Migraines and dizzy spells

Several years ago I was working in a laser lab in Toronto. The laser consisted of several flash lamps that fired once every second. Like most optics labs, we worked with the room lights off and once a second the room lit up as the laser fired and the beam made its way through all the optics. This was a normal night and I was painstakingly aligning the mirrors when one laser flash seemed to be accompanied by the room shaking. Then with each heart beat the room shook again. I thought an earth quake was running through the lab, then I realized it was me... I went to the adjoining offices and was hit with the worse head ache I'd ever experienced. I couldn't move, but couldn't stop moving from the agonizing pain. I took several aspirins, drank water, but was left lying alone under my desk for four hours. I'm not sure how, but I went up to the library to ask for help and found Sunny (one of the other students) and she gave me advil, and this helped. Enough that I called my girl friend and went to her house to rest. That was the first time I had what I think is a migraine. That year I suffered from about one a month. The doctors had nothing they could do aside from me taking a strong drug every day as a prevention; not something I was willing to do for what seemed to be a not too frequent experience.

Now, almost then ten years later I suffer once every several months. But in the past year I don't get the head aches, but just the nausea, and two days ago an extreme dizziness (vertigo).

I've been looking for information on this for years, and while there seems to be many people suffering from this, I've found very little.

There is a site called Dizziness-and-balance.com and they have a great post on Migraine Associoted Vertigo (MAV) which gives good numbers and comment that agrees with my experience.

As well, I've found an excellent forum of people discussing their problems. From what I can tell, I think, for me at least, that this problem comes from my neck. I've had stiff necks for years, and working in laser labs is about the worst thing for it, and when combined with excessive computer writing and bad eyes, it is no wonder I have a stiff neck more often then not.

But, I have no solution, nor cure yet. I'm considering going back to swimming as that relived a sore back in weeks last year; I'm just waiting for last months scholarship check to come in.

As a final note, these attacks seem to come 12 hrs before a major change in weather. I've been checking the local weather station, and they are not associated directly with pressure nor temperature, but there is a slight relation to changes in pressure. It could be that it is a type of arthritis pinching a nerve. The arthritis set off by weather changes, and made worse by bad habits in posture.

Comment if you have similar problems and have information on solutions.