I just wanted to share my experience with a new doctor I was recommended to see in Southern California. He is touted as a “brain chemistry expert” so I was ready to see him asap. My appointment yesterday was quite interesting. Basically, he is a physchiatrist, who found that many of his patients with psychiatric disorders had various hidden infections … mostly viral in nature. He found that when he did a viral blood panel, there were so many correlations. About 6 years ago he started doing this type of work and found amazing results.
SInce it was only my first appointment, and I don’t have my results yet, I won’t go into to much detail. But the gist of it is this … my journey on the MAV trail began with Bell’s Palsy. Before that, I never had any migraine symptoms (motion intolerance at a low level is all I can think of). I never had a headache, never anxiety, and never any deep depression. So as I’m telling him that I got the Bell’s lights are going off in his head and he’s getting all excited. He had to keep himself focused on my history because he was totally getting ahead of himself with excitement over figuring out this puzzle. I will say that the most satisfying part of my appointment was finding a doctor who is so passionate about his work and who treated me like we were friends. It was so refreshing and I now have a new avenue to check out so there’s still hope! I will bullet point some of the things I learned and also update as I see him again. If anyone is interested, his website is http://www.drjensen.com. It’s not a very exciting website but if you are in the area it might be worth a visit.
Although I told him I was being treated for migraine, he didn’t really seem to think that was necessarily my problem. He has found that patients with physchiatric/neurological issues had active viral action going on in their bodies/brain. He found by treating the patients with psyche meds, it allowed the body to turn on the immune response, and subsequent blood work showed the virus went away. He has a database of over half a million patients who share this viral database, and they have many of our symptoms …vertigo, headaches, anxiety, depression etc.
One patient suffered dizziness for 2 years and saw tons of docs/specialists. He found she had a hidden bacterial infection, gave her 10 days of antibiotics, and she was fine.
He told me that Klonopin is a great drug that has anti-convulsive properties and said not to fear it like an alcoholic fears drinking. He said that he works in partnership with patients and will allow them to trial any med that has merit. He wrote a 3-part program for me the first being to trial Klonopin 2x a day and see how I go. The second was to trial Neurontin which he said you would know right away if it was going to work. He thought it was well worth a try. The last was Lamictal which takes longer to build up in the body. He said he thought it would be a good choice, and felt intuitively, it might work well for me. He has a patient who presented with similar symptoms and does very well on it.
I am not sure I will trial the meds besides Klonopin before I see him, but it’ s nice to have the options. I will keep you guys posted.
I am confused. He said using psychiatric drugs, meaning like klonopin, turned on the immune system? Or did he mean the anti-seizure meds? Do you know which tests he includes in his panel of blood tests?
It may be that migraine is secondary to having some “bug” still hanging around in one’s system. Maybe in some individuals, the migraine symptoms of inflammation are a means of eradicating something that doesn’t belong there? Just a thought.
Thanks for the write-up Kelley. Has this guy published anything do you know? I wonder if he has anything he could suggest in the literature for more background to his thinking.
Hi there,
He said “psych drugs”…which include a big list, as we know. Different meds for different people depending on what they need. In my case, the Klonopin and Cymbalta perhaps. As this was my first appt and I wasn’t sure what to expect, I don’t have way too much to offer, but I am excited to go down a new road, as some of the old roads were leading me to disappointment…
Scott, I was wondering the same thing myself, in regards to having anything published. I will try to record my next session to stay refreshed.
He made a mention of my MRI scans, as he wanted to check out my brain. He said that even when they come in as “Normal”…that leaves a lot of room for exploring…he hypothesizes that some part of my brain is not getting enough glucose, and could be why I get sore aound my orbital sockets, and my headaches were in that area…I know I’m all over the place, and I apologize, but it was a whirlwind 2 hours, and I don’t have the memory I used to! :roll:
Kelley
ps
forgot to add that my blood work at this time was all a viral screening…like 12-15 different viruses. I will get a copy of it when I go back. Different viruses can lodge in organs or the brain and wreck havoc…he seems to think that whatever virus caused my bell’s palsy got comfy someplace in my brain, and has set off this migraine stuff…
Oddly, that is what my mother, my friend who is a nurse practitioner, and a naturopath all said they thought as well…but who knows? At this point I’m looking for something concrete to support the theory. I know a lot of us got this after experiencing some sort of viral episode, if I’m remembering right.
All i know is that prior to this dizzy monster MAV Condition, i was going thru horrible, horrible Stress at work (when i was working for the phone company). I began having vertigo attacks at night when sleeping and it just got worse. I will probably never know for sure if it was the stress but it sure seems most likely.
I think stress can also interfere with our immune system’s ability to keep at bay various bacteria, viruses, etc. inhabiting our bodies. So at the time of great emotional or physical stress, a latent virus that normally doesn’t bother us, can rear its ugly head. And if it decides to colonize in brain tissue, well then we may eventually find ourselves in deep migraine “do-do.” Here’s his book:
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Dizzytink-I was just signing in to say that…in reference to Joe, going through some tough stress…that the body would be compromised and the virus/bacteria can therefore come out of hiding…I just purchased the book via Amazon for a whopping .01 cent. Hopefully it is a good read.
Hopefully it is a good read.