“The good thing is it’s very rarely, if ever, associated with anything serious.” When to call the ophthalmologist They go away, and your eyes are fine,” Garber says. “While can be unsettling and disturbing, usually they result in no significant issues. Migraines and motion sickness both involve abnormal activity in reflexes in the brainstem, which processes input from the senses. “They are much more common in people with a history of migraine headache themselves, a history of motion sickness especially as a child, and a family history of headache,” says Joseph Garber, MD, an ophthalmologist at Eye Physicians & Surgeons of Chicago and assistant professor at Rush University Medical Center. A strong smell, loud noise, or bright light - like looking into a sunset - may trigger an ocular migraine in some people. In addition to food and drink, sensory triggers can also set off an ocular migraine. It’s often holiday-related people have gotten a couple of bottles of red wine for the holiday, or people got some funny peppermint bark from an auntie that had too much dark chocolate in it.” “In January, I probably see several people a day. “Interestingly, the time that we hear this the most is in January,” Andreoli says. Ocular migraines can happen at any time, but anecdotally, they often happen after the holidays, when many people have changes in routine, says Michelle Andreoli, MD, an ophthalmologist at the Northwestern Medicine Department of Ophthalmology and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. For migraine headaches, some medications and lifestyle changes can help. Just take a time-out, avoid triggers, and rest your eyes until the symptoms go away. There’s no need for treatment, unless a migraine headache accompanies the visual symptoms. Potential triggers are the same as for migraine headaches: chocolate, red wine, aged cheese, caffeine, hormone changes, stress, dehydration, and irregular sleep, among others. It temporarily alters blood flow to different parts of the brain and causes symptoms, but we don’t totally understand why or how it happens,” Blankshain says. “The blood vessels can spasm a little bit. While nobody knows for certain what causes ocular migraines, researchers suspect they involve a contraction or spasm in blood vessels in the brain’s vision center, or occipital lobe. “The classic thing is that it is in both eyes, lasts for a few minutes to an hour, and then just sort of goes away as quickly,” Blankshain says. Typically, the visual disturbance lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. Sometimes people see unusual shapes or colors, zigzags, a kaleidoscopic pattern, or wavy lines that look like heat waves coming off a grill. “The most common thing people see is sort of an arc in their vision that looks like a rainbow that’s shimmering,” says Kimberly Blankshain, MD, a neuro-ophthalmology fellow at UI Health. And good news: They’re usually not a cause for concern instead, they’re just a short-term, blingy inconvenience. One study estimates they affect 3% of women and 1% of men. Ocular migraines affect women more than men. Who knew you could get a migraine without a headache? And who knew the aura would look like sequins on a starlet’s dress? I had experienced an ocular migraine - also called a visual migraine or an ophthalmic migraine - which creates the aura associated with a migraine but without the telltale headache. Turns out, it wasn’t a torn retina, and I didn’t have to worry. And then, worried it was a retinal tear or detachment, I called my ophthalmologist. I put my head down in my arms because I couldn’t continue to work. A large crescent moon with shimmering silver sequins appeared in my eyes for about 20 minutes. One December day, as I sat in front of my computer, a sparkling, glittery object took over my sight.
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