Podcast: Focus on Sleep Apnea
Are sleep problems giving you a headache, or triggering migraine attacks? Find out what sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea) is, recent research about its dangers, and how to stop it.
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James
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Understand Migraine
 Photo courtesy of Avenue G |
I started researching and writing about migraine many years ago, because I saw there was an unbelievable amount of misunderstanding and misinformation about it.
If you have migraine and really want your friends and family to understand, or maybe an employer or associate, then this would be a great place to direct them.
If you have a friend or family member who has migraine, thank you for taking the time to read this post, and the linked information. Your understanding can be a huge help!
Start here
Before we talk about what exactly migraine is, take a look at what visitors to this site with migraine had to say. I asked them what they wished family and friends understood about their headache or migraine. You can read their answers in What I wish you knew…
The Facts about Migraine
Really understand migraine from start to finish with these three articles:
- What is Migraine? (the scientific story): The latest research on what exactly migraine disease is, and why people get the symptoms they do.
- What is Migraine? (the Story of Symptoms): So we know a little about what’s going on in the body, but what are the actual symptoms a migraine patient may experience? You might be surprised!
- What is Migraine? (The Life Impact Story): The science and the symptoms don’t tell the whole story. How does having migraine actually impact someone’s life? Don’t miss the comments after the article!
More to check out…
If you’ve read the articles so far, you already know more than most about migraine. Here are a few more resources to check out:
- The Migraine Quiz: A quick and fun quiz to clear up some myths about migraine.
- Some people use art of explain what they’re going through. See the migraine art our visitors have shared here, or see a video with some of the art in it.
- One of the best offline resources for sharing about migraine is the book Migraine Expressions: A Creative Journey through Life with Migraine. Click the link to read my review.
Thank you for taking the time to get a little more understanding about migraine. Of course, there’s no way to completely understand what someone else is going through, but you’ve taken the first step.
First Migraine then Bloodshot Eye – What’s up?
So you had what seemed to be a migraine attack. First migraine then bloodshot eye. A bloodshot eye? Is that a symptoms of migraine?
First I should ask what you mean by a "bloodshot eye". You could mean that you actually have a large red patch in your eye. That is what is called a subconjunctival hemorrhage. This happens when one of the tiny blood vessels in the membrane covering your eye bursts. Though it looks terrible, it’s usually harmless and goes away in a few days to a couple of weeks. The hemorrhage itself is generally not painful (if it is, talk to your doctor).
 A bloodshot eye from an infection |
A subconjunctival hemorrhage is rarely associated with migraine.
On the other hand, some people talk about bloodshot eyes and are referring to inflammation. When the blood vessels become inflamed, they become more red and prominent in the eye. This type of bloodshot eye, or red eye, is actually very common in migraine.
This migraine attack may include not only red eyes but watery eyes. The symptoms, along with the congestion that often comes along with migraine, lead many to believe they have a "sinus headache".
Why a Migraine then Bloodshot eye? Possible cause…
As a migraine attack progresses, it causes inflammation, especially around the head and facial area. It’s this inflammation that may cause the symptoms around the eyes and nose, such as a runny nose, watery eyes, and congestion. This part of the inflammation probably starts with the trigeminal nerve and spreads.
So what can be done?
If the bloodshot eye is simply part of the migraine attack, migraine treatment should resolve the red eyes along with everything else. However, this brings us to a couple of warnings.
Are you sure it’s Migraine?
If you’re experiencing new symptoms, or your symptoms have changed, you should talk to a doctor who knows your medical history. A bloodshot eye could be a sign of something else, and to treat it you need to know what you’re dealing with. For example, glaucoma, which may also make you nauseous and sensitive to light.
A bloodshot eye is actually a much more common symptom of cluster headache. Cluster headache pain is often localized around one eye, one side of the temple, or in the upper jaw. Like migraine, symptoms may include congestion. The eye may become red, and the eyelid may droop.
During a cluster headache, the person becomes agitated and may pace the floor, where migraine patients more commonly want to lie down in a dark room.
These are called "clusters" because they come in cycles of several weeks or months, then they disappear for months or even years. The headaches generally last from 15 to 3 hours, and will repeat from every other day to several times a day.
If these symptoms sound like you, you may have cluster headache. But either way, if you’re having new symptoms, or you’re not sure, talk to your doctor.
The migraine then bloodshot eye sequence is not unusual. Read here for more on the strange symptoms of migraine.
Highlights from the last 3 Months (February 2009 edition)
Here are some of the posts that have been the most popular with visitors to this site over the last 3 months. Go back and catch up on the ones you missed! The most popular are last:
- Fight Migraine: Be nice to your Mitochondria: Migraine and mitochondrial disease – is there a connection?
- Doxycycline for daily headache? New clues about chronic daily headache
- Little Known Ways to Get to Sleep (even with a Headache) Some tips from around the internet that might be new to you
- Anti-seizure meds and Suicide Confusion over side effects of medication used for migraine
- Migraine Nasal Spray – Should You Try One? Why people are turning to nasal sprays for migraine
- Get a Headache after Working Out? It’s a common problem, and there are solutions
- Our What is Migraine? series continues to be popular – all three: What is Migraine? (the scientific story), What is Migraine? (the Story of Symptoms) and What is Migraine? (The Life Impact Story)
- 5 Signs You have Retinal Migraine The real story about this rare condition
- Is High Blood Pressure Causing My Headache? The answer, and a surprising twist
A Sleep Apnea Mystery Solved?
Dr. Bradley was puzzled. These patients with heart and kidney failure often had something else in common. Sleep apnea. Why?
In the most recent edition of HeadWay, we were exploring the connection between sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea) and migraine, headaches and cluster headache. There’s good evidence for a strong relationship. It seems many people with headache and migraine also have sleep apnea, and we know that sleep patterns are closely related to an increase in these other attacks.
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Sleep apnea interrupts sleep, and can make you drowsy during the day. It can also lead to serious heart problems and diabetes.
But the underlying cause of sleep apnea is not easy to explain. We know that, for example, obesity is a risk factor. But many people with sleep apnea are not obese, and are otherwise fairly healthy. So what’s the problem?
Dr. Douglas Bradley, who we mentioned earlier, noticed that his patients did have something else in common. Fluid retention (oedema).
Could fluid retention be causing the sleep apnea?
Dr. Bradley and his team set out to study 23 non-obese men. When these men got horizontal to sleep, the fluid shifted in their bodies, and the circumference of their necks actually increased. For the control group, it was an increase of 1/2 a centimetre. But for those with sleep apnea, it was double that, 1 centimetre. Why? You guessed it. Fluid.
So what’s happening? Dr Bradley explains:
Gravity forces fluid down to the bottom of the body when you are sitting and your legs are inactive. Standing and walking cause the calf muscles to contract, pumping fluid from the legs up through the veins toward the heart.
When you lie down to sleep, that "extra" fluid gets redistributed, causing the increase in neck circumference, which may be causing blockage leading to some sleep apnea. (Read the story at Groundbreaking study results could help reduce the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea)
This surprising turn of events leads to some interesting treatments for sleep apnea, and so for the headaches it causes.
The first, best, and most obvious? Move around!
If you tend to sit or even stand a lot of the day, try changing position, going for walks, getting your leg muscles working. This keeps the fluid moving through your body the way it’s supposed to.
Dr. Bradley also suggests that elevating your upper body while you sleep may help, interestingly enough something that was recently discussed in a blog carnival entry Sleeping off my headache….
Other common treatments for fluid retention? Don’t eat too much salt. Drink plenty of water. And how about this – one treatment for decreasing fluid retention that comes with the menstrual cycle is magnesium. We keep coming back to that, don’t we?
One more interesting note. Some drugs can increase fluid retention, such as NSAIDs (ie naproxen, oxaprozin and ibuprofen), and calcium channel and beta blockers, all commonly used for migraine, and often various types of headache.
Often sleep apnea is treated with special masks worn at night, implants, and even surgery. But for many, this discovery may lead to solutions that are much less drastic. And that means a lot less headaches.