On last night’s episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Khloé Kardashian opened up about how the stress of Tristan Thompson’s cheating scandal affected her health. Specifically, she says she experienced migraines and nausea in the months surrounding the scandal.
"I get really bad migraines but they’ve been increasing more and more. And I don’t know if my migraines and nausea are caused by the same thing, I’m not really sure," Khloé says in a confessional interview. "Some days I feel great and I don’t feel nauseous at all and I don’t have a headache and I’m fine. And then the next day, the slightest thing might really upset me, and I get blindsided by them."
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Not knowing what was causing the pain and nausea, Khloé takes a pregnancy test, but it comes back negative. She contemplates going off of hormonal birth control, which can make migraines worse. "Literally my whole head feels bruised because it’s been pounding for so long and it’s terrifying," she says. "I’m supposed to go to Cleveland tomorrow to see Tristan, but the way I’m feeling right now, I don’t know if I can be on a flight like that. I’ve been throwing up blood. It’s so intense. I’m blind in my left eye." She then goes to see a doctor to get an MRI to rule out anything more serious, and it comes back normal, confirming that she has migraines.
Ugh I couldn’t imagine all of these migraines Khloe’s gets. ?
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 24, 2019
Khloé’s symptoms describe a textbook migraine with aura. While it’s unknown exactly what causes migraines, they’re often described as a cascade of neurological symptoms that happen in the brain. Beyond the headache pain, which is typically severe and felt on one side of the head, many migraine sufferers also experience nausea and vomiting, as well as a visual aura that blocks out some of their vision.
People with migraines have overly-excitable brains, so a completely normal trigger can set off this reaction. There are several known triggers for migraines, from food to changes in the weather. While having a cheating partner is not a migraine trigger, stress happens to be one of them. As Khloé explained, it can often be extra distressing to know that the slightest trigger could set you off and ruin your day. Because migraines are so unpredictable, migraine sufferers often worry when one is going to strike.
On Twitter last night when the episode of KUWTK aired, some fans were saying that Khloé was being dramatic, and that the show was trying to paint her as a victim. Unfortunately, there's a common misconception that migraines are just like a headache, so they should be NBD. But a migraine is way more than a headache, it's a debilitating neurological condition.
Some migraine sufferers on Twitter echoed Khloé's pain, and applauded her for bringing awareness to the chronic pain condition that affects so many women. While finding treatment that works for migraines can be another long process, hopefully Khloé can find some peace of mind soon.