1:3 people with migraine has problems with dizziness 1:4 migraineurs have had vertigo
While dizziness can be a sometimes difficult to describe sensation as a feeling ill and off balance, vertigo is a sense of the world spinning around you or a feeling like you’ re walking on a rocking ship even though you’ re on steady ground. Like migraines, balance symptoms often come and go and sometimes attacks of dizziness or vertigo are linked with migraine episodes.
Research on migraine and dizziness has uncovered important links and interconnections between pathways that control pain and pathways that control our sense of balance in the brain and nervous system. The trigeminal center is an important relay station for head pain and migraine symptoms and balance nerves also connect to this system. In addition, the brain transmitter, serotonin, is an important messenger for both migraine symptoms and dizziness. At the University of Pittsburgh, we’ ve done research to show that migraine drugs targeting serotonin receptors can also reduce the dizziness you experience when we put you through balance testing experiments.
On occasion, individuals with migraine experience dizziness or vertigo as part of their migraine episodes – with symptoms occurring as part of the migraine prodrome or aura, or occurring during the painful part of a migraine attack. At other times, migraines and dizzy problems occur separate from each other. Because people with migraine may also experience dizziness or vertigo, several studies have helped identify important relationships between migraine and common balance disorders, including motion sickness, vertigo, and Ménière’ s disease.
Motion sickness
Motion sickness is the development of sweating, dizziness, headache, sleepiness, and nausea when exposed to motion( like riding in cars, buses, boats, trains, and airplanes) or viewing a moving scene, like a 3-D movie. Motion sickness can be severe and disabling; especially for those whom travel is part of their job, such as business travelers, pilots, and ambulance workers. Motion sickness can also interfere with daily activities and limit vacation plans.
Individuals with migraine are more likely to be sensitive to the effects of motion and develop problematic motion sickness. For example, a study published in the journal Headache compared motion sickness in people with and without migraines.
Motion sickness occurred:
• When riding in a car in over 40 percent of migraineurs compared with 8 percent of people without migraines
• When playing with playground equipment for almost half of those with migraine and only 16 percent without migraine
• While watching wide-screen movies for 28 percent with migraine and 4 percent without migraines
Overall, when testing children or adults, about half of those with migraine also have problems with motion sickness.
The main treatment for motion sickness sensitivity is to limit exposure to situations that might provoke symptoms. For example:
• Avoid reading when riding in a car
• When you are a passenger in a car, ride in the front rather than the backseat
• Select forward rather than backward facing seats on trains
• Avoid 3-D movies
Scopolamine patches may be used when motion is unavoidable, such as taking a cruise. The patches should be used for no more than 3 days. Longer use can result in prolonged motion sickness symptoms that start about 1 to 3 days after removing the patch and can continue for days to weeks. Antihistamines, such as meclizine( Antivert), can also be used. Acupressure at the wrist( e. g., Sea-Bands) and taking 1 to 2 grams of ginger have also been shown to be helpful for reducing motion sickness symptoms.
www. headaches. org | National Headache Foundation 21