hello i’m new here… some people from the DL told me about this place.
i’m 20 years old and i’ve had migraine for 5 years now.
last spring i suddenly started being very dizzy (sailing like feeling) and i was for 2 months, doctors never gave me any diagnose… other than possible virus on the balance nerve. :roll:
anyways after some time it started to wear off, after i started watching what food i was eating and started to avoid anything tyramine and phenylethylamine… also i started going to a physioterapist every week (i still do)
i still had chronic migraine though. all spring i did nothing, i had a bit work from home, and that was it.
over the summer my migraine has been getting less often… i’ve had periods of 4-5 days all without migraine! and it seemed like things was getting better.
some 3 weeks ago i started school.
now a week ago i got a big migraine, and the next day came the dizzyness… and has been there since that! it’s so frustrating, cause i cannot think of any reason why it has appeared again. the migraine is still there too, and i think i have sinusitis. :evil:
i don’t know if i have MAV or what the hell is wrong with me… but here i am. HELLO ALL.
I know just how you feel. In my case I never even had headaches. One day I got hit with awful dizziness and have been that way for 4 years. I have been dx with mav and I have started to get headaches and one visual aura that leds me to think this is what I have. I am going to start a migraine preventive soon to see if that helps. Welcome to the forum.
The recurrent nature of your problem definitely suggests migraine.
The “virus” your doctor was referring to is often called Labyrinthitis or Vestibular Neuritis. It generally
only occurs once and then you compensate and get better.
If you decide to give migraine preventatives a try, you might also find the sinus problems become less
noticeable. We tend to notice more of what’s going on with our body when we’re dizzy, and sometimes
overemphasise some things.
If you aren’t keen on preventative treatments, the other things to do are:
Try the migraine diet (as you have been doing).
Sort out any existing anxiety or depression - it can be difficult to stay symptom free when you have either of these problems.
Exercise daily - and keep active in general and don’t stay locked away indoors.
Get your sleep pattern 100% so that you are waking up and falling asleep at the same time every day (including weekends).
Avoid stress
Doing the above is really the best you can do without medication. The preventative treatments are usually
very effective however. It can just take a while to find the right one for you. It is also the only real way of ensuring
that a diagnosis of MAV is correct.
thanks adam… i am trying to do everything you mentioned. except one : exercise daily? how do you exercise daily if you have daily migraines? … it’s just not possible.
For me the best way to excersise with headaches is start out simple. Sit in a chair, and with some light weights, move them around, some simple curls, or shoulder lifts. While still in the chair, do some leg extensions. Anything that you can think of that is non strenous, but gets the blood flowing. The object is to improve blood flow and hopefully reduce the headache the next day. On your good days, go for a walk, or jog, (unless your balance is as bad as mine) basically something more aeobic.
In the past, before I knew that I the severe headaches I was experiencing were migraines I often found that extremely strenous excersise would “work” the headache away. But there were times that it made it much worse, so I would recomend staying away from the strenous stuff during a headache.