Migraines and dizziness

[Lulu54]

In listening to the webcast from last week your expert caught my attention when he said dizziness and being off balance is a sign of a migraine.  I have had  years of the sensation of being off balance and at times waves of dizziness.  It never turns into vertigo or causes syncope but often feels like I could do one or the other. I have always compensated for it and didn't think much of this, blaming it on changes of blood pressure, drops in glucose,  or other such excuses, but once I was dx'd with MS it made sense as a symptom of that disease.  

Now that I've heard the migraine talk, I am back to wondering about its root cause.  I realize you can't speak to my specific medical problem since you have not had the opportunity to fully evaluate me as a patient, but could you expound on dizziness as a migraine?  I will certainly understand if this is out of your area of expertise as an ENT and you can't explain it further.

Thanks,
Laura

[needanswers54]

Thank you for this information.

I have severe unrelenting migraines that will go on for months.  Even I.V. morphine will not always do the trick.  I have noticed most of the above symptoms related the onset or disappearance of my cranial migraine.  Often I must get the diarrhea before my migraine will end.

I recently read how irritable bowel or similar symptomology may be related to MS.

And it seems that migraine could therefore give some symptomology of IBS.

So, is it possible that there is one or more primary, secondary, etc. connection(s) in all of this?

And if MS does have a genetic predisposition; how does this interplay with the above.  Some people that have MS have even had extreme GI (stomach and bowel) issues as infants and children.

I recently read an article on APO.  Does this therefore interconnect with the above?

As a severe migraine suffererer of about twenty years with fibro and probably MS this is of great interest to me.  I kept getting told that I must have lupus and not MS because of my other symptomology such as my migraines.  But, the lupus tests are always normal.  My positive ANA has never been found above 1:320 and is usually homogenenous, but once was speckled.  I recently read the reseach paper that showed MS could have positive ANA's that titre to 1:320 and lupus will go much higher.  So, if I indeed have MS, my clinical laboratory results do fit what this research delineates.

Could all this hyperexcitability cause unexpected release of biological chemicals that could additionally be instrumental in lesion formation other than the inflammatory components that cause demyelination that are usually written about?

Thank you for addressing this topic!

I truly look forward to any additional explanations and reading materials that you may forward my way.

My many thanks, again!

[Steven Y Park, MD]

Think of a migraine attack as any part of your nervous that is hypersensitive and sends too much signals to the brain (or maybe vice versa—the brain sends to much abnormal signals to a specific part of the body). If this occurs in the brain, you get the classic migraine. If it happens in your sinuses, you get sinus pain, pressure, congestion, post-nasal drip, and fogginess. If it happens in your inner ears, you can get anything from dizziness, fullness, imbalance, hearing loss, ringing or spinning. In the stomach, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, etc. It goes on and on. It can occur anywhere you have nerve endings.

Sleep breathing problems also cause an imbalance or confusion of your involuntary nervous system. This is what regulates blood pressure, heart rate, sweating, bowel function, etc. If there's an imbalance (too much physiologic stress), then you'll have problems.