March 9, 2022 - EyeClarity Podcast
Today I’m going to take a question on ocular migraines which can affect our eyesight and vision. I will talk about what scientists believe causes this and what you can do to help alleviate your symptoms. Enjoy the show. If you want more, sign up for my newsletter at: www.drsamberne.com.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
migraines, eyes, circulation, magnesium, vision, call, nutrients, visual, stress, co q, trigger, reduce, peripheral vision, pain, cranial sacral therapy, complementary treatments, lavender, milligrams, work, field
Hello, everyone, it’s Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions, you can send them to hello@drsamberene.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode.
Hey everybody, its Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to another EyeClarity Podcast. Today I’m going to take a question on ocular migraines. This is a related group of conditions. Many of these can affect our eyesight and vision. Sometimes we have pain that turns into migraines. And the jury is still out on what are the causes of migraines. There’s certainly a lot of discussion. But I want to go into briefly two types of migraines one is called an ophthalmic or visual migraine. And some scientists think that there’s an abnormal electrical activity that slowly spreads across certain regions of the visual cortex of our brain. They affect our eyes. And they usually start slowly. And they begin to create visual changes. And it takes about an hour or so one of the descriptions that sometimes is used is called scintillating scotomas, which means there may be some blind spots or vision goes in and out in terms of our ability to see things get blurry.
Then they’re what we call retinal migraines. And these are visual symptoms that take place, obviously, on the back part of the eye, the retina. And this usually occurs only in one eye. And so it’s not affecting both eyes. Sometimes this can be related to a change in our blood flow. Now, if we look at migraines, sometimes they cause what we call Aras. They can really create some debilitating, debilitating type of pain in the head. This idea of skill, scintillating scotomas means that we can either lose part of our vision, there’s a blind spot, sometimes our peripheral vision will start to tunnel. I see this sometimes in kids, especially if there’s a lot of stress in school, they’ll come for their eye exam. And there’s no real eye prescription that I find that I measure. But their visual fields, their peripheral vision is really really tunneled. And sometimes this will be accompanied with migraines, sometimes not. So the idea with migraines, at least from a conventional standpoint, is that if one can imprese increase the circulation, this can sometimes reduce the, the pain and inflammation. And so we look at conditions like hypertension, sinus issues, hormonal issues, sometimes foods can trigger migraines.
This can also affect us based on sinuses. Of course, there’s certain drugs that can trigger migraines such as drugs that treat epilepsy, and certain antidepressants, blood pressure medications. So all of these things are factors that potentially trigger migraines. You know, when I evaluate patients, one of the things I’m really looking at is the chronic stress and anxiety levels. Are they smokers? Are they dehydrated? What’s their blood sugar levels like? I’ve seen patients that migraines are triggered based on them coming to a higher altitude. And then finally, these are certain foods that can trigger migraines, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, MSG, sugar,
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processed foods. So when I counsel people, obviously they’re coming to see me because there’s complementary therapies that They’re, you know, looking to do they’ve, they’ve done the conventional therapies or they’ve been to a conventional doctor. And, you know, the doctor says, well, we’ll live with it, we can medicate you. So I’m going to go through a list of complementary treatments that sometimes can help lessen the, the migraine and eventually, if they are disciplined with these complementary treatments, they have a good chance to at least neutralize when the migraine comes on. So my top one in terms of body centered therapies would be cranial sacral therapy.
This, as you know, is a is a therapy that I recommend, I’m a cranial sacral therapist, and cranial sacral therapy can actually help improve the movement of the bones, the fascia, the connective tissue, the cerebral spinal fluid in the head, the neck, the shoulders, the the spine, the sacrum, so cranial work is definitely one of the things at the top of my list. Another one that I really like, is something called continuum movement continuum is a mind body practice. It was invented by Emily Conrad, who was a pioneer in the field of somatic therapy. And one of the most potent things about continuum movement is that you combine using sound different sounds that can open up compression in the tissue of the body. And when you combine sound with different sequences of breathing, and slow spiral movements, that sometimes you can actually really change the integrity of the tissue that’s compressed, that may be contributing to the migraine again, migraine. In my view, there’s a problem with the blood circulation that, you know, we get inflammation, oxidative stress leads to pain. And when we’re under stress, whether it’s visual stress, or just general stress. This is sometimes one of the reasons why these migraines get triggered.
Now, in terms of nutrients, there are a lot of great nutrients that can help perhaps improve the blood flow. And I’m going to go through the evidence based nutrients. Because the the idea behind it is is that we’re trying to support what we call mitochondria function. So the mitochondria are those energy organelles in the cell that produce something called ATP, which the more energy we have in our cells, then the better the circulation, the better the detoxification pathways, the better our nutrients absorption. So here are some ingredients that have been proven that you should be taking. If you are suffering, chronic migraines Coenzyme Q 10, riboflavin, b two, magnesium, niacin, carnitine, Alpha Lipoic Acid. All of these can support better mitochondria function better circulation. Magnesium is a big one most people are deficient in magnesium. My recommendation as a minimum is to do about 500 milligrams a day of magnesium. This helps relax the smooth muscle muscle muscles within the blood vessels there for reducing the peripheral vascular resistance and promoting better overall circulation.
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I also think that the B vitamins are really important riboflavin vitamin B too. I’m recommending somewhere between 104 100 milligrams a day. Research shows that this can actually help reduce the frequency of migraine attacks Kokoon tech co q 10. Somewhere between 102 100 milligrams per day study show that CO Q 10 along with magnesium may also be a good alternative to the tree to treatment using medication.
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I also think when you are suffering a visually based migraine, getting an exam that takes a look at what we call the functional aspects of our vision that means how well our two eyes work together. The focusing muscles how they’re working, what kind of prescription we’re wearing, and when we’re wearing it. And you know, if we have a functional vision problem now this goes beyond the 2020 eye chart, because most people that see 2020 on the eye chart, that’s their eyesight, but it’s not their vision is this skill set on how we track and focus and coordinate our eyes, to get an evaluation to see if our two eyes are working together. And if there’s any competition or confusion between our two eyes, and then of course, what prescription we’re wearing, when you maximize your peripheral vision, then you’re minimizing visual stress. So things like monovision, progressive lenses, you know, those are not great optical systems to support your visual system being open and flexible, and being in a soft, relaxed state.
So you needed to talk to your eye doctor about, you know, the state of your vision, and what optical system you may be looking through. And of course, all the screentime that we’re doing. blue blockers are important taking frequent breaks. And when you you know, when you take into account the fix the functional vision, this is a big part to what could be triggering the migraines. And finally, one of my favorite subjects, is the use of Aromatherapy Essential Oils. I love essential oils, because of their oxygenating and hydrating qualities, they tend to help reduce pain and inflammation, and the ones that I would recommend would be spike lavender, it’s a special kind of lavender that acts as an analgesic. It’s a natural form of kind of ibuprofen. And you can rub a few drops of frankincense around your temples or, or, you know, massage it on the scalp, you can even put a couple of drops in your hand and breathe it into your nose.
So lavender would be one, the spike lavender, the second would be peppermint, that’s another great one that you can massage on the scalp of the eyes, you scalp the head, sorry. And you can put a couple of drops on your hands. And you can again breathe it in through your nose. So you’re getting it nasal Lee, olfactory wise, you’re opening up the sinus. And peppermint is really great for just relaxing and opening up. In fact, one of the techniques I like to use with peppermint is I’ll get a cotton ball, I’ll tear it in half, I’ll put a couple of drops of peppermint oil on the cotton balls also wet them. And then they put them in not the the big part of where my ear is, but above where the creases. So I put it in both ears. And over about a period of 10 to 15 minutes, there’s this band of energy that runs from one year to the other, that really starts to open up the circulation in the head. And it’s one of my go twos when somebody is suffering, migraines, and they’re in that acute stage, and they don’t want to do pain medication, this cotton ball application of the peppermint oil.
Again, in the in the crease of the years, not the main part of the years, works, works wonders. So I really feel for people that go through the the migraine issue. And I think that today I laid out some things that could be valuable, think better circulation, more relaxation, better self regulation, and be aware of what you’re eating, what nutrients are taking, and mindfully. You know how you’re using your eyes, and maybe doing some of my eye exercises as a way to boost your vision in a way that reduces stress that could be one of the contributing factors to migraines. So I want to thank you for the question a lot of people have have asked me about migraines over the years. So I hope this is helpful. Well that’s our show for today. That’s my tip for today. I want to thank you for tuning in. And until next time, take good care.
Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. See you here next time.
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