As some of you might have been reading, I am certain I have been dealing with/developed a MAV condition. Over Christmas I finall stopped my daily chocolate top up (always on my morning decaf cappuccino), nuts and any aged cheeses (which was rare). For one week or so I have been pretty much symptom free and have even been at the lowest dose of SSRI in 3 years! I should be free in 3 weeks if all goes to plan and no surprises leap out.
So last night I went out with friends and tried a little experiment. I had a pizza. Ingredients: thin crust, some mozzarella on the base, tons of rocket lettuce over the base with thin slabs of parmesan and olive oil on the top. It was a huge pizza and tasted great! I also had a 1/4 glass of red wine.
Off to bed I went and the first thing I notice is I'm aware of my heart beat on lying down. I then spend one hour trying to fall asleep. And now here I am at 6 AM wide awake, and feeling very freaky indeed. My nigth has been filled with mad dreams, a pounding heart on waking and swirling vision when I went to the toilet. AND my head is killing me - pain in the back of my neck and a band around the forehead.
So this is all quite the revelation for me. It is looking highly possible that my complete recovery might be accomplished by permanently (or reducing to near zero) removing the classic migraine triggers. I should have done this a long time ago.
Anyway, I thought I should make this clear in case some of you think MAV is an issue. I can state now that YES, these foods do cause dizziness and all of the nasty symptoms we discuss here. This is probably a no-brainer for some of you but it appears I needed to be hit over the head to realise it myself.
Scott, I'm going through the same thing you are. 3 years with this junk and it is only within the last 6 months I've been diagnosised with a peripherial vestibular dysfunction. I did very well doing VRT for 3 months then the Migraine hit and it's been an up hill battle since then. I do have history of migraines although only 6 my whole life (I'm 45 years old). I too, have noticed chocolate triggers heart palps, increased vision problems. I'm going to try to avoid these triggers as well and see if I see an improvement. I've tried Amitriptylin and it did seem to help, but had weird heart palps in the middle of the night. I'm definately not ruling out MAV, but it is hard to prove it true.
Me too...have taken this approach over the last week and have been following the 1-2-3 program by Buchholz in Heal Your Headache. Hbep suggested this book to me about a year ago and I bought it but couldn't bring myself to really read it all or follow it as I refused to believe migraine has anything to do with my condition since it hit me out of the blue after an ear infection. I have put the ear infection aside and am now wondering if the allergic reaction to that antibiotic caused damage to the blood vessels in my head.
According to the book, you can have vestibular migraine (migraine in the little blood vessels in your inner ear).
I have followed the diet STRICTLY since this past Wednesday and although my symptoms are not totally gone, my painful headaches have been mild since Saturday.
By the way, according to his diet, pizza can be a triple whammy......fresh baked breads (with yeast) including pizza dough is not good, tomatoes can be a trigger for some and of course, the cheese. Then you threw in red wine.
I urge everyone to read this book as it identifies so many strange inner ear symptoms (of which I must have them all). Symptoms that are hard to describe, Buchholz describes them perfectly. THANKS HBEP FOR THE SUGGESTION!
I am sticking to the diet and am praying I'll feel better from it or a least it will get me by until my appointment with this new neurologist for migraine.
By the way, pizza was always my comfort food through this and I wondering if it was just making me feel worse now. I would give it up for the rest of my life if it were the answer to achieving some normalcy.
Keep us posted how your diets going - Gloria
PS - I'll be free of the klonopin too in a few weeks.
>>>According to the book, you can have vestibular migraine (migraine in the little blood vessels in your inner ear).
That's intersting Gloria. I hadn't heard of "vestibular migraine" per se. The idea that the vessels involved around the inner ear are affected by these triggers is *** arre. Maybe VN leaves these vessles in a sorry state and they are then easily upset by certain things in the diet - amines for example.
Glad you are seeing some improvement. I'll be looking for that book today myself!
Scott
Last edited by moderator2; 01-15-2007 at 03:45 PM.
i was so scared to eat cheese last night, dominos actually delivered my pizza cheese free upon my request. have to say it really lacked flavor but saved me from any head pressure that I would have gotten if I ate the cheese.
The dysfunction in migraine that causes vestibular symptoms is suspected to be in the vestibulocerebellum (in the brain).
There is a theory that the vasospasm in this region could interrupt blood flow to the inner ear and cause damage to the inner ear. This would explain those with positive ENG findings etc. Most with migraine have normal findings on vestibular investigations - this is probably because the inner ear itself is not playing a part. Non-specific dizziness is more likely to be coming from the brain than the inner ear. Damage to the inner ear is more likely to result in vertigo, and movement associated symptoms.
I think it needs to be remembered that the vestibular system is not just the inner ear - it also includes the parts of the brain that process the information. If you think of it in terms of a computer, and an attached sensor - you wouldn't consider the sensor the most important part of the system - the computer receiving signals from the sensor is just as likely to have a fault. So it seems in migraine.
Yep.....book says just about all Adam mentioned. Migraine can destroy blood vessel in the inner ear causing migraine and hence inner ear symptoms (fullness, fluttering, etc....) and it does say the signals received in that portion of your brain that controls the inner ear (balance origin) causes all the vestibular symptoms.
When nervous central symptoms are present, migraine is triggering that part of your brain. Would explain sudden feeling of dropping, shakiness, anxiety, etc.
The book is a really good read and really explains a lot of things associated with migraine. I've been going back and reading sections of it over and over to grasp all the concepts of migraine before my visit with the headache specialist; I just hope he takes his time with me to listen and answer my questions "sigh".
I do wonder, if one can get the physical pain and pressure under control, if the other symptoms will go away with time too.
Scott, let me know what you think of the book.
JB - Good to hear from you....sorry we scared you with the pizza, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway even with out the cheese. How are you doing these days? Are you still on the SSRI? What symptoms are you left with? Do you have periods now feeling 100%? Is it any better when you play squash?
hey Gloria- I have been doing really well, pretty much 100% most of the time. The only time I really get head pressure and dizziness is when I have one of the triggers, cream and dairy are the biggest problems. Because there is so much running and stoppingand going and following of a fast ball in squash I feel that I have trained my brain faster to compensate. I am still on 10mg of paxil every morning, and really have no interest in weaning off this anytime soon. I hope your doing great, anything new with you?
Yes, I will definitely grab that book. It sounds like they really go into the whole thing explaining much about the physiology etc.
Yesterday was a really tough day. Not only did the cheese on that pizza leave me feeling vestibular as hell and just off all day but I am now really feeling as though I am "re-entering the atmosphere" after what seems like a very long time in an SSRI orbit. It's like I am really feeling everything around me 100% and I love this. I feel completely alive again. However, the down side is that my relationship has really not survived all of this and I am really feeling the loss too. I keep waking up at 5 am full of energy but also edgy. I hope I can handle this. Certainly not great with girlfriend blues hanging around though. I thought I was over that but it's coming back to haunt me again unfortunately.
JB - That is fantastic to hear you are doing really well. It is great you got a hold on your condition and triggers that stir it up. I wish I could get to that point. I've had a rough time coming off the klonopin and to be honest, I'm not so sure it help me other than maybe helping with the anxiety. To be honest, the tinnitus just beats me down. I hate it so much. It is just plain awful. I think I would really cope well with the daily headaches/pressure and even the dizziness, if I didn't have the noise along with it. I'm trying to stay positive and am taking action to try and help this condition with tinnitus retaining therapy and following up with the MAV theory.
Great you got back into squash. I'm sure doing what you like helps not only physically, but mentally.
Keep us informed of your continued progress......Hope the ice storm didn't get you too much...seems to have just missed Pittsburgh and moved farther North. Best of luck for continued wellness - Gloria
Scott - I say it was pretty good you are seeing some light coming off the SSRI. That is a good sign and hopefully with time, you'll be feeling even better. Sounds like you are getting a handle on your triggers and are even having periods of feeling great.
I'm sorry about your relationship troubles. I suppose this condition not only pushes us to the extreme, but must be hard on significant others as well. I suppose they just don't know how to respond to us and we sometimes have a tendency to lean too much on them. I hope that time will heal your wounds and that it won't hinder your improvement too much. Try and relax a little with this so that it doesn't stir anything up. Keep busy as it seems to help compensate for how badly we feel.
Hey Everyone
I haven't posted in a while, must be a good sign. I do check the boards fairly regularly though.
Scott, one thing that lept out at me when reading your post was not the pizza (though cheese could be the culprit) but the red wine. I suffer from migraines very rarely, but have had about 5 incapacitating migraines in my life. Touch wood I haven't seen any development into MAV after my inner ear problems, even though I had migrains before my labs.
I figured out the trigger for me as I realized my migraines occured right around Easter (chocolate) and on holiays (red wine). So now I can't go anywhere near the red stuff, sad to say. Have you cut that out of your diet too? The Tannic (sp?) acid is what I think is the culprit in the wine.
Hope you get some relief soon, doesn't seem fair to have come so far with your labs recovery to be dealing with anything else, kind of like when I thought i was out of the woods and came down with a very scary episode of BPPV...it was like starting over.
THings are good here, just managing any symptoms that pop up. I find I am finally learning not to get worked up or anxious about any symptoms now, I can see them for what they are, attribute them to my hectic lifestyle, get some rest and move on.
hope everyone else is good.
FC
I was drooling reading that pizza description... it sure sounds tasty...
And well not that you mention it, last holidays I went into an orgy of different aged cheese, strongcheese and almost every chessy thing there is, with wine of course, and this triggered an off feeling + dizziness to me.
I haven't tried this approach yet(supressing all the migraine triggers), since I wanted to keep the at least my eating pleasures ... BUT, since this last decomp, I might give it a shot, to see if it works.
Cafeine is the thing that gives me most trouble so it's been some years now that I lowered on that, on coffe caffeine that is because I'm like a coke junkie so that has given me a jolt of sugar and caffeine wich is not good for anything I know...
Back when I got several "classic" migraine attack I combined this(lowering migraine triggers) with exercise and relaxation and it worked. Curiously enough years later with that "fake high pressure" episode where I actually got some of my actual sympotms(fogginess, weird viduals, not jumping vision tough, etc.) did the same thing lower on cafeine excercise, relaxation and a mild mild dose of a beta blocker to reduce heartbeat, anxiety and it all, and it also worked very well on the dizzy stuff(wich back then I blamed to the blood pressure stuff).
So in the end treting migraine, at least indirectly seems to work, so I'd give it a try, to see what happens, and also try to break the vicious circle of the dizziness producing me stress, and stress giving me trouble with all of the above.
And I've been also on an emotional joyride this last months and I know that is not good for this so, well I hope there could be some pills for that and for the definitive cure of dizziness, but since there isn't we have nothing else to hang in there, and fight back.
So I'm going to give it a shot, and tell you what happens.
Just like to say this thread has been very enlightening. . . cheers.
Managed to buy the book on **** for £2.00 inc P & P so will delve into it as soon as it arrives.
I never associated the symptoms with "head things" and I get very few headaches, just that "being pushed" or pressure sensation, I always associated it all with my ears.
I do have to say, lightening up on the cheese, red wine, salt, nuts and caffine have certainly helped so far and maybe cutting them out altogether may be the answer. A tiny problem I have is although I'm not vegetarian, my daughters are and a lot of what I cook for them has cheeses and nuts, so it looks like I shall have to start cooking different meals for myself.
Thanks all for being there.
Hope someone finds that magical pill to take away all our symptoms soon
Jayne
FC - Good to hear from you and that you've been doing well. Sounds like your dizziness is definitely all in your ears. Crazy how one person like myself, who has never had a severe headache or rarely ever got one, ends up with a horrible one everyday for over 2 years. While someone who had occasional migraines, like yourself, doesn't have a problem after the ear stuff. Just shows you how complicated this stuff is and how different every one is affected by this stuff. Also, may be a straightforward indicator of a migraine problem for myself versus inner ear at all. You are a tough cookie....hope I will be able to handle this condition like you do, one day. Take care of yourself.
Stargrave........with a history of migraine, I would definitely look into this....especially with your periods of feeling better and then worse. Could be your migraine triggers are more so on some days than others. I'm going to keep following the diet at least until I see the headache specialist at the end of February. I figure eliminating the food triggers doesn't chance anything over night....has to be a longer process. On another note....those Steelers were bums this season...oh well, next year's a new year. Just like our heads, new year, maybe more progress towards recover. Good luck.
Jayne - hope the book helps you. I've always contributed my problems to inner ear because it all started from an ear infection and I have no previous history of headache so who knows, maybe it isn't in my ears at all. Hope the book helps you.
Scott - Hope today is a better one....thinking of you and wishing you wellness.
Thanks Gloria, I'll give it a go, anything is worth a try.
Hope you are feeling ok and good luck with the diet, let us know how it goes.
Take care
Jayne
I'll have to say since first reading this post and trying to avoid the "triggers" I do feel better. I'm continuing my VRT excersises and I believe that is helping as well. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
Stargrave........with a history of migraine, I would definitely look into this....especially with your periods of feeling better and then worse. Could be your migraine triggers are more so on some days than others. I'm going to keep following the diet at least until I see the headache specialist at the end of February. I figure eliminating the food triggers doesn't chance anything over night....has to be a longer process. On another note....those Steelers were bums this season...oh well, next year's a new year. Just like our heads, new year, maybe more progress towards recover. Good luck.
Hey Gloria, thanks for the reply, hope you're doing OK.
Yeah. I really think MAV is there bothering me, I'm just trying to get my allergies under control, to leave them out of the equation for my next appoinment to underline the MAV possibility to get some specific treatment about it, as I've also read that they(allergies) can give you extra trouble for Migraine, aside all the ear and nose cloughness they give you alone.
I won't start an active approach(using drugs)by myself, but trying to avoid known migraine triggers won't hurt me so I will give that a try to see what happens.
Finally I agree on those bums steelers, what's with a season full of wrong decisions, and no spirit?, they were almost doomed from the start... that kind of stress won't help a vestibular injured fan, we need better stuff from this guys, but we'll have to wait till next season, with new coach, crossing fingers for a new attitude, and as it is with our vestibular stuff, let's hope it all works well.
The Book has arrived. . . I feel better already. . . . lol!
Have a 3 hour car journey tomorrow, guess what I'll be reading, I'll let you know how I get on.
Im not on the boards that much anymore but I read this post with interest.
I firmly believe that food does have an effect on the dizzyness. My experience is that sweet things really have an impact - and when I was feeling worse I would avoid anything that would give me a sugar rush - so sweets, chocolate, cakes etc I used to avoid, as it seemed to make the dizzyness much worse - over a few hours but the effect would also be apparant until the following day at least.
I had a big slide of carrot cake today in the afternoon. After an hour I was feeling very dizzy and really off balance - I still am several hours later. Over the last month I have really increased my uptake of chocs etc (following christmas) and have gradually noticed an increase in the dizzyness. Im sure its all related.
However this doesn't relate to MAV as sugar isn't a migraine trigger is it? Anyone else familiar with this or experienced the same?
This illness still foxes me over 2 years down the line - Im getting on with my life much more but it still throws wobblies. ho hum!
Hope you are all okay, Gloria will be in touch, Scott, hope you are doing well
Tesss
xxx
Interesting!! This weekend I had a couple glasses of white wine thinking it did not contain sulfites, I was wrong. After waking up Sunday morning and realizing I had a dull headache and increased dizziness, I read the bottle again and found it did indeed contain Sulfites. I'm going to explore these food triggers more.
