Ocular migraines are a type of a headache that occurs when the blood supply to the eyeballs is restricted, sometimes due to the constricting of the blood vessels or from a blood clot. This kind of ailment can feel extremely painful around the eyes and in the front of the head, but normally it will only last up to 5 minutes.
While this is a short time span compared to other types of headaches, it can be devastating for the sufferer to experience regularly. To limit the occurrence of even having one, its important to take the time to learn more about the causes of this ailment and the variety of ocular migraine triggers.
Ocular Migraine Triggers and Treatment
Common symptoms of aura are blurred vision, double vision, seeing spots, flashing lights in your vision, and sometimes partial or full vision loss. These symptoms can be accompanied by headache pain in and around the eyes, which is common.
Sufferers should be aware of the difference between having this kind of affliction and having a stroke. This is because both of these have symptoms that affect eyesight. Of course, an important consideration is that a stroke is life-threatening, while a headache usually isn’t.
Influencing Factors
There are a variety of ocular migraine triggers. For those whose eyes are sensitive to light, direct sunlight exposure can lead to this kind of ailment. Apart from avoiding going out into the bright sun, obviously, the best solution is to prevent direct sunlight from getting in your eyes by wearing tinted prescription glasses or regular sunglasses when you go outside.
For some, there are factors in their lifestyle that can cause these kinds of symptoms.
For example, excessive smoking can lead to all types of migraines because the nicotine in cigarettes is a vasoactive substance. This means that when you smoke, the nicotine causes the blood vessels to constrict and change in size, potentially restricting blood supply to the brain and eyeballs. If you are a regular smoker, the simple act of reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke every day could impact the frequency and intensity of your headaches.
Other ocular migraine triggers include constant stress, low blood pressure, and dehydration.
In some people, exercise and abrupt movements can also cause these symptoms because tensing your body (lifting heavy weights or moving boxes, for example) can cause a spasm in the artery that supplies blood to the eyes. Although this is rare and hard to avoid, knowing which exercises consistently lead to this kind of affliction can allow you to avoid those movements.
Treatment
All of the influencing factors discussed above can all be avoided by leading a healthier lifestyle.
Some suggestions include practicing de-stressing techniques in order to relax your body. This is because when the body is relaxed, there is less change of high blood pressure.
Another way is to ensure that your diet is balanced and that you are getting all the nutrients you need, as this can help to make sure there are no imbalances in your body.
As mentioned in many other similar blog posts, dehydration is a prominent cause of headaches. Therefore it’s important to drink water all the time, and to make an effort to drink clean water. To put this into perspective, you should be drinking 8 cups a day to ensure that you aren’t dehydrated.
Visit a Doctor Regularly
In addition to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you should also go for regular checkups with your doctor to monitor your blood pressure and learn the best solutions to manage it properly. This is because blood pressure is associated with a variety of other health issues, so it’s in your best interest to manage it to prevent a variety of ailments in the future.
You should also discuss the current medications you are taking with your doctor to know if they might be causing your symptoms. This is important, as medication can affect everyone differently.
Conclusion
While ocular migraine triggers don’t lead to headaches that aren as intense in longevity as other types of migraines, they still interrupt your daily function and routine. While the symptoms might not last that long, sufferers know all to well the inconvenience of having to pause life because they have stop what they’re doing and deal with intense pain, and symptoms that prevent them from living their life.
As we’ve discussed in this article, the best way to prevent this condition from occurring is to understand your personal causes and learn how to work around them. Every person is different and various factors can affect everyone differently, based on their genetics and physiology.
This makes it very important to visit a medical professional, and make the effort to understand your body and to know how it reacts to different actions and environments.
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