Chronic Migraine Condition & Ramadan.

Salam Alaikum,

I hope everybody is well. I just wanted to ask the community for some advice/guidance on something regarding Ramadan and Migraines. I very recently reverted to Islam around a week ago.

Unfortunately, I have suffered with Chronic Migraine with Aura since I was in my teens, the attacks are frequent and involve loss of vision, meaning when I get the attacks I can not work, safely drive, see where I’m walking properly or read etc etc. The aura stage of the migraine (where I can’t see) lasts for a couple of hours and then an extremely painful migraine will follow usually lasting around half a day which for the most part leaves me bed bound even with painkillers and migraine medication.

I was referred to hospital for an MRI and to a neurologist to look into it further and the neurologist advised me to ensure adequate sleep, hydration, small meal every few hours to stabilise blood sugar and also some training/gym work to help circulation etc. Before this visit I was fasting usually from 8am-1/2pm and would notice migraine attacks typically occurring around mid day. He advised me to start eating within an hour of waking and then ensuring small frequent meal every 2/3 hours to keep blood sugar stable and also ensure hydration and EAAS throughout the day to see if this makes a difference.

Doing this has truly made a huge difference to my life, I’m no longer under frequent attacks which basically completely take me out for a day and are dangerous due to vision loss & driving etc, and now I feel much better day to day by simply not fasting and spreading meals more frequently.

My concern is, Ramadan entails fasting, sometimes for windows of around 12+ hours which I fear will cause my migraines to once again return and a window of 12+ hours would probably cause them daily. I’ve tried the preventative medication which didn’t seem to work and no longer needed medication once I simply ate more frequently stabilising blood sugar etc. My concern is I won’t be able to take part in the fasting element without severely disrupting my health and my life, it’s not the case of it’s a simply headache that will go away with some pain killers, it’s a migraine with visual aura which is significantly worse than your typical migraine.

I have approached a Muslim friend who I recently met and his response is basically that I need to do it and push through for god and that he will make it easier for me, but when doing a little research myself I’ve found that in circumstances where taking part in fasting causes health problems you’re not required to take part as god would never wish for us to put our health at risk and instead would ask us to maybe do something else such as feed the poor. I said this to my friend and quoted the Quran but his response seems to be along the lines of “my brother is diabetic and if he can manage then so can you, just ask god to help and have faith”

Can anyone please give me some guidance around this, it’s obviously something I’d like to part take in, but I’m just fearful of getting severe daily migraine attacks making my life extremely difficult by being unable to work for the month or drive due to visual aura etc. If anybody could please help that would be amazing

Thankyou