Migraine and palpitations?

I was diagnosed with vestibular migraine in October 2017, even though i have suffered symptoms for six years previous. I have tried both Amitriptyline and Nortriptyline both of which made me worse. Ever since the vestibular migraines started (i am symptomatic 24/7) i have experienced palpitations. Brief flutters, skips, thumps, zings, sucking sensations etc. They only last a brief second. I can go hours without any or experience several a minute. I can have months without any but it seems to depend on how bad my vestibular migraine symptoms are. I had an ecg which was normal but i didnā€™t feel any palpitations at the time. Has anyone else experienced these kinds of palpitations with their vestibular migraine? Iā€™m concerned about the possibility of mitral valve prolapse. I canā€™t find any info online connecting palpitations with migraine.

I assume you are referring to heart palpitations? This article isnā€™t about heart palpitations, but you might find this quote from the article interesting:

ā€œOur findings suggest that the higher prevalence of chest pain, but not coronary disease, among those with migraines or other severe headaches may be related to something other than heart disease,ā€ said Dr. Kathryn Rose, a research assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and lead author of the report published today in the journal Neurology. ā€œFor example, people with migraines might have a greater sensitivity to pain or be more prone to vasospasms (sudden constrictions of blood flow in an artery).ā€

https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/health/article/Migraine-sufferers-found-more-likely-to-get-angina-1162862.php

The palpitations could be from any anxiety about your condition. That was the deal w me, my chest would get all tight and for a minute maybe itll just flutter and then disappear.

I have had the same diagnosed as supraventricular tachyarryhthmia which has been seen on every 24 hour ECG over the past 12 years. I do have mitral regurgitation but they say this is not the cause. I take the calcium channel blocker verapamil which reduces the severity but not the frequency of the attacks which occur several times a day. Absolutely not related to stress as I have been confirmed as an unstressful person (cortisol levels etc tested for this). Also not related to caffeine intake as I have absolutely zero. So whilst it remains a mystery I am still here living with SVTs as they are known and no-one seems to be concerned about them. I was concerned at first but they are just annoying now and something I have learned to live with.

I was diagnosed as having very severe, debilitating chronic VM so that may well be the cause with spasm being the offending feature. I hope this helps you to relax a little about it all scarry as it seems at first.

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I have the same issues, even before my a couple months preceding my MV event . Many tests later still nothing found heart relatedā€¦It also makes toleration of medicines nearly impossible for me.

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I agree about the medication, hence my tiny doses being effective I believe.

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Yep, unfortunately not even the smallest doses are tolerable. Before this condition, I could tolerate most of anything but was fairly sensitive to Lexapro.

My next step is to attempt micro-dosing with a Effexor XR brand name (inner beads are supposedly consistently sized, etc.). Probably will go with two beads every two weeks and see where it goes.

I would recommend being very careful with Nori, Ami, etc. if you have heart side effects. As I later learned the hard way and believe I have permanent damage on the left side of my body (upper left chest/arm) due to stroke like event of sorts. However, still nothing noteworthy showed up in stress test, EKs, Xio Patch, etc.

I go through waves now of attempts of new things but generally I have settled on the status quo after coming on 5 years in April. Hate to say it has been that long. Working remote full-time has been a god send for me.

Hi Chris,

I am currently trialing effexor. My manufacturer is Teva and i have 39-40 beads in every capsule. I started with 1/5 of the capsule for 2 weeks and then did 1/4 of capsule for 2 more weeks.I am super med sensitive and my aim is to get to 1/3rd capsule.

Let me know what manufacturer you are trialing and how many beads you see in every capsule. The only side effect i see is i wake up multiple times in the night. Immediately after i take it i feel like i just had a cup of coffee( sans the taste though :wink: ).

Good luck with your trial.

Were you able to ascertain whether each Teva bead contained the same amounts of active and inactive ingredients per capsule or do you simply eye smaller vs larger and approximate? I have heard before that generic Effexor XR beads are not distributed equally and that is why some have a hard time titrating down.

Some beads are definitely smaller. Each effexor capsule is packed by weight so some beads can be small i still take the small beads in addition to my equal-sized bead countā€¦I would not worry about the bead sizes and active/inactive ingredients.

Hainā€™s website claims weaning off less than 37.5 is less of an issue

Sounds like anxiety to meā€¦ All of it. You donā€™t nerd any of those shit medications. All you need is to remove the stress in your life and change your diet.

I think that is extremely simplistic ā€¦ not everyone responds only to the diet and there is a protocol. For sure, diet and stress reduction are things to try first, but often they arenā€™t enough.

I was aa total mess until I started on Amitriptyline and it helped me get my sanity back.

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I agree with Turnitaround. when i saw Dr S last summer i was in a bad way and he said diet and lifestyle changes are not going to get you out of this, you need medication. and within a couple of days of starting the meds i was 50% better. i had done the diet and lifestyle stuff for weeks with only some marginal effect.

and re anxiety- i disagree. itā€™s more complex than that. stress and anxiety can lead to increase of these medical conditions, but there is no linear link. just as if somebody has angina, itā€™s not ā€˜anxietyā€™, even though stress may or may not have played a part in it.

btw migraine is known to be connected to the sympathetic nervous system functions (everything that happens unconsciously like heartbeats, guts digestion, hormone release), so itā€™s quite possible heart and mind are related by migraine.

re ā€œshit medicationsā€ - they have probably saved quite a few lives. weā€™d all prefer not to have to take them. but sometimes you need medical help to get better.

thanks

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Excellent comment and I completely agree. My anxiety is a symptom of my migraines, not the other way around. And i think you are right about the sympathetic nervous system and the heart. Ectopic beats are often caused by overstimulation of the sns, by stress or anxiety for example. During a migraine isnā€™t the sns being overstimulated? So isnā€™t it possible thst it could cause irregular heartbeats?