Migraine with aura

Overview

A migraine with aura, often known as a classic migraine, is a severe headache that develops after or concurrently with sensory changes known as aura. Flashes of light, blind spots, and other vision alterations as well as tingling in your hand or face can be among these disturbances. This condition can appear 30 to 60 minutes before the onset of a migraine attack or even during one. It’s crucial to understand that not all migraine attacks include an aura.

Common migraine, often known as migraine without aura, receives the same treatments as migraine with aura. The same drugs and self-care techniques used to prevent migraine can also be used to try to avoid migraine with aura.

The migraine aura is unpleasant but not harmful. It can, however, mimic the signs of more severe illnesses like a stroke. Therefore, if you suspect something unusual is happening, it’s crucial to get medical attention.

Symptoms

Temporary visual or other disturbances are among the migraine aura symptoms, which typically appear before other migraine symptoms include severe head pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound.

A migraine aura often starts around an hour before head pain does and lasts for less than an hour. Sometimes, especially in those over 50, migraine aura can happen without a headache.

Visual signs and symptoms

The majority of sufferers of migraine with aura experience transient visual disturbances that often begin in the center of the field of vision and extend outward. These could consist of:

• Visual disturbances or loss
• Flashes of light
• Scotomas, or blind spots, are occasionally delineated by geometric patterns.
• Gradually floating zigzag streaks in your visual field
• Seeing stars or shimmering spots

Other disturbances

Other brief disruptions occasionally linked to migraine aura include:

• Problem speaking
• Weakness of the muscles
• Numbness, which frequently manifests as tingling on one side of your face or in one of your hands and may gradually affect a limb.

If you experience any new migraine with aura symptoms, such as momentary visual loss, trouble speaking or understanding, or weakness on one side of your body, consult your doctor right once. A stroke and other serious illnesses must be ruled out by your doctor.

Causes

There is proof that an electrical or chemical pulse that travels across the brain is what causes the migraine aura. The type of symptoms you can encounter depends on the area of the brain where the electrical or chemical wave propagates.

In areas that process sensory inputs, speech centers, or movement control centers, this electrical or chemical wave may manifest. The most frequent sort of aura is a visual aura, which manifests as visual symptoms when an electrical activity wave travels through the visual cortex.

The electrical and chemical waves do not affect the brain and can happen while the nerves are working normally.

Many of the migraine triggers, such as stress, strong lights, specific foods and drugs, getting too much or too little sleep, and menstruation, can also cause migraines with aura.

Risk factors

Although no particular factors appear to enhance the incidence of migraine with aura, those with a family history of migraine appear to experience headaches more frequently overall. Women experience migraines more frequently than men do.