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I too have classical migraine headaches. They used to be once a week earlier, but now they have reduced considerably.

Similar is the case with my mother. She has MS symptoms and used to have worse migraine headaches.
Migraine headaches have reduced (almost non existent) but MS symptoms have remained.

A colleague of mine suffers from migraine (no MS symptoms). He once, jokingly, told me that all his issues started after he dropped and fell down the stairs and hurt his neck.

ttucker3 wrote:...However, if the vein is able to expand the pressure build-up will be less than if it were unable to expand...

Seems that might be why we see veins in the neck puff up so much under exertion. There's a big series of "fluid flow resistors" upstream, where it is much harder (and more harmful?) for short-term expansion to occur. Maybe that's why (if it's true) brain veins have no smooth muscle?

If there is chronic congestion, maybe all those longer-term effects of higher vein pressure, in brains, start to gradually happen.

I have to think through the recent responses, and read them again! Bet if I were a simple rocket scientist, this would be easier.

I see the research from the Taiwanese doctors as suggestive that jugular compliance is a factor that is different from person to person and may under conditions of reflux affect the brain. Our CCSVI conditions means constant reflux, as compared to occasional valsalva reflux in the Taiwanese migraine research.

If pressure and hypertension play a big role in the weakening of the blood brain barrier, then jugular compliance would matter more, since it affects the transmission of pressure. If other factors such as low shear stress are more important, then jugular compliance might matter less.