WHITE SPOTS

[Redd33]

I have been suffering from severe headaches for over a year.  I had a MRI and CATSCAN done and the doc said they were normal, but I have 11 white spots on my brain.  The headaches began following a bout with pneumonia and have been constant.  To date we have failed to find the source of the headaches.  What are the chaces the liesion and headaches are related.  

[krandall08]

I am a 23 year old women. I was told I have epilepsy 1 year ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. I have extreme migraines and Mri showed spotts covering my brain. I was told that my brain looked like some of much older age. She also told me my brain looked like some who has had a stroke or MS. She said the spotts was causing the migraines but never told me what caused the spotts. I have pain in my head so bad that I feel like I am getting beat in the head. Please Help!

[PaulMD]

Hi there.

The white spots on the scans are really non specific findings.  If these spots are purely inside the brain tissue, then it may be unlikely that these could be the cause of your headaches.  Contrary to what most people think, the brain is actually a pain-insensitive area.  What can give rise to pain are problems with the pain-sensitive areas of the head such as the brain coating (the meninges), sinuses, walls of blood vessels, the covering of the bones (periosteum) and the overlying skin.  Most headaches are vascular headaches, which means that there can be problems in the blood vessels.  If no obvious cause is determined, these headaches can be migraines, and these should be treated by your doctors accordingly.

I hope you and your doctors can control the symptoms soon.

Take care and God bless.