aaHead Pressure

Question

I have recently posted a question about this, but only received one comment. I know this is a common thing because of things I have read. I have head pressure about every afternoon. It longs about an hour.  During this time I get anxious and my heart rate goes up.  I take 50mg of lyrica before this happens.  I don't know if it triggers it.  I take 50mg of lyrica in the morning and this doesn't happen.  My doctor says it's anxiety, but why does it happens about the same time every day.  If anyone has any ideas, please comment.

toourlady89 · Accepted Answer

Hello, You have been going thru the stresses of so many surgeries and taking pain medications.. All these depletes your  Magnesium stores. It is the mineral that  has been helping you bear all of these.. eventually Mg has come to the point of getting depleted, so you now are showing signs of magnesium deficiency. It needs replacement. 

Pls search : anxiety and Magnesium. Headaches and Magnesium..

Here is one search, ( I can't post the site here)..
Magnesium is an old home remedy for all that ails you,
 including "anxiety, apathy, depression, headaches, insecurity, irritability, restlessness, talkativeness, and sulkiness." In 1968, Wacker and Parisi reported that magnesium deficiency could cause depression, behavioral disturbances, headaches, muscle cramps, seizures, ataxia, psychosis, and irritability - all reversible with magnesium replacement.

Stress is the bad guy here, in addition to our woeful magnesium deficient diets. As is the case with other minerals such as zinc, stress causes us to waste our magnesium like crazy - 

Let's look at Eby's case studies from his paper:

A 59 y/o "hypomanic-depressive male", with a long history of treatable mild depression, developed anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and insomnia after a year of extreme personal stress and bad diet ("fast food"). Lithium and a number of antidepressants did nothing for him. 300mg magnesium glycinate (and later taurinate) was given with every meal. His sleep was immediately restored, and his anxiety and depression were greatly reduced, though he sometimes needed to wake up in the middle of the night to take a magnesium pill to keep his "feeling of wellness." A 500mg calcium pill would cause depression within one hour, extinguished by the ingestion of 400mg magnesium.+++
There are many more similar cases on their site .
 Search: "Magnesium is an old home remedy for all that ails you"

"The Magnesium Miracle" by Dr Carolyn Dean is an excellent book to read up on anxiety and depression..the hows and the whys and how to cure it. it is not just to treat the symptoms but to go to the bottom of it and cure the source. Mg is involved in 300 body enzyme processes that lack of it will cause literally hundreds of symptoms, grouped as Mg Deficiency.
In short, best Mg to take is Mg Glycinate with Vit D3. 
Hope it helps, but give it time.
Take care

Paxiled · Answer

To the person who posted and the person who recommended magnesium:  Neurontin and Lyrica follow the same pathway as magnesium, so taking magnesium might actually block the Lyrica from working.  If you need magnesium it must be taken far apart in time from taking this drug, but overall magnesium may be a problem with this and many other meds that affect brain neurotransmitters because of this problem with magnesium.  But I can't say that head pressure sounds like a magnesium problem -- that would show up more as cramping or nerve pain or digestive problems.  But given Lyrica's affect on magnesium, it should be considered.

lene54 · Answer

I bought Mg Glycinate and tried taking them.  They gave me such a headache I had to stop. I am still having the head pressure.  It's much worse in the afternoon. If I take a fourth of lunesta, it really helps.  I just hate living my life this way.  My doctor thinks it could be from taking 10mg of hydrocodone 2 and half times a day.  He said hydrocodone can cause head pressure.  I worry that it will be hard for me to reduce, but would like to see if it stops the head pressure.

lene54 · Answer

I hope we both get better soon.

lene54 · Answer

Well, I haven't heard this before, but it would be great if it would work.

t0mr · Answer

So if I understand you correctly you are taking the Lyrica before you get head pressure for an hour or so sometime after that.  But you take two doses, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  To find out if it is the Lyrica, I would try taking the Lyrica at a different time of the day for a while and see if that changes the time you get head pressure.  Since you are taking two 50 mg doses maybe adjust when you take both of them by a few hours and see if that changes when you get the head pressure.  Otherwise it could be some combination of the lyrica and something else you are doing in that time frame just before the onset of the head pressure.  Maybe something you are eating or drinking for lunch (I would consider things that contain caffeine if you partake.)

My head pressure seems to get worse as the evening progresses.  I kind of makes it harder to read at times.  So I guess are cases are a little different.  I'll wake up with that heavy head feeling in the morning and I'll have really puffy eyes.  Then I walk around for a while and after a couple of hours of moving around and enduring the pain, the head pressure gradually lessens.  But then in the evenings I get tired and it progressively comes back.

I also wonder if your pressure could be an after effect of the back surgeries some how.  But I have no clue how that might cause your head pressure.  Just a few ideas I am throwing out there.  I hope you and I both find a solution.

lene54 · Answer

Thank you so much for your comments.  I feel so alone with this problem, and do not know what to do about it.  I've had 4 back surgeries and developed anxiety after being put on too many strong pain meds and coming off them.  After that the head pressure has gotten worse. I wake up with anxiety every morning.  It's an awful way to start your day.  It's been this way too since I came off the strong meds a yr ago. It's nothing like it was then, but it is still bad enough to make me feel awful.  I have really bad headaches with it.  My head pressure gets better around 7-8.  Strange.  I just want to figure out what is causing it and do something that will help.

t0mr · Answer

I have more recently developed head pressure that has been pretty bad.  I got an mri and nothing came of it.  I was put on Topamax and I think it made the head pressure worse.  My pressure is more severe in the evenings around 7-8 pm it starts to get worse.  So maybe the medicine could be affecting you.  From what I get we haven't medically really understood the source of head pressure (outside of tumors and obvious things like that).  I think there is a theory that relates head pressure and migraines to arteries in the neck and brain.  

Why does it happen at the same time everyday?  That is an excellent question.  Anxiety is not supposed to have physical reoccurring reasons that trigger it.  Personally I do not believe anxiety is a real answer. 

I always feel noticeably more tired in the evenings, more than I normally should.  I associated that with having bad head pressure usually but not completely.  If it is some kind of pressure in the arteries of the brain, being tired after a long day may have something to do with it.

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