[net.med] Need help with dizziness and heart pounding symptoms.

jeff@heurikon.UUCP (Jeffrey Mattox) (04/25/85)

This is a message from my wife.  We'd be grateful for any help
or ideas concerning these symptoms.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I am a 41 year old female.  I have been dizzy every day since
mid February.  The dizziness is mild on waking, and becomes
progressively worse during the day.  The dizziness is of the type
where I feel as if I'm going to fall over; the room does not spin.
I even feel as if I'm going to fall over while I'm sitting.

Four weeks ago, my head and heart began pounding; sometimes
hours at a time.  My pulse goes to 92.  My head feels as if it
is going to explode, but I do not have a headache.  This is not
as frequent as the dizziness.  My left ear always feels blocked
but it checks out okay.

A half day in the hospital emergency room gave no answers.  I've
seen a neurologist, have had an EEG, EKG, and have worn a heart
monitor for 24 hours -- everything normal.  My doctor has done
all the routine blood tests for liver, kidney, diabetes, mono,
thyroid, sisuses, and checked my ears -- all show no problems.
I do not have a fever.

I'm taking multi-vitamins (including B1), calcium, and clonopin
(to control twitching due to MD).  I will have my eyes tested
tomorrow, and will see a food allergist next week because the
head and heart pounding sometimes seem to start after eating.
I am allergic to many foods such as wheat, rice and potatoes,
and am on special diets.  I also have lactose intolerance. 
---------------------------
/"""\	Jeffrey Mattox, Heurikon Corp, Madison, WI
|O.O|	{harpo, hao, philabs}!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff  (news & mail)
\_=_/				     ihnp4!heurikon!jeff  (mail - best)

ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (04/26/85)

> I am a 41 year old female.  I have been dizzy every day since
> mid February.  The dizziness is mild on waking, and becomes
> progressively worse during the day.  The dizziness is of the type
> where I feel as if I'm going to fall over; the room does not spin.
> I even feel as if I'm going to fall over while I'm sitting.
> 
>  My left ear always feels blocked
> but it checks out okay.
> 
I'd go for a more complex ear examination.  My mother had similar
problems.  The tests included running water in your ear and testing
which way you thought you were spinning.  I don't know too many
details.

-Ron

twh@mb2c.UUCP (Tim Hitchcock) (04/27/85)

> This is a message from my wife.  We'd be grateful for any help
> or ideas concerning these symptoms.
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> I am a 41 year old female.  I have been dizzy every day since
> mid February.  The dizziness is mild on waking, and becomes
> progressively worse during the day.  The dizziness is of the type
> where I feel as if I'm going to fall over; the room does not spin.
> I even feel as if I'm going to fall over while I'm sitting.
> 
> Four weeks ago, my head and heart began pounding; sometimes
> hours at a time.  My pulse goes to 92.  My head feels as if it
> is going to explode, but I do not have a headache.  This is not
> as frequent as the dizziness.  My left ear always feels blocked
> but it checks out okay.
> 
> A half day in the hospital emergency room gave no answers.  I've
> seen a neurologist, have had an EEG, EKG, and have worn a heart
> monitor for 24 hours -- everything normal.  My doctor has done
> all the routine blood tests for liver, kidney, diabetes, mono,
> thyroid, sisuses, and checked my ears -- all show no problems.
> I do not have a fever.
> 
> I'm taking multi-vitamins (including B1), calcium, and clonopin
> (to control twitching due to MD).  I will have my eyes tested
> tomorrow, and will see a food allergist next week because the
> head and heart pounding sometimes seem to start after eating.
> I am allergic to many foods such as wheat, rice and potatoes,
> and am on special diets.  I also have lactose intolerance. 
> ---------------------------
> /"""\	Jeffrey Mattox, Heurikon Corp, Madison, WI
> |O.O|	{harpo, hao, philabs}!seismo!uwvax!heurikon!jeff  (news & mail)
> \_=_/				     ihnp4!heurikon!jeff  (mail - best)

Might be an anxiety reaction.

You should check out a 'good' psychoanalyst. No kidding.

eagan@druxp.UUCP (EaganMS) (04/29/85)

Do you ever eat foods with MSG?
I have found MSG to give me symptoms like that.
Once I passed out a few hours after eating Chinese food.

Also, if you eat lots of fresh vegatables you may want to check and
see if they have sulfites (spelling?) in them.
Lots of times fresh vegatables are treated with sulfites to preserve them,
but people who are allergic to them have sever reactions.
Salad bars in restaurants use them a lot too.

wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) (04/29/85)

>> Four weeks ago, my head and heart began pounding; sometimes
>> hours at a time.  My pulse goes to 92.  My head feels as if it
>
> Might be an anxiety reaction.
>
> You should check out a 'good' psychoanalyst. No kidding.

I had panic attacks two or three times a year between 1979 and 1983.
As a result, I had three EKGs over a two year period, since the
symptoms are frighteningly similar to a heart attack. Mine included
pressure in the chest and pain and numbness in the left arm and hands
(due to hyperventilation). Analysis helped me deal with the symptoms 
when they occurred, but didn't entirely eliminate the attacks. What 
DID seem to halt the attacks is the reduction of caffeine in my diet. 
I've found that I can have the equivalent of two cups of coffee a day 
without symptoms; if I increase the dosage to three cups, I start 
developing the most unpleasant physical symptoms. Recent research 
has been done on panic attacks which suggests that some chemical 
imbalance is involved, but I can't provide you with a pointer to it.

In short, analysis is a good thing, but make sure you eliminate the
physical factors as well. Anything that acts as a stimulant (including
coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, tobacco) aggravates my symptoms,
so I'd suggest cutting them out to anyone who has gone through one of
these terrifying experiences. These are all MUCH more powerful drugs
than most of us realize!
                               --Cheers, Bill Ingogly

carter@gatech.CSNET (Carter Bullard) (04/29/85)

In article <10212@brl-tgr.ARPA> ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) writes:
>> I am a 41 year old female.  I have been dizzy every day since
>> mid February.  The dizziness is mild on waking, and becomes
>> progressively worse during the day.  The dizziness is of the type
>> where I feel as if I'm going to fall over; the room does not spin.
>> I even feel as if I'm going to fall over while I'm sitting.
>> 
>>  My left ear always feels blocked
>> but it checks out okay.
>> 
>I'd go for a more complex ear examination.  My mother had similar
>problems.  The tests included running water in your ear and testing
>which way you thought you were spinning.  I don't know too many
>details.
>
>-Ron


This is not really an ear examination, but rather a part of a more comprehensive
neurological exam.   The running water is really cold water, and is designed to
stimulate the vestibular nerve.  The direction that you spin in while walking in
place blindfolded gives you some indication of vestibular deficit.

Generally with midbrain and/or brainstem problems there are a constellation
of symptoms that reflect deficits of several cranial nerves.  In this situation
the dizziness may be a vestibular nerve problem with the heart and blood pressure
problems after eating being of vagal nerve origin, as both of these nerves are
both quite close to each other in the medulla.  In order to properly 
investigate the potential for a medullary tumor you pretty much have to do a CAT scan.

My suggestion is to go back to a neurologist if he did not do a CAT series. 

This is what any novice neurologist would do first.  If this proved to be a blind
alley, the next thing would be to check for either stroke or epilepsy, involving
cerebral angiography for the stroke and EEG's for the epilepsy.

There are also a host of other things that could be wrong, but these would be
big on any neurologists list.
-- 
Carter Bullard
School of Information and Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia 30332
CSNet:Carter @ Gatech	ARPA:Carter.Gatech @ CSNet-relay.arpa
uucp:...!{akgua,allegra,amd,ihnp4,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!carter