Best 5 Tips for Managing Vestibular Migraine

Vestibular Migraine is a chronic, often debilitating illness that can be extremely difficult to live with. It is a whole body disorder, which means that there is not one thing that is going to make you feel better. The good news is that managing vestibular migraine doesn’t have to be complicated. The goal is to create a bigger bucket for yourself so that triggers do not impact you as much. We share tips that can help you manage symptoms and live a full life, even with dizziness.

Medication/Supplements:

When diagnosed with VM, most doctors will prescribe medication. The medication prescribed varies from person to person, but the most common meds are SSRIs, SNRIs, CGRPs, beta blockers, antidepressants, and triptans. Depending on the severity and frequency of your migraine, you may be put on a preventative, acute, or rescue medication. Medication requires a lot of trial and error to find what works best for you. The goal is for at least a 50% reduction in symptoms to consider it to be working.

Supplements are also important and essential for migraine management. Most doctors will prescribe magnesium, COq10, and B2. Other supplements may also be needed. Like meds, trial and error may occur to find what works best for you.

Movement:

Moving while experiencing dizziness can be very difficult but it is essential to managing vestibular migraine. Movement not only improves the vestibular system and balance, it also impacts anxiety, depression, cardiovascular, health, hormones, blood sugar, and overall health—which all influences the frequency of migraine attacks. Doctors may recommend starting vestibular physical therapy to help with balance and system retraining, but it should be done with extreme caution. VRT is not for everyone. Strength training is recommended as having the greatest impact on vestibular function, but other types of movement are great too like Pilates, yoga, tai chi, cardio, and walking. We teach dizzy-friendly classes in Vestibular Group Fit to get you moving again safely.

Mindset:

Dizziness is extremely scary and can cause our bodies to be in a prolonged fight or flight mode that actually makes dizziness more severe and last longer. Mindset, or nervous system regulation, is essential to managing migraine. If we are constantly hypervigilant about symptoms or worried about getting dizzy, it will make it feel far worse. Working with a professional can help reduce the dizzy anxious cycle and reframe your mindset around dizziness. Also, regulating the nervous system is something that can and should be done throughout the day. This is done through breathing exercises, meditation, gentle movement, time outside, and slowing down.

Sleep:

Sleep is extremely important to reducing migraine attacks. Our brains need time to heal and rest, and this is done through sleep. Sleeping not only helps us recover, it also improves mental health, fatigue, digestion, and every other area of our life. VM brains often need more sleep to manage symptoms. The goal should be to get on a sleep scheudle–going to bed and getting up at the same time of day, and aiming for 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Diet:

There are a ton of diets that are recommended on social media Ito help manage migraine symptoms like Heal Your Headache, Keto, Carnivore, Paleo, etc. While these diets may work for some, they may not work for others and actually cause deficiencies if done for too long. If you decide to start an elimination diet, it should not be done for more than 90 days. Eating an antiinflammatory or whole foods based diet is best for overall health. This means avoiding processed food and eating plenty of protein and fiber.

Other Considerations:

While this is a short list, there are tons of other tips for managing migraine that others have found useful. Some considerations include:

• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies–can be tested through primary care doctor to help you find what may be impacting your migraine
• Histamine intolerance—if you’re having issues with histamine, that can make your migraine/dizziness worse. Work with a functional doctor to help these levels return to normal
• Hormones—hormones can cause migraine to intensify and become more frequent if certain levels are too low or too high. Work with your doctor to test and see if treatment is needed
• Neck issues—if you always get neck pain with your migraine, you may want to look into neck issues that could be making it worse. You can work with a PT that specializes in the neck and dizziness

If you are looking into a deeper dive into any of these topics or need help with managing your vestibular migraine, Vestibular Group Fit has a whole system designed to help you! Click here to learn more.