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What Causes Lightheadedness And Headaches While Having An Aneurysm In The Brain?
Question: I am 61, in SUPER EXCELLENT shape. Can compete with any 20 year old, aerobically or otherwise. 5"8-150 lbs. Never smoked, never did a drug, but do drink a lite beer occasionally. I take a number of vitamin supplements daily (6-8) but not too many. I have also been taking for the last year, with NO issues, 25 units of HCG 2x/week & 60 units of testosterone 1x/week, all under medical supervision, but not for any medical issues. For the last 2 weeks, on and off everyday, I have been feeling light headed, I have had a headache everyday, and sometimes I feel like I'm about to faint, but don't. I also stopped taking the HCG & Testosterone 2 weeks ago. During my high end strenuous work outs I feel perfectly fine. Weird? I also noticed that at times I have trouble swallowing foods like chicken. Whats going on with me? Do I have a brain aneurysm or am I moments away from a stroke, or am I over-reacting?
Brief Answer:
Cause of your symptoms
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX thanks for asking from HCM.
I can understand your concern. It is very good and inspiring that you are such active and fit at 61 years age.
As you are doing regular strenuous work, you must get your routine blood work up, x ray of major joints, scanning of brain done. It is because, with age, every blood vessel in body becomes hard. With strenuous work, vessel can become more hard due to rise in BP at that time.
With passage of time, the vessel diameter can become narrow and thus chances of ischemia or stroke to brain.
In your case, it might be one reason. I suggest you that you should undergo few investigations after consulting neurologist, like
- Blood cholesterol level
- Color doppler of neck vessels supplying to brain
- MRI brain with angiography to know about stroke and neck vessels
Your symptoms of light headedness, dizziness can be warning signs of brain ischemia. All the above mentioned investigations will rule out any ischemic illness. Only thing which I am not able to understand is - how do you get relief after doing work out.
May be after above investigations, we will be able to understand it more. Aneurysm does not present like that and you are not over-reacting. You are thinking right.
Hope it will help you. Please let me know about the reports.
Thanks.
Take care
Cause of your symptoms
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX thanks for asking from HCM.
I can understand your concern. It is very good and inspiring that you are such active and fit at 61 years age.
As you are doing regular strenuous work, you must get your routine blood work up, x ray of major joints, scanning of brain done. It is because, with age, every blood vessel in body becomes hard. With strenuous work, vessel can become more hard due to rise in BP at that time.
With passage of time, the vessel diameter can become narrow and thus chances of ischemia or stroke to brain.
In your case, it might be one reason. I suggest you that you should undergo few investigations after consulting neurologist, like
- Blood cholesterol level
- Color doppler of neck vessels supplying to brain
- MRI brain with angiography to know about stroke and neck vessels
Your symptoms of light headedness, dizziness can be warning signs of brain ischemia. All the above mentioned investigations will rule out any ischemic illness. Only thing which I am not able to understand is - how do you get relief after doing work out.
May be after above investigations, we will be able to understand it more. Aneurysm does not present like that and you are not over-reacting. You are thinking right.
Hope it will help you. Please let me know about the reports.
Thanks.
Take care
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Arnab Banerjee
The headache comes and goes thru out the day. This all started suddenly about 2 weeks ago. I get my blood done every 4 months. Its been in the perfect range. In fact, I'm getting it drawn tomorrow, with blood fasting. My LDL & HDL levels are excellent as well. Low LDL. I have no issues during exercise or after, its usually hours later. No family history either. Low blood pressure too. You said, "aneurysm does not present like that", what do you mean by that? And is ischemia and aneurysm the same thing? Is a brain angiography a brain scan with colored die? And how risky is this procedure? Thanks for your feedback.
Brief Answer:
Answers of all your doubts
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX welcome back.
It is very good that your blood workup and blood pressure are normal. Only doubt left is - Ischemia or narrowing of blood vessels.
These can be cleared with MRI brain and ultrasound doppler of neck vessels.
Now coming to your questions (one by one)
- Aneurysm presentation and difference between aneurysm and ischemia- Aneurysm is abnormal dilatation of artery. On imaging it looks like some pimple arising from artery. It is different from ischemia which means blockade of blood supply to brain. If that part of brain dies due to absent blood supply, it is called "ischemic stroke or infarct".
Aneurysm presents as life threatening condition if there is rupture of it. There will sudden rise in brain pressure. It presents as severe headache (worst headache), vomiting, loss of consciousness, sometimes coma, seizures and functional loss.
If unruptured aneurysm, it is usually asymptomatic or may present with compression of adjacent structure. It will manifest as headache, vision loss, squint in eyes and some functional deficit. It does not cause light headedness which you are having.
: Brain angiography - It is done by three methods - CT angiography, MR angiography and digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Every angiography requires injection of XXXXXXX This XXXXXXX demarcates the vessels in brain and shows any occlusion or aneurysm. Usually CT or MR angiography are done nowadays.
This procedure is usually not risky if you are not allergic to XXXXXXX and your kidney is functioning normally. The XXXXXXX can damage kidney if kidney functions are borderline or poor.
The allergy is first checked by doctor and nurse before giving injection. Before XXXXXXX study, kidney function test will be done by blood checkup. SO there is no need to worry about it.
You can undergo XXXXXXX study after consulting doctor.
Hope it will help you. If still in doubt, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care
Answers of all your doubts
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX welcome back.
It is very good that your blood workup and blood pressure are normal. Only doubt left is - Ischemia or narrowing of blood vessels.
These can be cleared with MRI brain and ultrasound doppler of neck vessels.
Now coming to your questions (one by one)
- Aneurysm presentation and difference between aneurysm and ischemia- Aneurysm is abnormal dilatation of artery. On imaging it looks like some pimple arising from artery. It is different from ischemia which means blockade of blood supply to brain. If that part of brain dies due to absent blood supply, it is called "ischemic stroke or infarct".
Aneurysm presents as life threatening condition if there is rupture of it. There will sudden rise in brain pressure. It presents as severe headache (worst headache), vomiting, loss of consciousness, sometimes coma, seizures and functional loss.
If unruptured aneurysm, it is usually asymptomatic or may present with compression of adjacent structure. It will manifest as headache, vision loss, squint in eyes and some functional deficit. It does not cause light headedness which you are having.
: Brain angiography - It is done by three methods - CT angiography, MR angiography and digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Every angiography requires injection of XXXXXXX This XXXXXXX demarcates the vessels in brain and shows any occlusion or aneurysm. Usually CT or MR angiography are done nowadays.
This procedure is usually not risky if you are not allergic to XXXXXXX and your kidney is functioning normally. The XXXXXXX can damage kidney if kidney functions are borderline or poor.
The allergy is first checked by doctor and nurse before giving injection. Before XXXXXXX study, kidney function test will be done by blood checkup. SO there is no need to worry about it.
You can undergo XXXXXXX study after consulting doctor.
Hope it will help you. If still in doubt, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Remy Koshy
Answered by
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