Strange vibration sensations - what's causing it??
Posted , 140 users are following.
I've found several forums where there have been posts from people experiencing this disconcerting feeling of an internal quivering or vibration but none of them are current, so I wanted to see if anyone else out there is having the same experience and can share an insight into what might be causing it.
I started to get this feeling of internal vibration when I was mainly lying in bed and then occasionally if I shifted position it might last for 30 seconds or so before disappearing. That was about 8 months ago. Now I feel it every night and during the day as well quite often. The other day after a short walk of a few hundred yards followed by a period of standing still it felt like the ground was vibrating because it was in my feet. It seems to move around to different areas of the body - sometimes I feel it in my legs, an arm, torso - it's quite random but often felt when I've shifted position in bed. At first I thought it was circulatory but now I think it's probably neurological. I thought I was having palpitations but an ECG showed nothing abnormal. I've also had a full spine & brain MRI as I've been having other strange symptoms of occasional numbness and sensations of burning and cold areas of my arms/hands and legs/feet and a sore tongue which comes and goes and often feels like I've just cleaned my teeth with menthol toothpaste when I haven't. I thought I had all the signs of MS, but it hasn't been diagnosed. I've also had a number of blood tests for immune issues, evoked potentials and nerve conductivity tests. Nothing! The MRI does show a lot of wear to my cervical vertebrae and two anterior spondylolisthesis - one cervical, one lumbar, so I wonder if my spinal issues could be the cause. My neurologist was doubtful. He also couldn't explain the vibration sensation except to say that it can be caused by a migraine, which I certainly haven't had.
I just don't know where to go with this now. My GP isn't interested and puts everything down to stress which I AM under it's true to say, but I don't think she's right. I've had to pay for all my neuro investigations as a result because she won't refer me or do any more blood tests etc. I'm trying homeopathy, osteopathy and acupuncture as I want to find something that will relieve these weird symptoms and prefer to avoid drugs if I can.
I'm 58, eat reasonably heathily, no alcohol, only 1 cup of coffee a day and my weight is normal. I broke my wrist badly at the end of August last year which is when my problems all seemed to start. i
I also wonder if the metal plate that was used to fix the fracture could be causing some kind of strange reaction.
If anyone else is having these symptoms please let me know if you've been able to identify the cause and how to deal with it.
10 likes, 269 replies
mc19 Sally4Edgar
Posted
Sally - I just came upon your post and I see it was over a year ago so perhaps you've received some insights... I wanted to suggest you see a rheumatologist to see about Sjogren's syndrome. I believe small fiber neuropathy can manifest as you are experiencing, and SFN can sometimes happen in Sjogren's... also, I would trust your instinct that there's a relationship with your spine in some way... I have more I can say on this as it related to my own experience, but I just wanted to say this briefly now. I experience buzzing/vibrations that have become more frequent and in more body parts (first it was just one specific spot)... I also have issues with my spine, cervical and lumbar, but the cervical issues are more long-term and more serious... I know there is some relationship of my spine to the symptoms.... investigations continue. wish you much healing and insight on your journey.
Sally4Edgar mc19
Posted
Hi, thanks for replying to my post. I have also thought about Sjogren's syndrome as you've suggested. A visit to a rheumatologist would probably be my next step. I recently discussed my vibrations with my GP and she ordered a battery of bloods tests, all of which came back normal, so I don't know if she'll be willing to refer me but I can try based on my neuropathy. I would be interested to hear the outcome of your investigations as your spinal issues are in the same locations as mine. I hope you get some answers. Best wishes to you.
Tumtum1963 Sally4Edgar
Posted
SFN (small fibre neuropathy) can be the first way that Sjögren’s presents for some - especially for those who are lip biopsy positive rather than anti Ro/ La positive.
mc19 Sally4Edgar
Posted
https://www.hopkinssjogrens.org/disease-information/sjogrens-syndrome/neurologic-complications/
gail69256 Sally4Edgar
Posted
I'm 64. I do have autoimmune disease. I've also had surgery to my neck with titanium plate. I have numbness and tingling in all 4 extremities. I also have spondylosis in my spine. I also have bone spurs on spinal column. I have bladder pacemaker. In the pass month or so, I have had similar sensations you are describing. Usually I'm on my back in bed, or turning from side to back. Sometimes then I get dizzy, sometimes I don't. Frequently it happens while I'm waking up. The vibration last about 15- 30 seconds...but sometimes it feels like a"pulsing surge", like a switch being turned on and off, sometimes it feels like maybe just the head, other times it feels like my whole body. Only when accompanied by dizziness do I get nauseous....but not bad nauseous. I just happen to be looking for reasons this might happen, and when I think about it, and think about telling someone, it sounds crazy. Only other symptoms sounding only vaguely familiar to mine, were being described as sleeping anolmolies,, and upon awakenings with tremors. This is really not at all like tremors...so I thought I would type in my sensations to see if anyone else has similar sensations, and your blog came up. After reading yours, I realize that it is possible we are feeling quite the same thing . I was thinking it also was neurological or electrical, because of sometimes of the surging, I feel like I "buzz". Not painful..just wierld. I have felt it once or twice standing, but usually with dizziness and have had to sit down. Then it would leave after a minute or less. It is most frequently while I'm in lying position. I do have another disc in my neck, above the last fusion. I wonder if it has to do with these. Back of my neck up the back of my skull is always sore and very tender. A few months ago, while cutting limbs out of a tree, a fairly heavy one dropped on my head also. Did you have any trauma to head recently?
Sally4Edgar gail69256
Posted
Thanks for sharing your experience. I haven't had any trauma to my head either recently or in the past, but from other posts here there does seem to be some common issues with this vibrating feeling and problems with the cervical spine. Like you my vibrations are normally when I'm lying down in bed, but of course it's always going to be more noticeable at night when all is still. Mine can suddenly start even when I'm lying totally still and may last about 15 or 20 seconds and then stop. Most of the time I feel it in my chest and can press and feel it with my hands, so not just a sense of vibration but actual physical vibration. Other times it can be set off with movement. I don't get dizzy or nauseous but I do have poor balance. It does sound like there's a spinal issue with a number of people here who are getting this sensation.
mc19 Sally4Edgar
Posted
wishing you all the best, sally! bodies are so unique. conventional medial knowledge doesn't have all the answers... but, sometimes with a good team or a great practitioner who is really interested, genuinely wants to help, a lot can happen... my prayers are with you for clarity about what's going on and relief.
Sally4Edgar gail69256
Posted
judy92864 Sally4Edgar
Posted
Please make this vibration stop I'm going to lose my mind no one else feels anything I moved it came with me now it is to the point I don't want to move my head open my mouth talk ANYTHING I turned the heater off and it eased a feel done lil I alone they just don't understand
rita74837 Sally4Edgar
Posted
I have been told that it could be medications. I think they may be right. I am doing some research on it at home. You didn't say if you take any medications but like me you might consider that.
Sally4Edgar rita74837
Posted
Jim2k8 Sally4Edgar
Posted
Hi Salley,
I googled terms of a problem I have had for about over a year and found your thread, title, and list of posts.
Not having a medical background my problem was hard to state in terminology. "Vibration" of the nerves down my legs (and more recently including down my spine) seemed to be representitive of the sensation.
I have read the many posts of this thread and feel for you and the many other posters with this and additional medical problems.
It appears a few posters have found at least two broad-domain medical reasons that may be the underlying reasons for the "spinal nerve vibrations" we have experienced.
We are definitely on the steep learning phase of what medically is happening - the underlying medical reasons and physiological and psychological details that explains what may be happening.
Sally4Edgar
Posted
Tumtum1963 Sally4Edgar
Posted
Sally I would be glad for another update on how you have been getting on since taking the beta blocker?
Until around Christmas time i had been reading this post of yours with quite a detached mindset - thinking I dont really get tremors apart from in one right toe sometimes. But I do have very widespread small fibre neuropathy with what my neurologist calls ganglionopathy. I thought I knew most stuff about this in relation to my confirmed Sjögren’s.
But then my right foot started trembling unaccountably. I shrugged it off. Then, around the time of a cold virus it started flowing up my leg. This was odder. I had been to see my neurologist the previous month and she dismissed my concerns about worsening numbness as “heightened health awareness” which distressed me a lot because I don’t choose to feel this way and the impact on my life has been collosal! She did confirm the stuff in feet and said that I had mild ataxia on heel toe testing but that was that - reflexes all brisk etc.
So then I started getting much more distressed and anxious about no one believing me. Then I got a cold. At around this time the heaviness that I’ve had for years in both arms and legs got really bad. I went to GPs and asked if I could come off the immunesuppressant that my rheum prescribed for the neuropathy. They said no it’s just a virus.
So for the past month my body has gone into major internal tremor everywhere. I was taken straight off my immunesuppressant - which can cause tremors. So now I’m on a beta blocker and a seasickness drug for dizziness and vertigo. They tell me it’s probably the virus. And my post viral cough has been very bad. Now they say o have labyrinthitis and asthma but I feel instinctively that it all relates to my blood pressure - which swings from one extreme to the other all the time.
Sometimes I get up (slowly) or an eating or go to the toilet and just faint. This has happened to me since I was young. I know that the internal tremors are showing up more because I have these very extreme resting lows in BP and then it soars back up so I do believe that this is the reason I’m having such extreme tremors, mini seizures, vertigo and faints now. The virus and other stuff such as medication, Sjögren’s dryness and stressful events plus lack of sleep - it’s a collaboration from hell!
I guess this is autonomic neuropathy/ ganglionopathy and a neurology nurse I spoke to on a Parkinson’s helpline said that this tarried. She explained that some people get Parkinsonism rather than PD - as a result of other neuro conditions like MS or Sjögren’s or else get it from medication. The trigger could have been the viral infection but the my longstanding low level tremor is most likely down to my Sjögren’s and related autonomic dysfunction/ gangliopathy. Somehow just talking this through to someone who is very knowledgeable has helped me a great deal even though my multiple symptoms are still an ongoing saga.
I just thought that update from this might help you or someone else with similar waking internal tremors. You could ask for PoTS testing or hustca 24 hour BP monitor.
Sally4Edgar Tumtum1963
Posted
I'm really sorry to hear about all the issues you're having to deal with, especially when you feel that you're being dismissed by the medical profession as it being all in your mind, which is a response I've experienced myself.
?I'm getting much less problems with arrhythmia on the beta blocker now which is a relief, but the vibrations haven't changed. I still get them every night, but haven't noticed much in the day. The one thing I do get now is bad dreams almost every night from the BB! I've recently been to see a rheumatologist and he's ordered blood tests to be done to check for autoimmune issues, but I will have to wait several months for this as it's going to be on the NHS. I will update when I have results.
?Presumably your fluctuating blood pressure is due to your autonomic dysfunction. Is the beta blocker helping with that at all? My blood pressure also can go up high and fall quite low, as can my heart rate, so we have similarities there but thankfully I've never fainted. When I have a run of PACs I can feel like I'm going to but my arrythmia has always normalised before that point thankfully. I've had several 24 hour ECGs but not BP.
?If the rheumatologist doesn't find any issues with my immune system I shall start looking at toxins in my system and maybe have some tests to see whether I have high levels of anything like lead, mercury etc. that could be a cause of the vibrations and my other neuro symptoms. Anything that's a neurotoxic can build up in the body and cause all sorts of problems which appear to be similar symptoms of many other things.
?I hope you can shake off the virus and the vertigo and asthma and your other symptoms will start to reduce. A friend of mine keeps getting vertigo every time she gets a cold or virus, which is now subject to further investigation
lorraine16597 Sally4Edgar
Posted
i have had vibrations for almost 5 years. They are constantly in my hands, feet, legs, face and mouth and torso - everywhere!
I have also wondered if it from using an iPad and the electrical charge from it.
Years ago I attended a singing workshop at my church and at the end of the two hours my whole body was buzzing. The leader said that often happens from singing. I have read Quantom
lorraine16597
Posted
Quantum Glory and God Vibrations to see if I could find answers.
It is definitely an uncomfortable feeling but I am not going to go through all the testing.
I had Lyme disease years ago but it was treated. I also had a panic attack after my husband left but the sensation came more than a year later.
I don't take any medications and don't want to so I guess I am going to just deal with it as an annoyance. Maybe I will change my iPad one day to see if that is something. I would think this would be very common though because millions of people use iPads a lot.
Well, thank you for posting. Take care.