Whirling vertigo often begins in the ears … but not always. Ask anyone with multiple sclerosis or migraines. Better yet, ask anyone with the double bonus of both. The combination abounds!
Vertigo can be a symptom of migraine. And it’s extra special
when it comes from an MS migraine, which is an entity (or agony?) all its own.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association put it this way:
Specifically, vertigo, which is the sensation of perceived motion without actually moving, is reported by up to one third of people who have migraine, and general dizziness or unsteadiness is reported by up to three quarters of all patients with migraine.
The folks at Johns Hopkins Medicine point to vestibular migraine as a frequent source of vertigo and related symptoms:
Migraine headaches are a common neurological condition. Although common migraines are characterized by a moderate to severe pounding or throbbing headache, vestibular migraine may or may not involve headaches in combination with vestibular symptoms such as vertigo, imbalance, nausea and vomiting.
Unlike the classic migraine, which is described as severe, throbbing headache, vestibular migraine has no pain associated with it 50% of the time. Vestibular migraine causes episodes of dizziness described as rocking, spinning, floating, swaying, internal motion and lightheadedness. They most often occur spontaneously, but can be triggered by stress, sleep problems, skipping meals, dehydration, other illnesses.
Wow. So it’s possible (and not even unlikely) to have a
migraine without suffering a severe headache.
Finally, someone’s talking my language!
After years of going around and around (See what I did
there?) with my primary care physician, in which he insisted that my frequent
and severe vertigo / lightheadedness / dizzy / off-balance symptoms were caused
by inner-ear crystals (including multiple physical therapy sessions for this
diagnosis, which proved unfruitful and actually aggravated my symptoms, I found
this migraine-related information to be a complete game changer.
OK, for the vast majority of vertigo sufferers, a simple physical therapy maneuver can work miracles. (Got vertigo? Try this first!) But for the MSer (or anyone with central vertigo, rather than benign positional vertigo) or the migraineur, it generally proves a bust.
I’ve had migraines since my Junior High years. But they
always used to include major headaches. And apparently vestibular migraines (and the frequently associated vertigo) are most common among those who were particularly susceptible to motion sickness, especially as children. Bingo! That was me.
Enter MS. Within the past few years (especially since hormonal changes kicked in with a vengeance), my migraines have evolved. Sure, I occasionally have the head-in-a-vise pounding variety. But more often, I battle a dull headache behind the agonizing whirling and unsteadiness of vertigo.
Thankfully, my MS doctor affirmed my description of symptoms and flat-out said the frequent (sometimes daily) vertigo I face is related to migraines, which are common with MS. As such, she recommended avoiding food-related migraine triggers (as I already do), getting much-needed rest, drinking plenty of water, and taking travel-sickness medication when vertigo strikes. (See Simple OTC product helps vertigo?)
That means no more neck twisting, which only aggravated some of my existing MS demyelination and didn’t fix the lightheaded spinning problem anyway.
Related items:
- Ain't nothin' pseudo about a pseudo-exacerbation.
- I bucked the system and skipped the spinal tap.
- MS and vision: How many types of glasses do I need?
- MS is like the cancellation disease.
- MS makes me clumsy sometimes.
- Not all nose-dives are MS' fault.
- Self-advocacy: When therapy is not therapeutic
- Simple OTC product helps vertigo?
Image/s: Excruciating Headache, M. Egerton, 1827, public domain
Feel free to follow on Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well.
You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.
No comments:
Post a Comment