Vestibular Migraine

Simply put a vestibular migraine is vertigo associated migraine.

 It may also be called migraine-associated vertigo (MAV), migrainous vertigo, or migraine-related vestibulopathy.

Migraine is a nervous system disease. Stress and environmental factors may trigger a migraine. 

Symptoms:

1. Dizziness that lasts more than a few minutes
2. Nausea and vomiting
3. Balance problems
4. Extreme motion sensitivity -- feeling sick or dizzy when you move your head, eyes, or body
5. Feeling disoriented or confused
6. Feeling unsteady, like you’re in a rocking boat
7. Sensitivity to sound

Sometimes there is no pain in a Vestibular Migraine.

Other symptoms may include:

1. neck pain
2. discomfort turning, bending down, or looking up
3. feeling of pressure in the head or the ear
4. ringing in the ears known as tinnitus
5. partial or complete loss of vision
6. visual disturbances, such as flashing lights, spots, or blurring

Once again with so many vestibular and other chronic illnesses the doctors do not know the cause. 

Your doctor, usually a neurologist, will use your history to diagnose VM. 

1. You have migraines or had them in the past.
2. You have at least 5 episodes of vertigo that make you feel like you are spinning or moving. This isn’t the same as motion sickness or feeling faint.
3. These feelings last between 5 minutes to 72 hours.
4. Your symptoms are moderate to severe. That means they stop you from doing everyday tasks or they’re so bad you can't do anything at all.
5. At least half of the episodes happen with one of the following migraine symptoms:
6. A headache that has two of these characteristics: is one-sided, pulsing, moderate to severe, or gets worse with activity
7. Sensitivity to light or sound
8. Seeing shimmering or flashing lights in your vision (a migraine aura)

There is no cure but your doctor may prescribe medication to help ease the symptoms. 

• Triptans
• Vestibular suppressants 
• Traditional migraine medications

For more severe cases:

• Anti-seizure medications
• Blood pressure medications
• Tricyclic antidepressants 
• SSRIs or SNRIs

There are some devices that may give relief.

• Cefaly
• SpringTMS or eNeura sTMS
• gammaCore 

Again figuring out your triggers for the episodes might help some. Common triggers are chocolate, cheese and alcohol.

Tracking your diet may also help determine if your vertigo is related to migraine or another disease such as Ménière’s Disease. For instance a high salt diet can make things worse for MD, but not VM.

While I have migraines and vertigo, dizziness and balance issues I have not been diagnosed with VM. It is possible to have both Vestibular Migraine and Ménière’s Disease. 

Keeping track of your episodes will help your doctor determine your diagnosis.

I hope you are all spin free.

Love, Peace and Light! Rita

 #BAW2018 #BalanceAwareness #MenieresSociety #DefeatDizziness