Does what I have sound like MAV?

@anotherstar: I really feel for you. I’m quite a bit older than you, but still far away from retirement. And I perfectly know this feeling of desparation that there is nothing you can do and that life is over.

4 weeks ago I tried “Flunarizine” which is also a calcium channel blocker like Verapamil. It did help to some extent, but after 5 days I got heavy mental side effects. I don’t know how to describe it, it was partly a depression and partly a feeling I’m going to lose control completely. It was some sort of a feeling that I was only a passenger in my own life, that I just wasn’t myself anymore, don’t know how to describe it better.

Things that relialby help me to a certain degree and have no (or just minor) side effects are:

  • Vitamine C in high doses which is like 1.000mg per day and more
  • Vitamine B complex (B1, B2, B6, B12)
  • Magnesia
  • Zinc
  • Calcium

For all those things mentioned above I have to use very high doses, typical 10-20 times higher than the RDA. Those plain vanilla multi vitamine capsules from the drug store don’t do anything for me.
Possible side effect is a bit of diarrhea, but not too bad.

  • Migravent: very helpful, unfortunately relatively expensive.

  • Cetirizine: an old OTC anti histamine. Might contribute to a bit of weigt gain. Others have it also reported, but this is not confirmed. Might as well be that if you feel better and enjoy life better, then you also might enjoy eating more. But anyway it’s for sure not that you pop up like pizza dough …

  • Dimenhydrinate: is used in travel gums against motion sickness. Main purpose is to fight nausea and vomiting from motion sickness but helps me against vertigo/dizziness. Takes about 2 hours to show an effect. Can cause a bit of sleepiness as a side effect but not too bad. In the US branded as “Dramamine”

  • Diet: staying away from known triggers, in my case coffee and alcohol, particular wine and champagne. I also try to eat low carb and stay away from any kind of preprocessed food but rather go with fresh salad, veggies and a bit of meat/fish/eggs

If you haven’t tried those things yet I recommend to do it. But DON’T combine Cetirizine and dimenhy. with any “hard” drugs, such as Verapamil or Gabapentin as they might take influence on each other.

With those things I am in this state as you describe it “no fun but livable”. Hope that helps …

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