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Vestibular Migraine / Migrainous Vertigo - what helped you?

Posted , 23 users are following.

mudskippa
mudskippa

Hi I've just been diagnosed with Migraine-associated vertigo after 10 months of daily symptoms. The main ones are dizziness and imbalance, but I do also get headaches and weird neurological-type symptoms like numbness, slurred speech, confusion etc. I can not currently work it is so bad.

Has anyone overcome this? If so, what helped you? So far, I have been unable to tolerate Amytriptiline (massively exacerbated the dizziness, plus caused very bleak thoughts) nor Propranalol (caused faintness) even at their very lowest doses. I've just ordered myself every vitamin under the sun that has shown any promise with migraine, because I have to wait a few months to see a neurologist again. I will take meds if I have to, but in the meantime I thought I'd try more natural methods.

So, anyone had this? Did any vitamins help or meds or lifestyle changes? It's difficult to tell if anything is a trigger or not for me as it's a chronic daily problem as of 10 months ago and nothing changed in my life at that time that I can pinpoint as a trigger.

Many thanks and hugs to all who suffer from any type of migraine - you have my sympathy.

3 likes, 64 replies

64 Replies

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  • nancy35879
    nancy35879 mudskippa

    Posted

    Hi. I have been suffering from vestibular migraine since age 14. I am now 39. I have been symptoms free for 10 years when taking an hormonal treatment that was allowing for œstrogènes to stay at same levels all time. Oestrogen is the biggest trigger in women. I would explore this option if I was you. Progesterone pills taking for several months without interruption. Saved my life

    • sian68997
      sian68997 nancy35879

      Posted

      Hi Nancy  I have had vestibular migraine since early november have been off work since then, Im 38..  I am just coming off propanolol as not really seen any recent improvement and it makes me really tired. I asked the doctor to put me on the mini pill which is progesterone only as there was a huge correlation to my symptoms around the time of my period so im glad to see your comments on this.  He has also given me Topiramate to try but im really just wanting to see how I get on with the mini pill first.  Thanks for your post.
    • nancy35879
      nancy35879 sian68997

      Posted

      Hi! I have noticed that my blood pressure is very low since I stopped my pill. SO I cannot try propranolol. But I have heard that propranolol and topiramate are very hard to cope with. I advise you to take the pill only and see how it goes. Do it for three months. I have to say that taking high dosage of magnesium and riboflavin are helping me. I still have silent migraines with fatigue and dizziness but my vertigos are gone now. I stopped my pill 7 months ago. The first three months were awful with vertigo and pain every day. The only thing that helped was magnesium as I cannot cope with flunatop. But flunatop is supposed to be very efficient against vertigo. Good luck!
    • sian68997
      sian68997 nancy35879

      Posted

      Hi, Ive taken it for a few weeks now and definatley less headaches although the chronic dizziness is still there.  Im also started 100mg of feverfew daily a few days ago and I need to go and get some magnesium supplements.  Can you tell me what dosage of magnesium and riboflavin you are taking.  No improvment yet but I suppose its early days.  Im hoping the fewer headaches on the mini pill will lead to the diziiness slowly subsiding.  FIngers crossed anyway.  Thanks for getting in touch.  Nice to know someone understands.
  • rex987
    rex987 mudskippa

    Posted

    Hi,

    Diuretics helped me, see my post to Callum.

  • patricia_82161
    patricia_82161 mudskippa

    Posted

    Hello, there. Good for you for going natural. It's working for me and I have had some doozies to deal with. I also couldn't tolerate amitryptiline and the triptans stopped working too. 

    My current natural cocktail to keep these episodes at bay consists of:

    magnesium (not oxide) 400 mg

    B6 (taken together with magnesium)

    5 htp - to replace serotonin

    feverfew - works well no side effects

    ginger - for nausea and as an anti-inflammatory

    I also add in some vitamin B2 (riboflavin) and butterbur extract as these are also listed as helpful. Since these are natural I use multiple supplements. No side effects!! Lifestyle changes include getting more sleep, exercise, drinking more water, identifying your food triggers and practicing meditation and mindfulness to retrain/capture negative thoughts. You can do this!!!

    Keep us posted and here's to all our good health!

    • tori103
      tori103 patricia_82161

      Posted

      Hey there,

      I am using 5-HTP as a mood booster and do think it is helping my migraines too (also on verapamil) but I wanted to point out to others who may be considering using this supplement that there are a lot of drug interactions with it, including triptans and certain anti-depressants.  Combined they can trigger serotonin syndrome, which is a very serious condition. Alcohol use also needs to be 

      limited when using this supplement for the same reason.

      Also from webMD on buying butterbur:

      Some butterbur products may contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), and that’s the major safety concern. PAs can damage the liver, lungs, and blood circulation, and possibly cause cancer. Butterbur products that contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are UNSAFE when taken by mouth or applied to broken skin. Broken skin allows chemicals to be absorbed into the body. Do not use butterbur products unless they are certified and labeled as free of PAs.

      PA-free butterbur products are POSSIBLY SAFE for adults and children when taken by mouth appropriately. PA-free root extracts seem to be safe when used for up to 16 weeks in adults. There is some evidence that a specific PA-free butterbur extract (Petadolex, Weber&Weber, GmbH & Co, Germany) can be safely used in children who are 6-17 years old for up to 4 months.

  • erin82597
    erin82597 mudskippa

    Posted

    Has anyone tried med marijuana for migraine pain and the vertigo. I've been suffering for 18 months now and feel as if we've gotten nowhere.

    • tori103
      tori103 erin82597

      Posted

      Yes. ITs real help was for nausea. It didn’t get rid of the pain so much as it made me care less about it. But I didn’t like feeling high all the time at all, and I gained 4-5 pounds in a month!
  • karen_45217
    karen_45217 mudskippa

    Posted

    hey there, did you recover from vm
    • tori103
      tori103 mudskippa

      Posted

      I wonder if it would be worthwhile to talk to a pharmacist. One who understands the proposed mechanism of how verapamil prevents vestibular migraine might be able to recommend another drug that works in a similar way but doesn’t have the side effects that prevent you from taking it
    • mudskippa
      mudskippa tori103

      Posted

      Thanks for the tip, but I've totally given up on pharmaceuticals. I have tried at least one from every category and they have all been either disastrous or haven't worked. I've now moved into researching what causes migraine and am trying to use vitamins, minerals and amino acids to try and get my symptoms under control.

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