Welcome to Kara Schmidt, PA and Registered Dietician for Infant Child & Adolescent Neurology

Neuroscience helping to better understand the cause of migraines
7:56 PM, Mar. 11, 2011

MONMOUTH BEACH — Martin Grubman had just finished taking a shower and was drying off when his left arm began to feel a bit numb. The feeling went away in a few minutes; Grubman figured it was a pinched nerve, no big deal. Later in the day, though, Grubman's whole left side went numb and he was certain he was having a stroke.

"The sensation split my tongue left and right with my teeth," said Grubman, 55, of Monmouth Beach, in describing the sensation he felt. "I turned to my girlfriend and said, "We have to go to the emergency room at Riverview Medical Center, and you had better drive.' "

Grubman didn't realize it at the time, but he was experiencing what doctors call "migraine aura" — a type of migraine attack causing symptoms that can sometimes appear similar to a stroke.
Migraine aura recently received national attention after Serene Branson, a Los Angeles TV news reporter, began speaking what seemed to be gibberish during a live report after the Grammy awards. Later, doctors confirmed that Branson had suffered a migraine aura.

Migraine aura — which may be followed by an actual headache rather than accompanied by it — typically affects visual, language and sensory functions. Sparkling lights and zigzag lines may surround the affected person's field of vision, or they may experience blurred or distorted vision.
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