptions but had a drug interaction. The remedy that works for me is classic Excedrin (or the more recent Excedrin Migraine) taken as soon as I feel it coming on. The combination of aspirin, acetaminophen, and caffeine (vasoconstrictor which counteracts the effects of low barometric pressure) works beautifully. Obviously you don't take the stuff over a long period of time, but you shouldn't need to if your trigger is barometric pressure change. In a pinch, such as camping or hiking a mug of hot caffeinated tea and honey usually helped.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-11-2019 at 01:59 PM..
I am near 63 and my first one came on at 23, so they are going nowhere. mine are inherited...great ay?
Weather is a huge factor, is why I call myself a walking barometer. Due to the migraines, I seldom travel. So I am at the same altitude all the time now. 7,000 feet and I get one.
I have tried Excedrin with no luck.
Parnassia, I greatly appreciate your taking time, along with the others who have posted.
Last edited by rubystandingDEER; 01-11-2019 at 02:15 PM..
"People who live at high altitudes may experience increased migraine prevalence, duration, and severity of symptoms, according to results from a population-based study conducted in Nepal and published in the European Journal of Neurology.1"
A migraine is a "vascular headache." It's caused by spasm of meningeal arterioles cutting off blood flow and, therefore oxygen to the involved tissues. It's also lack of oxygen that makes angina pectoris painful when a coronary artery is plugged, or claudication from plugged leg arteries, or that pain in your side when you run too far....Many people who call their very sever headaches "migraine" don't really have migraine. (That doesn't make yours any less painful or deserving of serious treatment, of course.)
Migraine is defined as a unilateral headache (one side sided), severe, often associated with a visual aura as it's coming on and often with nausea. Most often is seems to be located behind one eye. In the most severe, prolonged cases it can actually bring on neurological deficiencies or stroke (pretty rare.) It is almost always relieved by sleep.
If sleep doesn't relive it, or it's not limited to one side, the diagnosis of migraine comes into question. The diagnosis can also be questioned if some of the migraine meds like Imitrex don't work-- they work by reducing vascular spasm, not by treating pain per se. A headache relieved by aspirin or Advil etc is almost assuredly not a vascular migraine....I'm kinda splitting hairs here. It doesn't really matter if a sever headache is "really" migraine or not-- the goal is to treat the pain regardless of how we do that.
We all know migraines can be triggered by various factors- smells, foods, change in temperature etc etc. Change in air pressure isn't usually mentioned as one of them, and any of the posters above who find problems with pressure changes may really be having pain from sinus problems (Cf- a "brain freeze" from chugging your iced Slurpee too fast-- the air in your sinus chills and contracts leaving a relative vacuum in your sinus so the weight of the whole atmosphere is trying to crush your face.).
For you who think it's the air pressure-- will Imitrex or others like that relieve your migraines? I'll stand corrected about the effect of air pressure if they do.
For you who think it's the air pressure-- will Imitrex or others like that relieve your migraines? I'll stand corrected about the effect of air pressure if they do.
I tried Imitrex in the past. Just made me sick and at the time there were increasing concerns over interactions with an SSRI I also used. The OTC Excedrin symptom reliever with a lot of water works without that. I do have migraines...classic one-sided (always the same side), nausea, some optical effects but no aura. I've never had any sinus problems except the obvious temporary symptoms during a head cold. Once the OTC starts relieving the misery 2-3 hours of sleep usually kills it off.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-11-2019 at 02:49 PM..
guidoLaMoto
I used to use imitrex and it worked, however it nearly gave me a heart attack and the Doc took me off it.
Then I went on Demorel, which made me feel wonderful, but I kept getting rebounds that were worse than the original pain and I would go back for another shot. STUPID crap to use!
I used to inject DHE till the same thing with my heart started up again. I have been on everything they have had to offer. THE one thing that works for me is Lorazepam. BUT! My Doc says it "does not relieve pain." Bull crap. It helps me, but I am being weaned off it, the only thing that works for me.
Thanks for the feed-back. You fit the bill. I learned something today.
Maybe I was unaware of the effects of elevation change because I come from Chicago where "Mount Prospect" is just a winsome advertising lie from a clever real estate developer.
"People who live at high altitudes may experience increased migraine prevalence, duration, and severity of symptoms, according to results from a population-based study conducted in Nepal and published in the European Journal of Neurology.1"
A migraine is a "vascular headache." It's caused by spasm of meningeal arterioles cutting off blood flow and, therefore oxygen to the involved tissues. It's also lack of oxygen that makes angina pectoris painful when a coronary artery is plugged, or claudication from plugged leg arteries, or that pain in your side when you run too far....Many people who call their very sever headaches "migraine" don't really have migraine. (That doesn't make yours any less painful or deserving of serious treatment, of course.)
Migraine is defined as a unilateral headache (one side sided), severe, often associated with a visual aura as it's coming on and often with nausea. Most often is seems to be located behind one eye. In the most severe, prolonged cases it can actually bring on neurological deficiencies or stroke (pretty rare.) It is almost always relieved by sleep.
If sleep doesn't relive it, or it's not limited to one side, the diagnosis of migraine comes into question. The diagnosis can also be questioned if some of the migraine meds like Imitrex don't work-- they work by reducing vascular spasm, not by treating pain per se. A headache relieved by aspirin or Advil etc is almost assuredly not a vascular migraine....I'm kinda splitting hairs here. It doesn't really matter if a sever headache is "really" migraine or not-- the goal is to treat the pain regardless of how we do that.
We all know migraines can be triggered by various factors- smells, foods, change in temperature etc etc. Change in air pressure isn't usually mentioned as one of them, and any of the posters above who find problems with pressure changes may really be having pain from sinus problems (Cf- a "brain freeze" from chugging your iced Slurpee too fast-- the air in your sinus chills and contracts leaving a relative vacuum in your sinus so the weight of the whole atmosphere is trying to crush your face.).
For you who think it's the air pressure-- will Imitrex or others like that relieve your migraines? I'll stand corrected about the effect of air pressure if they do.
Most migraines do not include an aura. In many cases they are not relieved by sleep. I get hormonal migraines and they can last for days. Many women get hormonal migraines. The way to relieve hormonal migraines is to regulate the hormones. At one point, I was getting a 7-day migraine. Now they are much shorter.
As for pressure change migraines, they come on suddenly. I can be sitting at my desk and I can feel it happen instantly. I am usually not going outside- it is just a moment when the pressure changes and suddenly I have a headache. Usually with those I can take two Excedrin and it will go away. These headaches are well known and documented in the literature and are not sinus headaches. True sinus headaches are rare and what most people think are sinus headaches are actually migraines. I do get sinus headaches too, but usually I know I am having those because I can bend over and the pain will worsen.
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