When Lewis Carroll sent Alice down the rabbit hole, she encountered a strange and twisted land with distortions of size and time. Some headache experts see something else — the possible ghosts of the author’s migraines, which can leave victims temporarily blinded, nauseated, hallucinatory, numb, unable to concentrate or seeking shelter from painful stings of light and sound.

People with migraines travel between two worlds: one in which they are having a migraine and one in which they are not. “I’m very brave generally,” Tweedledum tells Alice, “only today I happen to have a headache.” But even after the headache is gone, migraine sufferers live with the dread of its return.

For more than a century, researchers have been trying to step through the looking glass to find clues to the mystery of migraines, with little success. Treatments that can prevent or end migraine attacks exist only because drugs for something else were found, often by accident, to quiet the migraine’s neurological storm.

“All of the major things we use were not designed for migraine at all,” says Peter Goadsby, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s not good enough that one of the commonest of medical problems has treatment developed by serendipity.”

A major barrier to relief, it turns out, has been that migraines, which affect 36 million people in the United States, have no known cause. But researchers now think that they are, at least, looking for the culprits in the right places.

“For almost 100 years, people believed it was a vascular disease,” says Rami Burstein, academic director of the Comprehensive Headache Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Blood vessels, it is now thought, are probably just aiding and abetting the crime. instead, the perpetrators are nerves inside the brain itself, which misfire and set off a disastrous sequence of events. Making things more complicated, migraine sufferers may differ in their thresholds of susceptibility and sets of triggers. “Migraine is for the most part a genetic disease,” Burstein says, “a problem with genes that regulate excitability of neurons in the cortex.”

Study results announced last year point to three genes that may be linked to migraines. along with other “migraine genes,” the findings seem to paint a picture of brain cells that remain too jumpy when they are supposed to be settled down. With each new discovery, migraine sufferers are brought closer to the day when they might finally be able to escape the hell in their heads.

Stemming the tide

Migraine researchers spent a long time focusing on blood vessels, partly because the notion seemed to make sense: The pain of a migraine throbs in sync with a person’s heartbeat, and triptans — the first class of drugs approved specifically for migraines — constrict blood vessels in the brain. Research suggested that vessels in the head set off a domino of neurological reactions after abnormally contracting, then dilating. Ironically, some of the shift away from the blood vessel theory arose from the study of triptans themselves.

Sumatriptan, the first of the triptans, was introduced for clinical use in the early 1990s. “It was a real milestone in the headache world,” Goadsby says. “But as people looked at sumatriptan, it became clear that it did more than just constrict blood vessels.” The drug also affected nerves, raising the possibility of a different explanation for its effectiveness. more recent evidence has poked holes directly in the blood vessel theory: a study in 2008 in the journal Brain found that blood vessel size during much of the headache is normal (though a more recent study with better resolution is more supportive of at least some vascular role in a migraine attack).

Goadsby was drawn to study migraines largely because one part of the vascular theory never made sense to him. The pain often strikes only one side of the head, and it isn’t necessarily the same side from episode to episode. “I never understood how something originating from the bloodstream would just affect one side of the head,” he said.

So Goadsby decided to use medical imaging as a window into the brains of people having a migraine attack. His curiosity had mostly to do with the brain stem, which controls many basic body functions, such as digestion and circulation — some of the same systems known to go haywire during a migraine attack. It seemed logical to him that a migraine had to originate in some central area since, other than the headache itself, the symptoms don’t tend to be lopsided.

“The brain stem has, in a small area, the ability to affect a large part of the brain,” Goadsby says. in experiments he began publishing in 2005, he used PET scans to identify three locations in the brain stem (corresponding to three distinct structures) that show greater than normal activity during a migraine attack. These parts of the brain usually act as a damper on nerve signals, he says. But when the structures allow too much input to pass through, nerve signals pour into the rest of the brain without control, Goadsby hypothesizes. That’s why normal sensations such as light, sound and even the pulsing of blood through the head become painful. he also believes that the malfunctioning of these areas of the brain stem give rise to one of the most peculiar aspects of a migraine — the aura.

An aura is a sensory disturbance that occurs in about one in four people with migraines. It commonly begins as a flickering of bright lights, like the flashes of an ambulance, in the corner of the visual field and gradually intensifies as it works its way across the line of sight. Some patients experience tingling, nausea and slurred speech during the aura, as well as blind spots once it subsides. An aura vanishes within an hour, and is replaced by a detonation of pain in the head.

Unbearable lightness

The origin of the aura has long been a topic of research fascination. An explanation now gaining consensus emerged in the 1940s from Brazilian biologist Aristides Leão while he worked on his dissertation at Harvard Medical School. after performing experiments in rabbits, Leão noted a marked change in electrical activity that started in one group of cells and rippled across the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. The hyper-excited nerves fire, and then appear to recalibrate, going temporarily silent. Leão called the phenomenon “cortical spreading depression.” Later researchers connected the phenomenon to a migraine aura, reasoning that the flickering light that patients see could occur as the cortical spreading depression crosses the visual center at the back of the brain.

The theory of cortical spreading depression was mostly confined to animal data, remaining at the margins of medical research for decades, until researchers could obtain brain scans of patients experiencing a migraine. One of the first of these images, published in 1994 in the New England Journal of Medicine, came about by chance. a young woman was in a scanner at UCLA for a study of cerebral blood flow when suddenly her migraine began. For about 15 minutes, researchers were able to document a wave of low blood flow (which they believe corresponded to nerve cells going temporarily inactive) spreading across the woman’s brain. a second study was led by Michael Moskowitz of Harvard Medical School. Moskowitz says that in the late 1990s he learned of an engineer who could induce his migraine auras with intense exercise. So Moskowitz and his team invited the man to campus, had him play basketball for 80 minutes and then whisked him off for an MRI.

In 2001 in the Proceedings of the Na-tional Academy of Sciences, Moskowitz’s team published the first MRIs of an aura from start to finish. in addition to the engineer, the researchers also took brain images of two campus employees who entered the scanner shortly after their auras had begun. as predicted, the images showed a wave of overactive (then underactive) neurons creeping across the cortex. “It’s not unlike what would happen if a stone were dropped in quiet pond,” Moskowitz says. The data suggest that the blood flow changes in the brain — the ones that led researchers in the wrong direction for decades — are more likely caused by the aura, and not vice versa. Active neurons grow hungry for fuel.

There is little debate about whether cortical spreading depression is a component of a migraine, but one central question is where it comes from, as well as its exact relationship with the pain. Goadsby believes the aura and pain arise from the brain stem, but others, like Moskowitz, say the activity changes observed in the brain stem are a result of a migraine, not the cause.

“The evidence that this kind of an event is triggered in any precise region of the brain is overstated,” Moskowitz says. instead of having origins in the brain stem, he suggests, the cortical spreading depression can arise in any part of the brain, an idea consistent with animal studies.

Moskowitz also does not agree that the changes that occur in the brain stem during a migraine open the floodgates on nerve signals, allowing normal sensations to become painful. instead, he points to laboratory experiments supporting the idea that the cortical spreading depression itself is responsible for the pain. Most of the brain does not have the capacity to feel pain; only the nerve endings in the dura mater, the organ’s tough outer covering, and related tissue are pain-sensitive. a headache happens because of the stimulation of these nerves, which fire as the wave of excitability makes its way across the cortex, Moskowitz believes. “Cortical spreading depression releases in a drastic way a group of chemicals that are normally sequestered in cells of the brain,” he says. when those chemicals — such as potassium, hydrogen ions and the neurotransmitter glutamate — get dumped, they may activate the pain fibers on the brain’s surface through a process that is still being worked out.

Skeptics of this idea point out that most people get migraines without an aura. Moskowitz’s belief is that cortical spreading depression occurs but does not affect the brain’s visual processing and thus remains undetected — a kind of hidden aura.

In truth, much about migraines is still unknown, says Burstein of Beth Israel. “Migraine is a complex disorder,” he says, involving abnormalities in both the cortex and the brain stem. where the pain comes from is still unclear, and perhaps the mechanisms behind chronic migraines (which occur more than 15 days a month) are different from those for less frequent ones. Migraines that strike regularly could originate from the cortex but over time could damage the cells of the brain stem. “This damage may reduce the ability of the brain stem to mitigate incoming signals,” he says.

And none of the research so far has clearly answered the biggest question: What’s the first thing that goes wrong? The list of potential migraine triggers reads like a catalog of daily life experiences: hunger, flashing lights, alcohol, strong smells, chocolate, cheese, too little sleep, too much sleep, stress, relaxation after stress, menstrual cycle changes, weather changes, and on and on. (And there may be no triggers at all; the changes in the brain that lead to an attack could cause someone to crave chocolate or feel stressed, or undergo other physiological shifts.)

“We don’t know why someone gets a migraine when they are exposed to a perfume in the elevator, when 10 other days they smelled the perfume and didn’t get it,” Burstein says. “Once it starts, we know a lot about it. what we don’t know is why and how.”

Tinderbox of nerves

While scientists debate the why and how of the trigger, genetic studies are getting at a separate question — who. Most researchers believe that genes contribute to a person’s susceptibility to the triggers. The headaches seem to run in families, and the risk is higher if you have an immediate family member with migraines.

Most migraine sufferers probably possess a constellation of genes, each one of which contributes a little to the susceptibility. But there is one kind of migraine, called familial hemiplegic migraine, that appears to have an even stronger genetic component.

An international team of researchers studying this kind of migraine described the first “migraine gene” in the journal Cell in 1996. The discovery came after neurologist Michel Ferrari of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands happened to see two patients on the same day with familial hemiplegic migraine. (They turned out to be both from the same region of the country and were obliquely related.)

Since then, researchers have discovered a handful of genes that may contribute. By understanding the role of these genes, scientists could gain clues to the mechanism behind a migraine. So far, all signs point to nerve activation.

“They confirm that migraine is a disease of hyperexcitability in the brain,” says Ferrari.

Nerve cells work by transmitting electrical impulses. normally, the inside of a nerve cell is negatively charged (thanks to a lot of negatively charged chlorine ions) and the outside is positive (from positively charged sodium, calcium and potassium ions). when a nerve cell releases a signaling molecule called a neurotransmitter, channels on the cell next door open up and allow positive ions to rush in. The cell briefly depolarizes — the inside loses its negative charge — and then returns back to its normal state.

Genes that have been linked to migraine all have some role in the firing of nerve cells and this positive-negative ion swap. The gene mutation described in 1996 affected the calcium ion channel. Another DNA variation, described in 2010 in Nature Genetics, inhibits a cell’s ability to clear away the neurotransmitter glutamate after the nerve has fired, allowing it to accumulate. in June 2011, Ferrari and an international team of researchers described signs of three more rogue genes in Nature Genetics. These, too, are involved in the transmission of signals from cell to cell.

“The story seems to go in the same direction,” Ferrari says. in a migraine-susceptible brain “it’s easier to trigger neuronal activity.”

The idea is also supported by a study published last January in the journal Neurology. Researchers exposed patients suffering a migraine attack to light — a normal stimulus that becomes excruciating during the headache. PET scans of the patients revealed that the light caused the nerves in the occipital cortex of the brain to fire. But when the patients were not experiencing an attack, the light did not have an effect on that part of the brain. like a drought-stricken forest, the nerves may be easy to ignite, and easy to fuel once they do.

“The fact of the matter is there is plenty of evidence now that the brain of a migraine sufferer is never normal,” says David Dodick, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and president of the American Headache Society. It now appears that a migraine brain exists on edge, quick to set off a headache when the right combination of circumstances comes along. “Networks are active when normally they shouldn’t be,” Dodick says. “The threshold for generating an attack is always just below the surface.” The rabbit hole is always near.

But maybe not forever. soon migraine sufferers may, like Alice, be able to wake up from the nightmare inside their heads — something Alice’s creator could never do.

I'm terrified and losing sleep thinking that I have it. I want to hear what were the first symptoms of other people who have MS. thanks!!

My very first symptom actually happened when I was 16, 13 years before I was diagnosed with MS.
I had always had trouble with migraines but when I was 16, I had a migraine where I lost the vision in my right eye for three days and it hurt to move my eyes (like physically move them from side to side or up and down). this lasted for about three to five days and then went away so I didn't think anything of it. it turns out that what I had was Optic Neuritis, which is very common as the first symptom in some MS people.
And the three years before my diagnosis, I started with loss of balance where I could trip over anything, forgetfulness, and fatigue.
You can also go to the National MS Society's website. I found it extremely helpful when I was going through the diagnosis process.
Good Luck!

Every case is different. in hindsight, I had attacks 11 years ago (but blamed it on other things (I'm always tired; my scoliosis must be pinching a nerve and making my leg spasm; I must have strained a muscle and that's why it's weak feeling today, etc.), the symptoms always disappeared. By the time I was diagnosed last year and I had 30+ lesions. my symptoms are minimal. we discovered it accidentally when I was having an MRI for something else (couldn't get a precise glasses prescription).

Of my MS, the following things are persisting issues…
–Visual changes: can't get a precise glasses prescription so everything is just a bit off. at 20:30 most people wouldn't notice.
–Speech impediment: problem articulating words. probably the thing I can trace back the farthest. this is the thing I hate the most. I worry I don't sound smart, particularly hard on me if I am teaching at work or speaking to someone professionally who doesn't know MS is the problem and I can't think of the right words.
–Going right along with the speech problems, is decreased concentration. probably the thing my husband gets the least.
–Fatigue, which is very sensitive to hormonal changes.

Transient problems, that I have rarely…
–Muscle spasms, fatigue, numbness, and prickling pain in my legs.
–Had paralysis on the left side one time, which resolved quickly with high dose steroids.
–Dizziness and being off balance, have fallen on the steps a few times. I've been clumsy for a long time, makes me wonder was it clumsiness all along or MS.

Here's a easy to understand article medicinenet.com/multiple_scle…

The National MS Society has a wealth of information. Health caree professionals often refer patients/family/friends to it. nationalmssociety.org/index.a…

I also like the "MS for Dummies" book. For me MS was the devil I knew since my mom and aunt have it. but the book was a good reference for my husband. plus there were tips I hadn't heard of or thought about.

The best advice I have is to have great communication with your GP or neurologist!

General MS info: There are many symptoms of MS, but visual changes (blurred vision, color distortion, or sudden blindness in one eye) are often the first ones people notice.

Other common symptoms:
Fatigue, Numbness, Gait/Balance/Coordination Problems, Bladder Dysfunction (infections, retention, spasms), Constipation, Dizziness/Vertigo, Sexual Dysfunction (erectile dysfunction for men, decreased lubrication and sensitivity for women), Pain, Cognitive Function (decreased concentration, attention deficit, memory loss), Emotional changes, Depression, Spasticity

Less common:
Speech problems articulating, Swallowing Problems, Headache, Hearing Loss, Seizures/Tremor, Breathing Problems, Itching

Because the symptoms have a broad range and are often subtle, MS may not be diagnosed for months or years after the onset of symptoms. A good neurologist will run tests to look for MS as well as to rule out other possible causes before making a diagnosis of MS.

Some diagnostic tests used are:
*Blood work – look for Vit B12 deficiency and Lyme disease markers
*MRI scans with intravenous gadolinium – identify and date lesions (plaques) in the brain. Newer lesions show up brighter.
*Evoked potentials – hearing, vision, and motor impulses are tested to see if they move normally or too slow.
*Spinal tap (lumbar puncture) – cerebro-spinal fluid is tested to identify cells that suggest MS. can also be used to differentiate from Lyme disease.

For a definite diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, at least two separate symptomatic events or changes on MRI and a physical indicator (i.e. change in the central nervous system) must occur. You have a history of symptoms, now you need to have the diagnostic tests. be assertive with your GP if you need to.

My sister has MS and what sent her to the hospital was being pretty much numb from the waist down with the pins and needles feelings mostly in her right leg. but from what she tells me, in retrospect, she'd had symptoms for years that she attributed to getting older and being a gymnast in her younger years.

Every case of MS is different. my first symptom was muscle cramps in my legs. then I noticed that when I was walking alongside somebody, I would inevitably walk into them. the third symptom was a feeling of exhaustion that would not go away no matter how much I slept.

My son has MS
his 1st signs were being off balance and his one eye he kept say ing he had a spot in his vision

Migraines — intensely throbbing and pulsing headaches that are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting or extreme sensitivity to light, sound and touch — are very common, he told me. about 10 percent of men and about 20 percent of women have them.

“We used to think it was a blood-vessel problem, but now we know it’s a disorder of the nervous system,” Belgrade said. just what causes a migraine headache is not well understood, but scientists do know that these headaches start with an alteration in the central nervous system that then sets off a cascade of other neurological events, including the release of inflammatory chemicals in the brain.

“Those chemicals sensitize the nerves so they respond to less and less of a stimulus,” explained Belgrade. “That’s why everything seems stronger: Sound seems louder, light seems brighter and touch feels more intense.” 

People with migraines often report that their blood pulses with more force during the headache, but actually, said Belgrade, they are just feeling the normal pulsing of blood vessels. “It just seems more intense because everything is set at a more intense level,” he said.

Many triggersMigraines can come on for seemingly no reason at all, but they can also be triggered by environmental factors, including stress, physical exertion, changes in sleep patterns, and certain foods, especially red wine, cheeses and other foods containing a natural chemical called tyramine. 

Fluctuating hormones, particularly in women, have also been identified as a possible migraine trigger. And, indeed, about one third of women lose their migraines after menopause, said Belgrade. But another third, he quickly added, report that their headaches worsen after they stop menstruating.

Those statistics haven’t stopped some women from undergoing hysterectomies to get rid of their migraines. “But it doesn’t always work,” said Belgrade.

And what about high-heel shoes, which Bachmann blames for her migraines, according to the anonymous sources in the Daily Caller article? that idea is not as far-fetched as it sound, said Belgrade. Muscular factors can play a role in headaches, he explained, and therefore “anything that affects muscle balance could affect migraines. So if you’re wearing high heels, that factor might affect the muscles of your back … and that might influence head and neck pain.”

From bothersome to devastating“Migraines can be very disabling,” said Belgrade. “They’re painful. sometimes people just have to hole up, pull the shades, turn off the lights, and let the worst pass.”

But the level of migraine-associated pain — and disability — varies from person to person. “[Migraines] run the entire gamut,” said Belgrade, “from hardly bothersome at all to completely devastating, where you have people who are basically nonfunctioning. But that end of the spectrum is very rare.”

Treatments can help, most notably drugs known as triptans. “They help modulate a chemical called serotonin in the central nervous system,” said Belgrade, “and prevent or abort that cascade of events that takes place — as long as you catch it early enough.” 

Botox — the muscle relaxer used to smooth out forehead wrinkles — is also being successfully used to treat migraines. there are nondrug treatments as well, including biofeedback and acupuncture.

But not everybody responds to these treatments. “There are plenty of cases of intractable migraine,” said Belgrade.

A problem for a president?So, could chronic migraines keep someone in a high-powered position from successfully fulfilling their job responsibilities?

“I think it might for some,” said Belgrade, “but for many people with migraine, [the condition] is manageable and doesn’t stop them from doing their job, even it’s a high-performance-type job.”

As for whether someone with chronic migraines could be president, Belgrade believes it’s likely that that’s already happened. “If we have 42 presidents, probably more than 10 percent of them had migraines,” he said, “because migrainers are often hard-driven people.”

“It’s just that common,” he added.

Could these three things together be a sign of something major? the bad migraine is a new symptom, but the blurred vision has happened a few times in the morning during the past two months. the blood from the nose happens several times a month, but is usually just a few drops when blowing the nose. thoughts?

The most common type of headache is a tension headache.Tension headaches are the most common type of primary headache. as many as 90% of adults have tension headaches. Tension headaches are more common among women than men. Migraine headaches are the second most common type of primary headache. an estimated 28 million people in the US have migraine headaches. Migraine headaches affect children as well as adults. before puberty, boys and girls are affected equally by migraine headaches, but after puberty more women than men have them. Migraine often goes undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed as tension or sinus headaches. Several areas of the head can hurt, including a network of nerves which extends over the scalp and certain nerves in the face, mouth, and throat. the meninges and the blood vessels do have pain perception. Headaches often result from traction to or irritation of the meninges and blood vessels. the muscles of the head may similarly be sensitive to pain.Headache associated with specific symptoms may warrant urgent medical attention. Headaches are a common cause of suffering, but all headaches are not created equal. Migraine headaches are severe, recurrent headaches generally accompanied by other symptoms like visual disturbances or nausea. Cluster headaches occur daily over a period of weeks, sometimes months.Cluster headaches are the least common type of primary headaches, affecting about 0.4% of adult males in the United States and 0.08% of adult females.there is also evidence that suggests other antidepressants such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be effective in treating these headaches for some sufferers. SSRIs that have been used to treat this condition include fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, nafazodone, veniafazine, citaloprom and escitalopram. these SSRIs can have adverse effects so, again, it is important you discuss these with your doctor.Naproxen and other nonsteroidal and anti-inflammatory drugs may be effective in the treatment of these daily headaches, especially if you’re undergoing withdrawal from some other pain relievers. Included in this group are naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox), ketoprofen (Orudis) and mefenamic acid (Ponstel).the other symptoms of sinus headache are cold, allergy, and pressure around eyes, nose and forehead. if a person is suffering from all these symptoms, then it is advisable to consult a specialized doctor for the effective treatment of sinus headache. it is a regular practice of doctors to recommend medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen etc. Decongestants and nasal sprays are also prescribed to the patients, if the excess clogged of sinuses is noticed. these medical treatments can relieve from sinus headache. But some patients are not enough fortunate to have the positive effect of the medications. in those situations, home remedies are the next option for them. these remedies not only cure the sinus headache but also save the patient’s money.Make a thick paste of dry ginger and liquids like water or milk and apply the same on the forehead. This treatment would relieve from sinus headache after few minutes. also, apply cold compression on forehead. the sinus patient should take a cotton towel, dip it into the ice-cold water and keep it on forehead for one or two minutes. Repeat this technique for half an hour or more and get some relief.

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Last January on my 23rd birthday I checked into the hospital, as suggested by my neurologist, to have a battery of tests run. I had MRI’s, CT scans, a spinal tap, HIV and AIDS test, and saw an infectious disease specialist. everything came back stellar except for an elevated white blood cell count. they released me from the hospital, told me I had migraine issues, and prescribed meds.

They suggested I see a balance specialist next, so I had a balance test done. it showed slight damage in my left ear but was at the marginal level to have any impact. The specialists said I had a vestibular problem and needed balance therapy. I went along with it and had balance therapy three times a week.

Each time I went my vertigo increased gradually and the therapist was perplexed that I hadn’t shown any improvement. I decided to go seek a second opinion at the Eye and Ear Infirmary in NYC, one of the best. I took another vestibular test and various others. This time nothing came back at all. I went to the head of the department who was well renowned for making “miracles” happen with his patients. he treated me for four months, again with no substantial gains. a very confident man, he was baffled and told me he was deeply sorry that he could do nothing for me.

I was near the end of my rope. I didn’t know where to turn. I was deteriorating rapidly. I had completely abandoned the life I once cherished. I couldn’t move out of bed, and trying to maintain simple dialog with someone seemed next to impossible. I began to be moody, and found my emotional threshold was on a very short line. all the neurological factors began to come into play–the brain fog, poor concentration, poor memory, shaking, light sensitivity, anxiety, head tremors, blurred vision, heart palpitations, dyslexic indications, and problems with sensory integration.

Mid September 2009 is when I finally stumbled upon the answer I had been looking for. a friend of the family knew someone who has been in remission from Lyme disease for nearly eight years. She was informed about my symptoms, and urgently told me I should go see her LLMD. She said her case sounded an awful lot like mine. So I booked my first appointment with an LLMD in Mount Kisco, NY.

He wrote down my symptoms and took blood. The doctor immediately put me on Amoxicillin and was convinced I had Lyme. My blood work returned, and I received a negative result once again. The doctor was not discouraged, and stated that this happens to about 50% of patients due to inaccurate tests. he said it’s often referred to as a false negative. The only concrete evidence was that my white blood cell count was elevated substantially, and he called these Lyme marker indicators. he is basing my case on the literature and not the tenuous tests and knowledge that surround this dreadful disease.

The oral prescriptions I was on for two months did virtually nothing for me, so now I am on the big dog “Rocephin IV” coupled with Zithromax. The first two months I started to make some headway, with suppression of fatigue, dizziness, migraines, heart palps, brain fog, concentration, blurred vision and so on. Then I started to herx badly around week ten.

All these symptoms returned full-fledged–if not worsened–and new symptoms began to emerge. I started to feel excruciating pains throughout my body and became intermittently numb throughout the course of the day. The doctor says this is a telltale sign of good things to come and I trust him implicitly. he has done wonders for many, and I have confidence in him. This is my 14th week of treatment and am still in the abyss of a herx.

UPDATE: I am nine months into this merciless battle and I have just switched LLMD’s. I am on a very compressive protocol. I re-took my lab work and this time sent it through IGeneX Labs. Finally after nearly two years of searching for some peace of mind, I received a strong positive Western Blot Lyme test which is CDC positive through the State of NY. My blood work also showed that I have secondary infections which are caused by a tick bite as well. I am positive for Epstein Barr Virus, Mycoplasma and HHV-6. I also have low levels of exposure to Q-Fever, but my doctor believes the levels are so low that he isn’t concerned yet.

I’m still unsure where and when I contracted Lyme Disease. there are four different scenarios that could have been the case. The longest would go back about six years and the shortest about two years. it is common for the disease to stay in a quiescent stage for a long time. This could explain why it took so long for my symptoms to manifest.

So my plight continues as I desperately try to make sense of this all. however, I have made some progress. I was bed-bound for months and could barely pull myself together to get to the bathroom, or hold myself up long enough to take a shower. I am still facing ailments that make me incapacitated and home-bound. But now I am able to do small tasks as long as they are limited and not sequential. Living life with a chronic illness puts things into perspective for you. it makes you appreciate the things you once took for granted, and health is of paramount importance.

The compulsory confinement is not easy for a young adult. never would I have conceived that a simple task like walking my dog to the front yard would be so grueling, holding a conversation with my best friends would be something to dread, or simply running an errand to a store would be unbearable because my brain doesn’t have the capacity to deal with environmental stimuli. Lyme’s Disease is one of the most misunderstood and distorted diseases, and is becoming a pandemic. it strips you of your identity and personal sense of self. The journey back to health is a long haul–costly, filled with affliction and adversity–and is one of the toughest uphill battles one will ever encounter.

This is going to be a massive hurdle and a trial by fire. But I have to believe I will see the dawn of a new day and regain control of my life. The sense of solidarity in the Lyme community has lifted my spirits when I am in total despair. So as a testament to myself, family, and supporters, I will put forth a valiant effort. I will make sure when I see this through, that those who are still suffering–or have just started their journey towards health–find the courage and support they need.

It’s difficult to deal with all the slander, scrutiny, and lack of credibility surrounding Lyme, but we all have a purpose here. We will set the stage, as we are the pioneers for this disease. because we played an integral part, there will be a voice for those in the future, and hopefully a diagnosis. Stay strong everyone, and carry on!

Chris Michael Nimphius, new York

LOS ANGELES — A TV reporter who lapsed into gibberish during a live shot outside the Grammys said she was terrified when it happened and knew something was wrong as soon as she opened her mouth.

KCBS-TV reporter Serene Branson’s incoherence Sunday fueled Internet speculation that she suffered an on-air stroke. But doctors at the University of California, Los Angeles where she went to get a brain scan and blood work done ruled it out. Doctors said she suffered a type of migraine that can mimic symptoms of a stroke.

Branson told the station in an interview Thursday that she “started to get a really bad headache” but assumed she was just tired.

“At around 10 o’clock that night I was sitting in the live truck with my field producer and the photographer and I was starting to look at some of my notes,” she said. “I started to think, the words on the page are blurry and I could notice that my thoughts were not forming the way they normally do.”

Story: CBS says reporter fine after on-air incoherence

“As soon as I opened my mouth I knew something was wrong,” Branson said. “I was having trouble remembering the word for Grammy,” she said. “I knew what I wanted to say but I didn’t have the words to say it.”

The station quickly cut away, and she was examined by paramedics and recovered at home.

Most people with migraines don’t have any warning. But about 20 to 30 percent experience sensations before or during a migraine attack.”A migraine is not just a headache. It’s a complicated brain event,” said UCLA neurologist Dr. Andrew Charles, who examined Branson.

Most people with migraines don’t have any warning. But about 20 to 30 percent experience sensations before or during a migraine attack.

The most common sensations include seeing flashes of light or zigzag patterns. in Branson’s case, she felt numbness on the right side of her face that affected her speech, Charles said.

“She was actually having the headache while she was having these other symptoms,” he said.

Branson told doctors she’s had migraines since a child, but never suffered an episode like this before, Charles said.

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Branson, a Los Angeles native and two-time Emmy nominee, worked at the CBS affiliate in Sacramento before joining KCBS. Prior to that, she was a reporter and anchor at TV stations in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara.

A telephone message left with KCBS was not immediately returned Thursday.

Branson has been medically cleared to resume activities.

“She’s totally normal. She’s completely back to herself,” Charles said.

Want to get the latest Entertainment news? Follow TODAYshow.com Entertainment on Twitter.

Copyright 2011 The associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

about 8 days ago i was diagnosed with heat exhaustion…

i went to the emergency room and i was treated…

i have been doing better, however i still continue to have migraine headaches and fatigue…. when will this go away and is there anything else i can do???

thanks.

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Updated December 21, 2010 12:16:11

Many people would squirm at the thought of deliberately inviting slimy leeches to suck blood from their bodies. however, in a remote village in Indonesia, there’s often a queue outside the house of a leech therapist. In Australia, leeches are being used more frequently in hospitals following reconstructive surgery.Presenter: Sajithra NithiSpeakers: Muhyidin, leech therapist; Rujinto Warno Sugito and Ratna Budianti, leech therapy patients; Dr Galih Akbar, Mitra Medika clinic in Yogyakarta; Katie Laing, Clinical Nurse Educator at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney

NITHI: they take the brunt of many jokes about natural remedies, but leeches are becoming increasingly popular in medicine.and in Indonesia it is attracting people to the profession.Muhyidin is a former construction worker – turned leech therapist. he lives in the rural town of Bantul in Indonesia. many people suffering from conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic migraine symptoms, visit Muhyidin for treatment. he explains how he works. MUHYIDIN: we are looking for clogged spots relating to the blood circulation in someone’s body. at first I was not an expert in this, but I studied the human anatomy and learnt more about blood circulation. moreover, the leeches know where they need to bite because they have a very sharp instinct.NITHI: One of his patients is 51-year-old Rujinto Warno Sugito, who has problems walking. he says he’s tired of taking medicine. RUJINTO WARNO SUGITO: I have been sick for a long time and I want to stop taking medicine all the time. If I go to the hospital, they give me drugs and injections which I must take. but it’s different here. In here I only need to deal with these leeches.NITHI: Muhyidin began administering leech therapy in 2002. he had a bad wound on his leg and was told that, being a diabetic, he could lose his limb. but hearing that leeches could heal his leg, Muhyidin tried the treatment. he says leeches saved his leg.Another person seeking Muhidin’s help is Ratna Budianti, who suffers from headaches and also hopes leech therapy can help her improve her chances of conceiving a child. RATNA BUDIANTI: at first it was a little bit scary for me and I couldn’t watch. it hurts like when bitten by an ant.NITHI: While Muhyidin claims he’s simply providing an alternative option to modern medicine, some more traditional practitioners are wary of leech therapy. Dr Galih Akbar, from the Mitra Medika clinic in Yogyakarta, says there’s a lack of credible studies on the subject.GALIH AKBAR: I think it is a high-risk treatment. first of all, we don’t know for sure what the illness of the patient is and what is causing it. when patients go for leech therapy, they don’t know why they are sick. they have all kinds of health complaints, and they immediately get the leech therapy regardless. “NITHI: Leeches work in two ways. first, by latching on and drawing out blood, and that relieves pressure. second, their saliva contains chemicals that dilate the blood vessels, which increases blood flow, and anti-coagulants in the saliva prevent blood from clotting and there are anti-inflammatories as well. and it’s not just in rural Indonesia that leeches are used. at the Liverpool Hospital in Sydney, Australia, leeches are used more often than you would think.KATIE LAING: the main thing that we use them for here is after reconstructive surgery, so when a patient’s been in a big trauma or they’ve lost a limb or lost a finger and we’ve reattached it, we use the leeches to help re-establish the blood flow in that body part, and that’s solely what we use them for.NITHI: That’s Katie Laing, who is a Clinical Nurse Educator at the hospital. and she says the use of leeches is increasing. LAING: here at Liverpool we actually use them about six to eight times a year. but we actually supply a lot of other hospitals so the leeches are always going somewhere. they go somewhere nearly every week. Every 12 months, we actually end up supplying more and more hospitals.NITHI: Nurse Laing says just about any leech can be used for treatment, but they have to be administered by a trained leech therapist. LAING: There needs to be some training behind it because there can be some side effects, if you don’t actually use them correctly, if you don’t put the patients on the correct medication while the leeches are actually sucking, there can be some side effects and some problems with infection.NITHI: but Katie Laing says leeches have more potential benefits than we realise.LAING: There’s quite a lot of research going in to the components in their saliva. and they actually think that they’ll potentially be able to use some components in their saliva to treat things like osteoarthritis, blood clotting, any type of inflammation.NITHI: several studies are being carried out into leeches and their medicinal benefits.