ACCUMULATION/ DISCHARGE CYCLE (PRESSURE CHANGES)
I believe migraines are down to pressure changes and this is why atmospherics (Barometric pressure) plays a part in creating the condition. I got the first clue when I was told by Mrs Turner of Migraine Action, that contrary to popular opinion it wasn't stress but relaxation that bought on the condition.
After this I saw a program about Altitude sickness, where I recognized my symptoms and saw them being treated through the use of a pressure suit called a Gamow Bag. This then led me to wonder if a decompression chamber could be used to treat the condition as it is with The Bends (again like Mountain Sickness and Migraine, caused by sudden decompression). So I emailed The Medical Research Council in the UK, only to discover that a successful experiment had been carried out in a Hyperbaric chamber for this very purpose (Mentioned in Blackwells Medical Journal, I believe).
I then turned my attention to other conditions and triggers that seemed related. Alcohol poisoning for instance is very similar to the effects of migraine attacks - vomitting, dizziness, hangover i.e. severe headache. In fact Dr Henry Bieler in his book "Food is the Best Medicine" suggests that the latter is just a glorified version of the latter. Menstruating women get attacks because the condition weakens them and only overcome migraines when The Menopause stops this happening. In my opinion Migraines are the physiological equivalent of Bipolar Disease or Manic Depression (hyper state followed by collapse as system drained). Other triggers like hunger, exhaustion, emotional discharge (anger temper tantrum), sexual release and sleep (I personally believe it is not hunger in the night that leads to waking migraines but the deep relaxation state achieved in the early hours, when the body is at its most vulnerable*: I'd further say that conscious wear and tear is the problem and that illness is actually the body trying to repair the damage, by putting the body out of commission, much like a car coming off the road and going into a garage). (* See Islay incident under 'Spasm' below for history).
That this ties in with my theory of life being an Accumulation/ Discharge Cycle becomes more obvious in this connection, when you look at the effects of aging - again very similar symptoms: dementia (delirium - loss of contact with the real world), loss of balance problems (Labyrinthine disease), loss of appetite and vomitting (inability to keep food down/ attention elsewhere).
SPUTEM TEST/ BRAIN SCAN
After stopping for a coffee once and on arriving home, vomitting it back up in a distilled condition (pure coffee - no milk, no sugar), I thought maybe medical researchers could check such attack samples for trigger material (Gluten, fat residue, food additives, bile, hormones?). Does anyone know if this has been tried and found effective?
The above led me to wonder if a brain scan during an attack, would show the actual location of an attack? I also wondered if brain waves had been measured during an attack (Alpha / Gamma/ Delta) and whether Biofeedback techniques could be used to control it? Could Sensory Deprivation Tanks be used in treatment, in a similar way?
Migraines have been linked to epilepsy - could it again be a sudden electrical surge that is the problem and not the flooding of blood vessals that follows? (The effects of lightning are similar to both conditions and include twitching, memory loss and an inability to make sense of language (speaking or hearing), plus blankly staring into space as if in a trance (Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as opposed to ordinary epilepsy or most ordinary migraines). This would make sense as an attack being an emotional brainstorm. It might also make sense of blind spots on the retina and the jagged pattern seen in some attacks (Burn out like in a computer screen, leaving the sufferer unable to function - frozen screen/ data lost and inability to respond therefore).
The amygdala has been linked to strong, primitive emotion ('Emotional Intelligence' by Daniel Goleman) and is in my opinion is obviously part of the mechanism at work here.
DIET
I noticed that before an attack my mouth tasted bitter and nasty (bile?) but after, tasted sweet - is this insulin kicking in?
I've noticed that I have digestive problems linked to my attacks (Carbs?/ Fats?) and crave protiens sometimes after an attack. Has any research work been done on this angle I wonder? Could 'Superfood' supplements help?
SPASMS
Could the cold extremities suffered during an attack have any connection with the post attack arthritic attacks in my hands (Go into spasm, so that fingers/ thumbs lock into position and wont move for some time after (leeching of minerals in the joints?)). I've also noticed that I suffer from phenomenal tension in my lower back and calves plus soles of feet, believing it again to be be related to the condition as a build up of symptoms (I can crack my fingers, neck, left shoulder (my attacks are centred on the left hemisphere), left foot and big toe thereof, knees, wrists and back). When I was on Islay, on holiday in a nature reserve, it was so quiet that I didn't get migraines but instead had vertigo attacks. Once I left the island I had a migraine attack, leading me to wonder if it was a deep state of relaxation that induced waking migraines and not a nutritional trigger as current medical thought would have it: I use a Yoga Backstretcher at night and sometimes it can induce the same vertigo attach as on Islay (Accumulated stress build upduring the day - nowhere near as effective, first thing in the morning).
EXCRETION
I've noticed that urination/ defecation increases during an attack - could this be a sign of the body speeding up into a climax, that leads to the collapse of an attack? Trance dancing as seen in Voodoo and Whirling dervishes etc. made me think that maybe the reason we've had a spate of migraine sufferers in recent years is that work induced stress and long hours, has led to an accidental replication of this phenomena. Instead of primitive natives in far off lands doing it deliberately, to create a state of delirium, dizziness and nausea - we've got it here because we've driven ourselves too far as a society?
