After a Migraine: Vision Problems and Stroke Risk?

We all know about visual auras in some migraine attacks – blinking lights, patterns, partial (or even total) blindness, for example.  But could migraine be hurting your vision even when you’re not having an attack?

Patterns are often used to test visual abnormalities

Researchers are paying more and more attention to the impact that migraine disease has even when we’re not in the middle of a so-called “attack”.  For example, migraine may increase your risk of other problems.  Take stroke for example – a recent study suggests that people with visual aura in a migraine attack have larger strokes.

Researchers also recognize that migraine patients have symptoms in-between attacks – inter-ictal symptoms.  Could vision problems be one of these?

Researchers at The University of Melbourne in Australia did some in-depth study of 43 people, 17 with migraine, to find the answer.  And the answer was – yes.  Migraine patients do have visual abnormalities in-between attacks.

This testing was more than reading letters on the wall.  Researchers measured electrical responses of the retina, and used other tools to measure visual abnormalities.  They found that there was both retinal and cortical dysfunction, although it varied from patient to patient and could change over time.

Although there does seem to be increased stroke risk in some types of migraine, there’s a lot we need to learn about the symptoms and inter-ictal symptoms of different types of migraine.  Wouldn’t it be great to walk into a doctor’s office, be diagnosed with a very specific type of migraine, and then have a profile of common symptoms and preferred treatments?

Although we’re not there yet, we do know of many types of migraine, and it’s very important to get a specific diagnosis.  Do you have migraine?  What kind?  Typical aura without headache?  Basilar-type migraine?  Hemiplegic migraine?  There are many other types, and your diagnosis will help your doctor give you a better treatment.

One of the most important things you can do is keep a migraine diary, and keep track of your symptoms.  Maybe you need to flip the page over, and start keeping track of those symptoms you experience in-between migraine, and other issues that might go along with migraine.  Do get your eyes checked regularly as well – sometimes migraine symptoms and eyesight problems can be confused – or related.

And regarding stroke and heart disease, a good summary is here: Migraine and Heart Disease: 7 Critical Things to Know Now.