Mysterious Headrushes and Disequilibrium

[jp31]

I am a 31yr old male in very good physical condition. Don't smoke and no longer use alcohol.
For the past 5years I have suffered from intense headrushes. They are brief(2-3secs), but intense at times. The "spells", although brief, are intense enough that they make me feel off balance, as if i need to reach out and grab something for support. I have never fallen or stumbled. I have been to numerous doctors. Been treated for vertigo(which it wasn't). Underwent an MRI which came back clean. Seen cardiologists and neurologist and psychiatrists. I have found no answers and though these spells do not appear to put me in danger they are very worrisome and I am garteful to any advice anyone out there might have. I am scheduled for an EEG as well to assess my brain waves or possible seizure activity.
I currently do not take any medication. I've tried beta blockers to no avail. The spells come completely out of the blue and I cannot recreate them with head movement. I have noticed many times however that they can happen as i bring my head from down to up. As far as anxiety goes, i do have a history of anxiety, but the spells hit me mostly when i am calm and participating in normal everyday activities, ie..watching tv, etc. I have felt them many times while running on the treadmill and frankly feel rather unsafe.  
It is very difficult to describe, as it isn't traditional dizziness nor vertigo nor do i feel like i will faint. Again, it feels like an intense headrush that momentarily freezes me and throws me off balance.
Can anyone shed light on this?

JP

[mrpoopoohead]

I have the same problem and i'm a 16 year old male. When i stand up after watching tv or being on the computer or just laying down for a while everything goes white and i become very dizzy for about 5 seconds. Once i have fainted from it and another time i caught myself on a door knob before i fell. Other times i just grab on to something and wait for it to pass. I'v had this for a while (not sure how long exactly, but atleast a couple of years) but until now it has been happening very frequently. Before it would happen frequently on and off for about a week or so and then i would barley get them for a while. I also have anxiety, so it could be a symptom of that. One thing i did notice when i would get the spells frequently for about a week or so, was that i was changing my eating habits. A lot of times i have tried to start eating healthier and stay away from sugar (but none of these attempts have lasted more than 2 weeks) and this is when they would occur most. I also have a bloating problem that has messed up the way i eat. I can eat just a little bit and get very bloated, even from just eating fruit, so usually i don't feel hungry too often, and i heard that headrushes can come from standing up too quickly when you haven't eaten enough.

[dizzylizzy2]

i have been having the same problem for about 6 years...(i am a sixteen year old girl by the way). i have visited many doctors and all believe that i have a conversion disorder. This is utter bullox. I have also had gait problems were i couldnt walk because i couldnt control how my legs moved.IDK if you had this problem at all but it might be helpful. I have given up on finding an answer because no will take me seriously. I hope you will find some answers!!

[jp31]

I wanted to add some further results.
This morning I had an EEG, sleep deprived, and the doctor phoned me with the results noting that I do have some slowing of the left temporal portion of my brain. He now wants to perform an all day video EEG and MRI.
Anyone have familiarity on just what all this means(left side slowing? )

[jp31]

Interesting points.
You eluded to something I have always questioned in my own mind. The drinking angle. For years I operated as most college students did. Binge drinking was a part of my life for over half a decade. I never had a daily habit, but when myself and my friends did go out, it was full speed ahead. I have asked every single doctor about the possibility if years of binge drinking, although I don't drink much any longer, could have anything or everything to do with how i feel. They all more or less dismiss it straight away, or bring to light that if it was the culprit no test would indicate as such. I can clearly state that in more recent times when i did overindulge my symptoms were indeed worse. Hmmmnnnnn.....

[bbird]

Sorry about my previous post.  I guess I just glazed over the "headrush" part.   For some reason, I thought you had pain.
From reading all the posts on this forum, it appears that anxiety can cause many, many problems with varied symptoms.   Unfortunately if some doctors can't find the reason for your problem, it often goes dx'd as anxiety.  You know your body and if you feel that this is something else, please continue to search for answers.   The hardest part of being sick is not knowing exactly what you have.   Keep trying and good luck.

[jp31]

Another good descriptor i can use is: Often it affects my balance and makes me feel wobbly as i walk...almost a feeling of slight intoxication. Very short lived, and i should state that no one has ever commented on an abnormal gait.

[jp31]

Thanks for the info. The only difference for me is that my "spells" are free of pain.
I will ask my md about the test though. Thanks and good luck to you.

[bbird]

Several years ago I started experiencing sudden jolts of pain through my head.  They were usually on one side or the other.  They only lasted a second or two, but when it would happen, I would reach out to the wall or whatever was near because I felt like I was going to fall.   It was such intense pain that if it lasted longer than a second or two, I think I would have passed out.   I can't think of the name of the test I had, but it involved having dye injection.  My brain was scanned and nothing was found.   The general consensus was that they were some sort of migrane.  I think I got this Dx because nothing else was found.  In the past two years they have tapered off.  Good luck to you.