Migraines and Tinnitus and Visual Snow Connection

Hello,

Do you experience any changes in your tinnitus, hyperacusis or visual snow syndrome when you're having a migraine?
If you do what helps you to alleviate the symptoms or prevent them from happening?

I've been having occasional migraines for the last 4-5 years and they weren't very bad.
However this February they started to be more intense and they started to affect tinnitus and visual snow (this never happened before).

I don't know why that's happening. I had an temporary adverse reaction (tremors, blurry vision, light sensitivity, flickering in peripheral vision, floaters) to dexamethasone in February, but the migraines and their side effects are just getting worse for no apparent reason.

Mid March I had 3 day long migraine just out of the blue. On a third day I suspected it might be from insufficient blood outflow from the brain so I took a Diamox pill (doctors prescribed it to me earlier). It helped with the migraine (or it was a coincidence), but next day I noticed that night vision got significantly worse.
From 10 out of 10 to 4/10 night vision overnight.
I did retinal tests recently and there are some abnormalities, but not enough to cause such a dramatic change.

This week I started having a migraine again. On a second day it spiked tinnitus to almost catastrophic 9/10 levels and caused TTTS to flare up. (I was at home during those days, no noise exposure to cause this spike and it sounded very differently from the kind of spike you get from noise).
The next morning migraine stopped and I woke up with 3/10 tinnitus. It increased during the day, but that's not the point.

Yesterday I started having a migraine again. It feels like it's literally obliterating the left side of my head and piercing thought it with a drill. Tinnitus is super loud on that side. I was home for a past couple of days so nothing external could have caused this.
Last evening I noticed that TTTS was off the charts (again without any trigger) and night vision became even worse. Visual snow increased too and started flickering more aggressively.

I'm going to do another eye exam, but I'm sure they're fine.

Does anyone have similar experiences?

 

I've been taking Magnesium and my headaches and migraines have disappeared. And I was having constant headaches for a year nearly.

There is a connection between migraines, tinnitus and visual snow though. I don't know to what extent. But I remember reading articles on twitter that chronic migraines could actually cause visual snow, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's able to amplify it.

 

How much magnesium’s do you take?

 

Yeah almonds.

 

Hey did you have light sensitivity and night blindness along with your visual snow at its worst ? I’m currently experiencing that although my grain is somewhat mild to moderate.

 

I'm taking Magnesium citrate, but it's not helping. I'm going to add B2 and Q10. If this doesn't help I'll start Amitriptyline.

Very interesting about migraines causing visual snow. My mother had migraines when she was around my age. She also has tinnitus and visual snow, but she doesn't remember when it started and it's not that bad. She has no history of exposure to loud sounds or ototoxic medication. Her tinnitus doesn't spike from noise either.

 

Interesting. *edit - never mind I saw your next post about magnesium
So 5-HTP affected your visual snow and migraines in a positive way? Did you get tested for 5-HTP levels before taking it?
From what I've heard medication that affects serotonin levels like SSRIs can worsen visual snow.

 

According to my research light sensitivity AND difficulty seeing in the dark can arise at the level of transmission between thalamic reticular nucleus and Brodmann's areas 17 and 18 (visual cortex). I need to do more research on this.

 

Did you do Visual Evoked Potentials and Multifocal ERG?

 

This situation is getting out of control.

If you know anything about migraines, visual snow, and retina please contact me.
If you know someone who has knowledge in about this or where I can get a consultation with a doctor who specializes in this please let me know.

Thank you.

 

Has anyone tried special glasses for migraines or visual snow? If so let me know and if a pair helped, please let me know which pair you bought. I get migraines every now and then and think it has something to do with light.

Question #15 - Do colored glasses provide...

Migraine Glasses You Need to Know About! -...

 

I can notice visual snow when there is less light. It may have been around a couple of years ago I realized I had a high pulse when I was playing around with an oximeter. When I have a high pulse, I believe my heart is trying to work harder to pump blood throughout my body. It could be because my arteries aren't constricting properly or because my heart is out of shape or something's wrong with it. I'm not sure. Either way, when my pulse is high, I don't feel as good and it puts a stress on my body.

Anyways, I thought it was due to a drug I was taking, but the drug probably made it only a little bit worse. Sometimes I have noticed my eyes will let it more light as I have messed around with different supplements. Unfortunately, I didn't check my pulse then.

Well, this afternoon I put on some compression socks and got more energy. Since my bottom leg arteries and veins were compressed, my heart rate could lower. I am also thinking it has enabled more blood flow to other parts of my body. I took the socks down momentarily to see if my mood would lower and very quickly I started noticing visual snow. I wasn't even thinking about it before. I put the socks back up and it seems like I have less snow and that I tune it out extremely easy.

My tinnitus whistling isn't that bothersome right now but I don't know if that is a coincidence or not.

Oh well, just thought I would share that.

 

@JasonP -- What you describe sounds an awful like like symptoms of POTS. Below is a snippet from THIS LINK:

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a disorder that has OI as its most common symptom. When you have POTS, most of your blood stays in the lower part of your body when you stand up. This makes your heart beat faster to try to get blood to your brain. Your heart rate can go up by 30 beats or more a minute after you stand up. As that happens, your blood pressure is likely to drop.

 

Thank you... I was thinking about POTS today and I think I might have that or something very similar. My resting pulse rate I think is too high as well. I have almost passed out several times in the past year. Do you know any natural treatments for this?

 

@JasonP -- POTS falls under a broader category called "Dysautonomia", and sometimes also referred to as "Orthostatic Intolerance" (OI). POTS is a type of Dysautonomia where the heart rate increases, and apparently has different causes. This would include an autoimmune component for some, some type of brainstem compression in others, and I think other causes as well, like Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Dysfunction. Like tinnitus, it can also originate in various places, such as the neck and/or upper thoracic area of the back.

I had major dysautonomia for many years, and just recently discovered a lot of it was stemming from my upper back and neck area. I discovered this after I started applying DMSO on my neck and upper back area, along with doing some excercises. Only a few days after starting the exercises, I noticed my OI had gotten significantly better, as well as my overall physical stamina. I also started doing some self-acupuncture on my brainstem area. Below is a post I did where I describe some of these techniques, along with links to some YouTube videos:

Tinnitus for Three Weeks — Looking for Support

The lady at the following link has written extensively on her own POTS / Dysautonomia experiences:

https://prettyill.com/meet/

 

Thanks so much!!! The past couple of weeks I have been thinking that there could be a problem with my upper back or neck that could be causing some of these problems and was thinking about calling a chiropractor. Do you think one could help? Also, for 3 nights I used blue blocking glasses a few hours before going to sleep because I heard that melatonin can help with POTS. On the two nights I didn't have any kind of stimulant at night I had some of the best night's sleep in years and woke up extremely refreshed. I'll have to try it some more to make sure it's not a coincidence.

By the way, does eating breads, pasta, and sugars make you feel worse sometimes? Do you have to burp a lot? Sometimes after a meal I feel worse, I believe because more blood is going to my stomach and intestines, so my heart has to work harder.

 

By the way, have these exercises lowered your tinnitus any?

 

@JasonP -- What you describe could indicate any number of causes, but since you're experiencing them in conjunction with symptoms of POTS and tinnitus, it would indicate (to me) your digestive issues could possibly be originating from your vagus nerve.

If a compressed or in some other way compromised vagus nerve is a problem, then you likely don't have good "vagal tone", which in turn can affect any number of functions in the body. And if your vagus nerve is affected by compression and/or some kind of infection, then that will almost assuredly affect your tinnitus to some degree. Which would likely by via the "auricular branch" of the vagus nerve.

There are a number of "natural" ways to address some of these things, such as learning some of the various methods that can be used to "stimulate" the vagus nerve. There are articles online with titles such as "Thirty Ways to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve". There's also a specialized atlas "repositioning" technique called AtlasPROfilax that can release pressure on the vagus nerve. This POST I made gives more tips and links to some testimonials on how this technique helped with people's tinnitus.

 

Thanks so much for your help. This could be my problem.

 

@JasonP -- You also may want to check out VENOUS INSUFFICIENCY.

Let me know if you have any questions as you delve into this, as I feel I've only given you a broad outline of things you may want to be aware of. For instance, the vagus nerve runs through the gut, and gives vital nerve energy to our entire GI tract. It's also responsible for the sensation of "satiation", that is when our gut is telling us we've eaten enough.

The VN also runs through the throat, and is responsible for sensation of feeling we're going to vomit. The VN is also the main orchestrator of the Parasympathetic Nervous System, the part of our nervous system that calms us down. So much more.... Good luck with tracking things down for yourself. Again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

Thanks! I lied down last night on my back, waited a bit and checked my blood pressure. It was high and my heart rate was low for me (66bpm). When I laid down on my side, my blood pressure was normal. Most of the time when I am standing my heart rate is between 95 to 105. If I wear compression socks, that heart rate number can go down. Do you know why my blood pressure would be higher when laying on my back?

 

I just did a quick online search, and discovered the following article. I didn't understand all the specifics of their explanation, but it sounds like it's a common occurrence.

Why Does Laying on My Side Lower My Blood Pressure?

 

Thanks so much for your help!

 

I think L-Threonate might be good for a lot of people suffering from tinnitus.

 

All who responded to this discussion provided outstanding thoughts including:

- optic nerve failures that affect only one eye.
- nerve failures after the chiasm affects only left or right side of vision.
- migranines
- lack of magnesium
- high pulse
- blood pressure - standing or sleeping on side
- neck
- autoimmune
- brainstem compression
- venous insufficiency
- nervous system
- abdominal
- field of vision problems

Smoking and/or hypertension moments or a single hypertension crisis event can relate to all, cause or follow thru - including optic nerves, retina and neck vein trauma. If blood flow to or from the abdominal area is noticed, then there may be an abdominal aortic enlargement which can be measured by ultrasound. 8% of older men have this.

 

Every time I get a migraine, my tinnitus decreases. I wish I knew why, because sometimes when I get migraines I almost wish they would last so the decrease of my tinnitus would last as well.

Is there any information on this?