Hi All
For the last few weeks I have had a continuous smell of cigarette smoke, I don’t smoke nor do the people I know so by know I have realised that this smell isn’t actually real.
When checking the internet last night I’ve read that this could be a further symptom of migraine, so I wondered if anyone else may experience this, and if so how long it lasts on average?
I know it’s not tumor as I’ve had my MRI and am pretty sure its not my sinus’s as everything feels fine there…
Thanks
Jo
Hi Jo
Yes, I get that too. Strange isn’t it? No pattern, can’t really say how long it lasts, it just comes and goes, like many symptoms of VM. Used to worry me at first, I thought I was going loopy. It seems it’s not that unusual from what I’ve read.
Brenda
Brenda do u get the cigarette smoke smell too or is it another smell? I have had that smell of smoke for years before MAV- but only that smell- which to me is the worst smell on the planet. I wonder if that was migraine or just me being nuts lol!!!
It’s such a horrible smell, I thought I was going mad and was really surprised to see how common it is.
I hope it doesn’t last too long it’s not nice 
I remember smelling it in my dorm room freshman year of college, when no one else could and no one else was near smoking. I also could smell it in my apt. from a couple years ago when no one else could. That’s crazy I would never think that was a real phenomenon or a symptom of migraine!!!
I seem to quote Dr. Buchholz (“Heal Your Headache”) a lot, but it’s because his is the only book I’ve read on migraine. He says, “Disturbance of olfactory (smell) sensation in migraine, most often smelling a peculiar odor that isn’t really there, is less common and is caused by blood vessel constriction in the temporal lobes of the brain, which govern smell sensation.”
When he says, “less common” he was referring to actual odors that bring on a migraine.
— Begin quote from “sarahd”
Brenda do u get the cigarette smoke smell too or is it another smell? quote]
Hi Sarah, it’s just the cigarette smell I get. It’s totally disconcerting isn’t it? It’s so real you’re just convinced it has to be coming from somewhere…
Brenda
— End quote
I very often smell vomit and drive everyone mad when I get the smell. Also a smell of burning wood. So weird isn’t it all these associated symptoms with migraine.
Does anyone else have the restless leg syndrome. Its driving me to distraction at the moment. A physio once told me this was also an associated symptom of migraine. If anyone else has it have you found anything to help the terrible symptoms at night??
My restless legs at night have been helped by fairly high does of magnesium.
Barb
What doseage Barb? I take Wassen’s Magnesium B, think it contains 500 mcg
I used to get restless leg syndrome a lot. Just realized its gone, and I have gone back to taking Calcium and Magnesium at night.
I often smell sweet smells, like flowers, or perfume which I find quite odd. I probably would prefer the cigarette smell as I gave up a year ago :lol:
Christine
H ah, I’ll swap you, you can have my cigarette smell, I’ll have your flowers 
Glad to see it isn’t just me and that I am not going mad
xxxxx
Hi, Jo. For almost all of my adult life, I have smelled cigarette smoke when everyone around me says they don’t smell a thing. That said, I have always a supersonic sense of smell. I am constantly smelling things that no one else notices. The cigarette smoke thing has always come and gone for me–sometimes I smell it everywhere for weeks on end (which drives me insane, I absolutely hate the smell of cigarette smoke), other times I only smell it when it’s really there.
I just thought it was me and my supersonic nose. Really, this is not uncommon??? I’ve never heard of it before. I feel kind of reassured now that it’s not just me.
I’ve spent some time researching it on the web and it appears it is not uncommon at all - well it is uncommon but a lot of people do suffer (if that makes sense)
It can be a sign of something more serious, tumor for one, but I am guessing we’ve all had mri’s before we got our MAV diagnosis, and it is a not so common symptom of migraine so i’m tagging it on to that, although I will tell my GP next time I visit.
It’s amazing really how much is linked to migraine, how’d we all get so lucky!