Why Does Light Make Migraines Worse?

a migraine headach is when the blood vessels around the optic nerve (the big stringy thing that connects the eye to the brain) increase in pressure and literally squeeze the nerve. Thus making extremes in vision (aka, bright lights) very painful.

I get migraines. Thankfully mine are manageable. Usually if I catch it quick enough I can pop a few excedrine and I'm good to go. But if I let it go then I'm done for. The only thing I can do is try to take a nap and sleep it off. The pain gets so intense that it's not uncommon to vomit. Thankfully, it hasn't gotten that bad for me recently.

 

I get Migranes also Typically Severe pain Behind my right eye. Sometimes if I catch it Early I will take a cold can of soda and hold it to my eye for relief, if not sleep is the only way.

 

The reason excedrine works so well is because of the amount of caffine in it.
The caffine opens up the bloodvessels and reduces the pressure.

 

Uuuhhh,, thats not quite right.
Caffeine has no direct effect on the blood vessels, though it does raise the pulse rate, therefore pushing up blood pressure, as the heart is pumping more. It also raises intraocular pressure, which is the pressure within the eyes.

 

My headaches get worse when exposed to sound. At the right pitch, it becomes pure hell for me! Oddly enough, it is the same pitch of my wife's voice when she is rattling off her "honeydew list" and my headache gets so bad, that all I can do is sleep it off!

 

yeah right?!

Ask your wife to write the list down instead.

 

Boy, am I glad my wife wont be reading this! I got a good gimmick going and I got her fooled and you want to mess it up for me? Thanks alot! With friends like that...!
Just kidding, BTW.

 

I found that for my migraines (bad enough I have had to go to ER for shots before and also have prescriptions for the bad ones) if I catch it early enough a beer with 2 tylenol will keep it from getting to the usual extremes.

Now for those of you not medically aware Acetaminophen (tylenol) is bad on your liver, when taken with alcohol the damage done is dramatically increased. So yea this may not be healthy in the longrun, but when you get the kind of migraines that run in my family you say screw the longterm at that point.

 

You would need to take eight or more acetaminophen every day with alcohol to do real damage. As long as it just occasional for migraines, and you drink non-alcohol afterwards, it should not do much harm. Safe limit is 8 tablets in 24 hours, if they are the 500g tablets. Hope that helps!