I'm a 33-year-old female and mother of 4 children who has experienced occasional hemiplegic migraines for 22 years.

They've gotten progressively less severe and less frequent, and seem to be triggered mostly by hormones and fatigue. Symptoms include unilateral numbness, weakness, and rarely paralysis, usually on the left side and ranging from only the face to the entire left side of the body; mixed positive and negative visual aura; sometimes mild ataxia; sometimes mild aphasia; headache; and mild mood changes that usually last for a couple of days.

Frequency is at this point maybe twice a year. During adolescence they were more frequent and more severe, maybe 4-5 a year. Each episode I've had for the last decade has been during pregnancy, the postpartum period, or during menstruation. I'm recovering from my most recent one as I write this; symptoms today were photophobia, severe positive visual aura, numbness of the left side of my face including inside the mouth, teeth, and tongue, severe numbness and weakness of the left arm, and mild ataxia. No aphasia today.

I have not personally had genetic testing to confirm, but I do have a mother and two siblings with confirmed diagnoses and similar symptoms with calcium channelopathy.

I'm trying to find information on specific lifestyle changes I can make to improve my symptoms and reduce the likelihood of complications as I age, but am having difficulty in finding specifics. I would really appreciate some general guidelines on dietary choices I can experiment with, in particular. I'm extremely open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks in advance, I appreciate you all.