Migraines

[kymom99]

I thought this might be a good place to gather some info. Do any of you suffer from migraines, and if so have you ever experienced gastric stasis? I have done some digging after experiencing some strange digestive issues and I think this might be the answer. My poor doctor has tried to figure things out from my description of symptoms but I never tied the migraines to it before.
For those who aren’t sure, here’s a description of gastric stasis: The term “gastric stasis” means that the stomach empties more slowly than it should. Gastric stasis is common in people with migraine and is thought to cause the nausea and vomiting that happens during an attack. In people with migraine, gastric stasis is common both during and outside the migraine attacks.1
This has been so bad a few times that I have bern unable to eat for several days. Unfortunately the worst episodes have bern when I was out of town. Once at the Grand Canyon, once in a cruise ship, and once this week while in a trip to see my son.
Anyone else experience those?

 

[barkley]

i just learned of these in september. my 24 year old had been having periodic episodes of dry heaves and vomiting seemingly from out of nowhere. our primary care had scans and a scoping done to rule out anything gastric or esophageal. when the scoping came back normal the doctor who did it asked if ds had any history of migraines. we said 'yes' so he explained about the possibility of this condition and prescribed a trial low dose scrip of amitriptylin. the difference is like night and day. almost no episodes in over 3 months (it was at least 3 or 4x per week before). ds takes one at night 30 minutes before he goes to bed (it has also drastically improved his sleeping patterns).

 

[kymom99]

i just learned of these in september. my 24 year old had been having periodic episodes of dry heaves and vomiting seemingly from out of nowhere. our primary care had scans and a scoping done to rule out anything gastric or esophageal. when the scoping came back normal the doctor who did it asked if ds had any history of migraines. we said 'yes' so he explained about the possibility of this condition and prescribed a trial low dose scrip of amitriptylin. the difference is like night and day. almost no episodes in over 3 months (it was at least 3 or 4x per week before). ds takes one at night 30 minutes before he goes to bed (it has also drastically improved his sleeping patterns).

That’s amazing! I’ll keep this in mind, thank you!
I’m wondering if there have been any side effects.

 

[tzolkin]

Wow. I wish I would have known about this sooner. After being miserable for over a year with abdominal issues, I spent a bunch of money having tests and procedures with no answers at all. Then I partially convinced myself that maybe it really was in my head because after all that it wasn't really bothering me much anymore. Of course, that was the same time my neurologist started me on a few different meds that finally got my migraines under control. The year+ that I was having the awful GI issues I was also having migraines a minimum of 20 days per month.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Try to find a Dr who has migraine, to me there is such a difference in care IMO. I do Botox now which has cut them in half from 22 a month starting when I was around 10YO to about 11 a month with Botox. The Botox actually really really helps with arthritis pain in my neck as a very happy bonus, I would totally Botox all sorts of parts if it was a thing to be perfectly honest. I sometimes get visual only or nausea only but generally they are in place of the head pain and have sublingual tablets they use for chemo patients for the nausea which works like a charm, head stuff doesn't do anything for stomach stuff or the visual. Most people are completely ignorant that there are people who only get stomach migraine or only visual migraine. From what I've read the seemingly bizarre random stomach stuff is most common in children, most adults morph into head pain but not all. For me the head medicine doesn't touch the stomach or visual kind, I have sublingual for the worst stomach ones and use Urgent Care for Toradol for multi day breakthroughs - not ER, never ER. Personally, I try to screen Dr's for those who have migraine themselves, nothing worse than trying to make a person who thinks it's make believe pay attention - I just ignore them now.

 

[kymom99]

Wow. I wish I would have known about this sooner. After being miserable for over a year with abdominal issues, I spent a bunch of money having tests and procedures with no answers at all. Then I partially convinced myself that maybe it really was in my head because after all that it wasn't really bothering me much anymore. Of course, that was the same time my neurologist started me on a few different meds that finally got my migraines under control. The year+ that I was having the awful GI issues I was also having migraines a minimum of 20 days per month.

So the meds have helped? I take sumatriptan in the form of a pill. It works in general but when I have the digestive issues, it’s like my body doesn’t absorb it. Often I throw it back up. It doesn’t happen much but when it does, man is it miserable.

 

[DLgal]

That’s amazing! I’ll keep this in mind, thank you!
I’m wondering if there have been any side effects.

This drug has been used for migraine prevention for a LONG time. The main side effects would aggravate your abdominal issues, so I'd stay away.

I have had migraine and IBS (predominantly constipation) since I was a teen. I tried this drug at first and it made my digestive issues 100% worse and did nothing for my headaches.

I also have slow gastric emptying that accompanies my migraine bouts. In fact, I often get a migraine at the same time or shortly before an IBS attack. Both conditions go hand in hand very frequently. My mom suffers from them as well.

I also take sumatripatan. If you often throw up up, there is a nasal spray version and also an injection you can have your doctor switch your prescription to. The injection is easy to self administer. I used it successfully in the past.

I have found the most relief from my digestive issues and migraines by drinking Kefir every day and taking Culturelle IBS Complete Support. These things keep the digestive process "moving along", so to speak.

In addition, if you get frequent migraines, I highly recommend getting allergy tested. I spent my entire life convinced that I didn't have allergies, until I found out I have quite severe environmental ones. I was getting hives frequently (but had no typical allergy symptoms like nasal congestion, runny nose or sneezing). Once I got the allergy test results back, along with sky high blood IgE levels, and saw that I am allergic to basically everything, and started taking a daily Allegra, the migraines have all but vanished. Allergies are a common casue of migraine due to elevated histamine/inflammation in the body. Once you get that under control, the headaches diminish in frequency.drug

There are also new drugs available for migraine called CGRP inhibitors. They seem to work well for people when other options fail. The science around migraine causes has advanced quite a lot in recent years and they now believe they are caused primarily by inflammatory responses, not the old theory that they are caused by blood vessel dilation and aggravated nerves in the head. Newer drug therapies that target the inflammation are the focus now. This is also why NSAIDs work much better than Tylenol or narcotic pain relievers for migraine. Toradol is often the first line treatment given in an ER/Urgent care. It's a strong NSAID. You may want to try using Aleve for your migraines. 2 pills will stop almost 100% of my migraines without needing to take the Rx. They have rapid release versions of Aleve and it's more gentle on the stomach than ibuprofen.

 

[tzolkin]

So the meds have helped? I take sumatriptan in the form of a pill. It works in general but when I have the digestive issues, it’s like my body doesn’t absorb it. Often I throw it back up. It doesn’t happen much but when it does, man is it miserable.

Yes, both sumatriptan and rizitriptan make me very nauseous (which the migraine already does anyway) and I will often vomit. But I will still take one of them when I really need it. You can get a prescription for dissolving zofran for the nausea that you can take at the same time.

I take propranolol daily for migraine prevention.

I also started taking naritriptan 5 days out of the month for prevention as well. The combination of the two seems to be working.

If you would have asked me if my migraines were related to my menstrual cycle I would have said definitely not (because I had them 20+ days out of the month so it just seemed like I had them all the time), but when my doctor had me track my symptoms more carefully I found that the most severe ones that were lasting for many days were related. So I take the naritriptan for a few days before and during my period. It doesn't completely prevent me from getting a migraine, but I have not had any of the really major ones that last for 10+ days.

 

[PollyannaMom]

For those who aren’t sure, here’s a description of gastric stasis: The term “gastric stasis” means that the stomach empties more slowly than it should.

That sounds like what my DS went through over the summer (though without the migraines) but his doctor called it gastroparesis. He's vulnerable to it kind of flaring up occasionally (especially when he's been sick or stressed) but now he recognizes the signs and switches his diet for a bit to head it off:

Here are some tips.

 

[LuvOrlando]

https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/abdominal-migraine
https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/abdominal-migraine/

 

[kymom99]

Yes, both sumatriptan and rizitriptan make me very nauseous (which the migraine already does anyway) and I will often vomit. But I will still take one of them when I really need it. You can get a prescription for dissolving zofran for the nausea that you can take at the same time.

I take propranolol daily for migraine prevention.

I also started taking naritriptan 5 days out of the month for prevention as well. The combination of the two seems to be working.

If you would have asked me if my migraines were related to my menstrual cycle I would have said definitely not (because I had them 20+ days out of the month so it just seemed like I had them all the time), but when my doctor had me track my symptoms more carefully I found that the most severe ones that were lasting for many days were related. So I take the naritriptan for a few days before and during my period. It doesn't completely prevent me from getting a migraine, but I have not had any of the really major ones that last for 10+ days.

I had hoped my migraines would stop when I got through menopause because my moms did, but no such luck.

 

[kymom99]

https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/abdominal-migraine
https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/abdominal-migraine/

It’s interesting that I realize I had stomach issues all my life. About 15 years ago they checked me for gall stones but I didn’t have any.

 

[stsomewhere]

My daughter has horrible migraines and stomach pains. Yes, you can get migraines in your stomach bt we were told that they were mostly in children. When she was 16 yrs old, she was diagnosis with gastroparesis. If your migraines are bad, go to a neurologist. There are many different types of meds that you can try. There ae some new monthly shots out that have really helped my daughter out.

 

[tcufrog]

I have IBS, really bad allergies, and suffer from migraines. I take amitriptylin for my migraines. I still get really headaches but they usually aren't migraines. I spent years trying to get my IBS under control without success. I finally found a nutrition clinic that tested me for all sorts of food sensitivities. It turns out I have an extensive list of foods my gut is sensitive too and once I eliminated them from my diet, I stopped having problems.

 

[RogueX]

I have basilar migraines, which can mimic strokes. I've had them since 18 and have run through roughly 23 or so different medications to get control of them.

In 2011 I woke up one day and couldn't stop vomiting. All sorts of tests were run, from endoscopy to radioactive egg test to see if my stomach was slow at emptying. No luck. Well, turns out I actually had cyclic vomiting syndrome, something only typically seen in kids. I was already taking Topamax for migraines and Zofran disintegrating tabs for nausea/vomiting. The next course for CVS is Amitriptyline, which is also used for migraines (as mentioned above), though was ineffective on mine. It did however, help with the vomiting.

I eventually did get Botox for a while, which helped along with my other medications helped my migraines. I was put on Emgality and that has helped the most though.

 

[hollydolls]

Very interesting! I do suffer from migraines and used to get very nauseated with them, though I rarely vomited. When I did, though, it was so bad that I burst capillaries in my face and would look awful for weeks.

I found that taking magnesium (800mg daily) was the only thing to get rid of migraines and keep them away. It took about 3 months of supplementing daily for them to disappear and sometimes flashing lights will still cause them, though they are muted.

I thought maybe this would be helpful since one of the side effects of too much magnesium can be, uhm, rapid digestive emptying. However I'm seeing that it actually can worsen gastrointestinal stasis! I do not understand our bodies

 

[kymom99]

Very interesting! I do suffer from migraines and used to get very nauseated with them, though I rarely vomited. When I did, though, it was so bad that I burst capillaries in my face and would look awful for weeks.

I found that taking magnesium (800mg daily) was the only thing to get rid of migraines and keep them away. It took about 3 months of supplementing daily for them to disappear and sometimes flashing lights will still cause them, though they are muted.

I thought maybe this would be helpful since one of the side effects of too much magnesium can be, uhm, rapid digestive emptying. However I'm seeing that it actually can worsen gastrointestinal stasis! I do not understand our bodies

Me either! And doctors keep wanting to look for the cause in the digestive system itself. Not that I blame them. Who would connect the 2?

 

[emer95]

Oh my goodness, this post could not be more timely. I have been truly suffering with an on and off migraine since mid-November. My life has been miserable. I was in bed in a dark room on thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and plenty of days on between. Working has been extremely challenging and I’ve missed several days.
I’ve tried pretty much every Med and preventative out there. Botox, Emgality, Aimovig, Topomax, etc. Triptans have never helped me. I was in the ER twice in the past month… I feel like such a complainer but it’s wretched.
But to answer your question. YES, the nausea is sometimes worse than the head pain. I take Zofran but it has kind of lost its efficacy. My neurologist told me to double it and take 8 mg (so 2 pills) and that only works some of the time. I’ve got a host of nausea remedies; ginger candy, nausea lozenges from Target, baked Lays help for some reason, ginger ale, Tums, etc.

I have lost 15 pounds since this migraine started. Even when I’m not experiencing crippling nausea, I just have no appetite at all.
i sincerely wish you the best and hope you get some answers!

 

[kymom99]

Oh my goodness, this post could not be more timely. I have been truly suffering with an on and off migraine since mid-November. My life has been miserable. I was in bed in a dark room on thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and plenty of days on between. Working has been extremely challenging and I’ve missed several days.
I’ve tried pretty much every Med and preventative out there. Botox, Emgality, Aimovig, Topomax, etc. Triptans have never helped me. I was in the ER twice in the past month… I feel like such a complainer but it’s wretched.
But to answer your question. YES, the nausea is sometimes worse than the head pain. I take Zofran but it has kind of lost its efficacy. My neurologist told me to double it and take 8 mg (so 2 pills) and that only works some of the time. I’ve got a host of nausea remedies; ginger candy, nausea lozenges from Target, baked Lays help for some reason, ginger ale, Tums, etc.

I have lost 15 pounds since this migraine started. Even when I’m not experiencing crippling nausea, I just have no appetite at all.
i sincerely wish you the best and hope you get some answers!

Oh this makes me so sad! I hope you find answers but it sounds like you have tried about everything. Do you know your triggers?

 

[emer95]

Oh this makes me so sad! I hope you find answers but it sounds like you have tried about everything. Do you know your triggers?

Thank you. I believe my triggers are hormones and stress. I’m 47, so I’m just getting to a “certain age.” My neurologist said it will likely get worse before it gets better.