Can a Sensor Detect a Migraine Before it Happens?

Hi ITgirl,

Very interesting!! It would be great to be able to know ahead of time when a migraine attack is impending. I'm not sure that's possible at the moment, but would be great!

Migraine is thought to be a genetic brain disease, falling on a spectrum. Meaning, a migraine attack can be mild, moderate and severe with all the accompanying symptoms. It may help to think of migraine being similar to having asthma. By this I mean we always have it, but not always have an attack. Does that make sense?

I hope that helps!
Nancy

Very interesting post. It raised a couple questions for me if you don't mind me asking... I'm just at the beginning stages of fighting for something that works for me and my migraines. You mentioned medical marijuana. I've heard this a few times. Does it work? What symptoms does it relieve? I've hard it used in so many different ways medically. I'm always up for a natural method vs. pumping my body full of pills. My Dr. gets frustrated with me because I'm always refusing some pill if the side effects can cause other issues. I refuse to solve one issue only to create another. I was on Amitriptyline for a while as a preventive - but then I started having strange cognitive issues - example, was driving home from work, was coming up to a red stop light, saw the light, saw the car in front of me stop, heard myself in my head say red light, red light...but could not get my foot to move off the gas - like there was a short between my brain and my foot doing what I was telling it to. Anyway, it only lasted a few seconds and I was able to stop in plenty of time - but it scared me enough to say take me off the preventive. Along with a few other strange "brain shorts" is what I called them. So I'm always reading to see what others are trying. What works/doesn't. I know everyone is different, but it's so helpful to hear others opinions that actually suffer. No offense to the Dr's., but they are so opt to push more pills that only cause more medical issues. I'm not all in for that.

On to the actual reason for you post... it would be amazing. Like those dogs that can sniff a seizure before one actually occurs. Man, wouldn't that be life altering???

Hi there. Yes, that's kind of what I was thinking. Me, I have some lovely som's. "sudden onset migraines) which mostly seem to only happen when I am awakened suddenly before my clock says to get up. My husband works odd hours, so this is a regular thing. One minute fine the next horrible pain. Anyway I was afraid to talk about the medical marijuana. After I made the post, I was worried that somehow I might get in trouble for it. I am glad I ignored my instinct to take it down. I have had good luck with CBD and THC. THC is what makes you feel "high" and CBD is also marijuana but doesn't have any THC so will provide pain relief without making you feel loopy.
It has been my experience that CBD drops tend to work but only for about 20 or 30 minutes, so I keep them in my purse to avoid embarrassing social situations. THC strains such as Gelato 33 (sp) work very well. Spell that like the ice cream. You want to look for things with high indica content. Because I tend to just have headaches every day, I have built up a tolerance so it doesn't effect me the way that it would if I hadn't ever done it. Still, if I know I've got to do something like work or something I know will cause me to have to be focused, I try to stay away.
As far as symptoms, it treats the headaches and nausea but can mess with your memory. Not like triptaleen though. I'm sorry, don't know how to spell that. I took that stuff and couldn't remember my address and the names of teachers that had taught me just a month before I started taking it. That really freaked me out. Pot doesn't mess with you like that. it just might make you forget what you were talking about, which can make for some funny situations. Wait... What was I saying?? What werre we just talking about? But I notice that happening way less since I decided that I was going to just use it as I needed it for pain. If you were going to try this, you'd need to get a mj card from your state. All laws in all states that have this are different. Arkansas doesn't allow you to actually list migraines as a condition. But there are some umbrella conditions that work. I chose intractable pain, because I figure I've had migraines since I was 13. Meds don't really cut it for me. The technical definition of intractable pain is pain that doesn't respond to medications. Anyway, if you decide to try it, just take it easy at first. And there are also many ways to ingest it if you don't like to smoke. There are concentrates and edibles and each does different things. I used to do edibles because they last a lot longer. Now I mostly vape or smoke because it works faster. Smoking or vaping (from a source that doesn't use any cutters or flavors of course) works instantly, whereas if you eat a cookie or something, that takes 30 minutes to work. Not cool if your head is hurting right now. Remember too that marijuana is designed to work with your body. Your body has a whole system called the endocanabinoid (sp) system. If you haven't figured it out, I am lazy about spelling. Anyway Marijuana has a bunch of these canabinoids so they bond to those receptors and that's why it helps with so many conditions. It's like a natural biologic. Like Humerra but not made in a lab. Also remember that if you feel a side-effect like feeling sleepy or something, you ought to probably go with it. Your body probably needs rest. I am making a very obvious statement I know, but everyone reading this knows what I mean. Oh migraine's gone. Yay. I'm going right back to work. It's important to note that you still have to make good treatment decisions. MJ covers up the symptoms, makes them go away, but if you don't take care of your body in the meantime by eating and resting when you feel the urge to do so, you're not letting the medicine do its job, as the body tends to heal when you sleep. Of course, I am preaching to myself as well because I am notorious for not resting enough. So okay, sorry for all the misspelled stuff. And I hope this helps someone.

Yes! I’ve been thinking about this lately. I don’t always getting the prodrome warning signs, but when I do, or even when I feel the pressure start, I just want to be like “but what does it MEAN?”

If I get the fuzzy vision at ten am, and it means I’ll be in pain by dinnertime, it would be a literal lifesaver if I knew what alarm was going off so I could eat something, lie down, stop doing whatever activity and just cut the migraine off now. Our bodies are giving us signals but we can’t read them :/