Migraines are thought to be caused by the dilation and constriction of arteries in the head. These can be extremely painful headaches. The pain is often limited to one side of the head, and may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
Most often, visual migraine, just like regular migraine headaches, can be brought about by stress, fatigue and changing estrogen levels. It occurs more often in females and more often during adolescence and menopause. On rare occasions these visual attacks are associated with other more serious problems.
Ocular or visual migraine is the most common type of migraine. It is believed to be caused by the same problem that leads to classical migraine: vascular spasm. Instead of the spasm affecting the surface of the brain, these episodes affect the ocular blood supply or the blood supply to the vision center in the brain. Generally, people don’t associate this visual distress with migraine because migraine is commonly associated with headaches. But one can have a visual migraine with no headache at all (although 40-50% of visual migraines are associated with a mild headache shortly after the vision clears.)
The symptoms for...