Does taking Meclizine work for MAV

Meclizine can be diagnostic. I was looking through a presentation of Dr.Hain. He clearly states Mecilize will not work for MAV/VM as it is a vestibular suppresant. I think it can diagnostic in the sense if meclizine works for you it is time you and your doctor took a closer look at the ear to see what is wrong.Migraine is central and meclizine will not touch it.

EDIT: The same cannot be said of benzos as they affect a lot of neurotransmitters and are a vestibular suppresant. So benzos will work irrespective of the cause being ear or brain. Thought people might appreciate this small nuance.

Jess09ā€¦What additional ingredients are in Ami that you would benefit from that are not in Nort? Thanks

Tricylic antidepressants are another class of medication considered as first-line treatment in migraine prophylaxis. Although the entire class is considered useful in prophylaxis, tertiary amines, such as amitriptyline, are more effective than the secondary amines, such as nortriptyline

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@GetBetter Thanks for answering that, you explained it better than I could.

@BButl My doctor told me that Amitriptyline can cause more drowsiness and Iā€™ve been suffering from insomnia, so that would be better for me. Also, Iā€™ve heard some people take Amitriptyline at low doses for TMJ pain management and other types of pain, and I have both so I feel it would help me on many fronts. However my current neurologist doesnā€™t want me to try it just because I had a higher heart rate in her office, DESPITE the fact that Iā€™ve already been cleared by a cardiologist, complete with wearing a 2 week heart rate monitor, that my heart is completely fine.

I can vouch for that. It really helped mine and my TMJ is much much MUCH better a year later.

Incidentally I got my TMJ from the muscle clenching ā€˜relaxationā€™ exercises my psychotherapist gave me that were meant to combat the anxiety and depression of MAV! Up to the day my jaw went into spasm I found the exercises very helpful.

If you are given relaxation exercises leave your jaw out!! My jaw now occasionally dislocates (although this is getting rarer), so not a great result, though Iā€™ve read the muscles can restrengthen over a period of 3 years from injury.

@turnitaround Iā€™m totally with you, I canā€™t do many of the muscle ā€œrelaxationā€ exercises. Anything about tensing anything on my face is off limits. Also my shoulders since I have so much neck pain and such a tight neck that Iā€™m pretty sure is the almost constant trigger for my headaches and dizziness. Honestly tensing and relaxing any muscle just brings me pain.

Glad to hear the Amitriptyline helped your TMJ issues, I remember reading that in other posts. My TMJ issues arenā€™t related to clenching though, the dentists donā€™t see any evidence of clenching or grinding on my teeth. Iā€™ve been told thereā€™s some structural/joint damage, not sure of the cause, but to get it looked it my dizziness needs to be more manageable first. I havenā€™t had much jaw pain until recently, and even then itā€™s been more in the STM muscle and all around the one ear, which could be linked to the TMJ or the neck tightness at this point, probably both.

@Jess09 the other thing I read was ā€˜para functionalā€™ use of jaw can help cause or exacerbate TMJ. In other words, if you use your jaw for anything other than exactly the things it was intended for functionally, that can stress it, prevent it from resting etc. I realised that I had a lot of bad habits like nervously or with boredom playing with my tongue & teeth, biting my cheek, stressing my jaw muscles when concentrating or stressed etc. etc. which all stop the jaw muscles from resting. In my case it was all kicked off by a great big one off muscle spasm which was I understand down to it going over the edge of not having enough rest. I hope yours calms down with time too.

@turnitaround Thank you for sharing that, that is interesting. I did have a physical therapist who specializes in TMJ and STM muscle issues (as well as other things) who mentioned something similar to me one time. Something about the way I hold my tongue or even hold my jaw in normal positions, as you said. Itā€™s very hard to stay conscious of where my tongue is. At one point he looked at how I drank a glass of water, I forget the details that may have been a neck thing, but I was moving something wrong. Itā€™s crazy to think about. If these small details like how you drink water or where you hold your tongue are so important to muscle and jaw function, what other details about other areas of the body (or even migraine) are we unaware of that could be contributing factors to issues?

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