Has anyone ever had a massage trigger a bad vertigo spell? I had a 60 minute massage today and it threw me into the worst vertigo & nausea spell in more than a year. I’m still feeling ill, although a dose of meclizine helped some. Can anyone relate to this?
Hi Marci – YES, absolutely.
The Friday before last, I went for a Thai massage to a place I have been a number of times now. I usually get this one guy who goes very easy on me because I know it can screw things up as it has on occasion. When he does the massage, it’s usually fine. BUT, that Friday I had a different guy and he really got stuck in with his elbows all up and down my back and around the shoulder blades – seriously digging in. It felt good at the time and although I was a bit worried, I thought I could hack it this one time. Wrong. I was really dizzy when I left and for the next 4-5 days was really thrown off in a big way feeling right off the planet and waking feeling excessively low in mood and achy as hell. All sorts of weirdness that I won’t be repeating again.
In Thailand last Christmas I went for massages daily at first because they only cost about five bucks. They are gentle massages and nothing crazy. I had been there one week and had massage number 5. When I got up after that particular one I was a train wreck. I was getting shots of adrenalin, feeling hugely anxious, and could barely speak to any one. That night I had a terrible sleep and mad crazy dreams. The whole next day all I could do was to not move and just lie on the beach. Nothing more. Tons of valium went down and it passed after about 48 hours. In 2006, again in Thailand, I was also having loads of massages but I never had any problems from them – however, I was also on 15 mg of Cipramil.
So, it looks like it depends. Massages should not be too stimulating nor should we have too many back to back otherwise it sets this whole nightmare off again. On the other hand, if well controlled on medication, it may be quite ok.
I don’t know what the mechanism is … perhaps balance receptors are over-stimulated or just the entire nervous system gets revved up and kicks off an attack. It will pass though so don’t fret. You might want to throw down a benzo.
Scott
Hi Scott,
My experience does sound similar to yours. I was fine on the table, although I did have a few sensations that vertigo was just around the corner earlier today (basically a few short waves of vertigo), but as soon as I got up from the table, very slowly, it hit me as hard as it ever has. Ironically, I actually broke out the benzos last night in hopes it would help me sleep. Since going off my meds due to heartbeat irregularities, I’ve been waking up throughout the night with serious aches and pains. I don’t miss the side effects of the meds, but it is apparent they were helping me somewhat.
I’m heading back to my GP on Thursday. I got a copy of my medical records last week and put together a game plan. I’m going to discuss it with him and see if he thinks I’m on the right track or if he thinks I should get back to a neurologist. I’ve got a line on a good one for migraine.
Thanks for the response. It always helps to know someone else can relate.
Marci
Marci – have you ever considered Lamictal? I’ve been checking up on it recently. Was just reading the PI sheet and this one apparently messes around with sodium channels. In clinical trials it seems to have not caused depression any more than placebo. This med is an anti-convulsant and used to treat people with epilepsy or bi-polar disorder. In other words, it should smooth out mood and calm down the brain. It’s used off-label for migraine.
Checking out the drug itself, it comes in these chewable tablets. Almost sounds as banal as vitamin C. :lol:
What’s your new game plan?
S
Hi Marci,
Yes. I was having a back and neck massage, all going well, then she did the neck stretch, stretched my neck up and to the right the vertigo was immediate, quite scary.
Had a full body massage once, laid face down with my face through a little hole, horrible. I was cold, tense and there was a strong smell of orange 
When I got up, I nearly fell over. This one was bad dizziness as opposed to proper vertigo which the neck stretch gave me.
Christine
Hi Scott,
I’m planning to try a low dose of amitriptyline, starting at 5mg and hopefully finding relief at a dose no higher than 25mg. I may also try adding back in 10mg of Adderall. I had upped the Adderall to 20mg when I gave up caffeine, but the dose was too high for me.
I’m thinking ami because it’s indicated for nearly all of my diagnoses, some of which I think are one and the same condition. My laundry list includes chronic migraine with persistent aura, depression, narcolepsy, fibromyalgia, TMJ disorder, and the newest addition, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Doctors seem to like labeling but they’re not so good at looking at the big picture.
I really need to find something to help me sleep. Even after my vertigo ordeal and a full dose of meclizine, I woke up at 3AM aching and unable to get back to sleep.
I recognize the name of the drug Lamictal, so I’m sure I researched it before, but I don’t remember what I found.
Marci
Yes, I have had this as well. After a trigger point massage, I got up and the room fell to one side… I was terrified I wasn’t going to be able to get out of there. I was off for the rest of the day. I was so disappointed, as I thought a massage would relax me and all it did was cause more anxiety.
Hi Marci.
I was having 1/2 hour neck massages to deal with neck stiffness and pain. I went once a week and I tolerated most of them pretty well but then I had an hour massage of the neck and back and I could not tolerate that one at all. I didn’t have a full out vertigo attack but it was heading that way. I ended up really dizzy and nauseous.
From now on I will stick to the half hour massages.
— Begin quote from “scott”
Marci – have you ever considered Lamictal? I’ve been checking up on it recently. Was just reading the PI sheet and this one apparently messes around with sodium channels. In clinical trials it seems to have not caused depression any more than placebo. This med is an anti-convulsant and used to treat people with epilepsy or bi-polar disorder. In other words, it should smooth out mood and calm down the brain. It’s used off-label for migraine.
Checking out the drug itself, it comes in these chewable tablets. Almost sounds as banal as vitamin C. :lol:
What’s your new game plan?
S
— End quote
I didn’t benefit from lamictal. OTOH, I have lorazepam for my backup. Worked very well for me when all I knew was that every month or two I’d get disoriented, and I was told to take this for a couple of days if I thought that was coming on–or if it had happened. This said, lorazepam is a barbiturate and I have been strongly advised to go very easy on it. I trust that advice.
Otherwise, I’d have been on it since at least the beginning of this week, as it has been a headachey, bad-sleep-ey poor-focus sort of changeable weather week.
Shoot, shoot, shoot, totally mixed up.Ignore my earlier comment. Scott, delete it if possible.
Hi David – sorted. S 
Wow!
I couldn’t believe it when I saw this thread. I just have to share this morsel… I had a massage on vacation in Belize a number of years ago at a swanky resort out in the middle of nowhere. I was doing OK until I turned over and put my head in the donut face down. I could the see masseur’s feet below, he was working on my head and neck area. Started immediately feeling massively woozy. The zen music became tinny. Started sweating. Struggled to sit up, told the fellow I was feeling ill. He says, in his very French accent “Oh, dear, I have releezed the toxins in you, I can feex that, don’t worry” and sort of pushes me back into place, telling me not to worry he’ll make it all better.
I was too startled to put up any resistance, and he was intent on curing what he thought he had caused. I opened my eyes and saw his bare feet below. Then, I threw my breakfast of lovely fresh fruit and eggs up all over his toes. He was freaked. :lol:
Spent the next 2 days in my hut sick, sick, sick. I thought I had food poisoning. Upon reflection, after I was diagnosed, I remembered that moment and realized that it was a MAV attack.
— Begin quote from “SarahAnne”
“Oh, dear, I have releezed the toxins in you, I can feex that, don’t worry” .
— End quote
:lol:
Reviving this thread as something similar happened to me yesterday:
Because I have a lot of pain in my neck I decided why not try a deep massage. The massage was 1 hour long, the ones were you put your head in the hole and lay on your belly.
Felt fine during it plus the room was dimly lit.
However 20minutes after the massage I felt very dizzy and uncomfortable and nauseous.
I think 1 hour was too much.
That was my 2 cents 
Marianne
October 2019 a physio ‘massaged’ my head, neck and shoulders. Mauled my Trigmenial nerve a bit and the vestibular attack lasted eleven days. All in my PD.
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I had no idea a massage could trigger this. Should have read your pd more carefully before going 
I have been going to myotherapy once a month who works on the nerve. I wouldn’t say it massaging it, more presses on it. I have been fine so far but now might be more conscious of it. Hope you’re over this blip now.
1 Like
For anyone reading this thread, I commented a year ago that I was fine getting massages. We’ll have I got news for you!
I get monthly massages as a sort of maintenance thing for migraines. After digging around my back, and neck with my head through the hole, I was fine. I turned over to lie on my back. Here, he starts to rub my jaw. I turned my head to the right as he was working on my left jaw. Then I turned to the left. Vertigo! Room spun. Not 100 miles an hour like I have experienced, but a full spin none the less. I sat up, and once again more spinning.
It was delayed so I’m pretty sure it’s bppv, but vertigo none the less.
So will not be doing that again
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BPPV should be more controversial, imho, see: https://mvertigo.org/t/bppv-or-not-bppv-that-is-the-question/21441?u=turnitaround