5 migraine symptoms that aren't headaches

NEARLY 40 MILLION people in the U.S. suffer from migraines, making the painful disorder one of the most common that neurologists treat. It's also among the most confusing. Because of the many ways it can show up, it can take more than a decade to receive an accurate diagnosis.

- BY ANGELA HAUPT

“The general concept about migraine in the common population is that it’s a headache syndrome,” says Dr. Hamid S. Hamdi, a neurologist who leads the Headache Clinic at UTHealth Houston Neurosciences in Sugar Land, Texas. And certainly, many migraine sufferers—though not all—experience a throbbing headache. Beyond that, however, “people don’t know about all the other symptoms that migraine can cause, so they’re very surprised in the beginning,” he says. “Even as neurologists, we don’t always [attribute those symptoms] to migraine until we've ruled out things like a stroke.”

We asked Hamdi and other neurologists which nonheadache migraine symptoms they see most often.

1. Food cravings