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Comment by tiahura | Hacker News Reader

My eyes were opened a few years ago when I was reading my mom’s brain mri report. She had cancer and was undergoing radiation treatment. The MRI noted lesions and said they could be due to cancer/radiation OR MIGRAINES!

Holy moly! Migraines can cause brain damage!

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Anything backing this up except that one report? I haven't heard of headaches or migraines causing permanent damage.

Migraine Is Associated With Magnetic Resonance Imaging White Matter Abnormalities https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/7...

"Research suggests that the answer is yes. Migraines can cause lesions, which are areas of damage to the brain." https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/migraine-brain-les...

Some kind of local thermal overload?

Can confirm, I had a brain MRI in my early 20s and had a number of white matter lesions that were supposedly caused by migraines. No other cognitive or neurological issues. But I'm due for another scan soon and hoping they haven't worsened :P

Search Migrainous Infarction. I had one when I was 32 (53 now). It's very rare, but a migraine can cause a stroke (ie. permanent brain damage), because of impaired blood flow. It left me with a permanent scotoma ("black" hole in my fov, visible from both eyes and with both eyes open).

I was scanning the comments to see if anyone needed that information.

If the aura doesn't stop after an hour, better go to the hospital (aura means reduced blood flow). Also NEVER take triptans during an aura.

Might be a question of cause and effect. My neurologist theorized my migraines were triggered by microemboli leaking through a PFO (leak between left and right side of the heart: normally the lungs filter this stuff out)

PFO closed, migraines basically gone.

PFO can lead to stroke too for the same reason, and that's when it's usually closed, after a stroke. Not all migraines are caused by PFO. I went on blood thinners first for a year as a test.

Here's the long story version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40895116

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