Hello friends,
I coudn't find a thread about these nasty conditions that may be problematic considering listening to live music and HiFi with speakers and headphones at home.
I have had some migraine episodes for decades, but recently had my first epilepsy attacs and was diagnosed as an epileptic. I'm now 62, and brain EMG and EEG showed an infarct scar and typical epilepsy waves. Preventive medication was started, with Trileptal, statin, aspirin etc. Now I feel fine, and haven't had symptoms. I have never had any problems with light or noise etc. provocation, episodes and attacks come unexpectedly. But anyway, I must be careful and I will avoid loud noise eg. outdoor or club concerts with loud PA and strobe lights. And I lost my driving license for at least a year...
How about you others? Epilepsy starting in childhood is obviously more difficult, but nowdays we seem to have many effective drugs that don't have nasty side effects. How about music and hifi?
I coudn't find a thread about these nasty conditions that may be problematic considering listening to live music and HiFi with speakers and headphones at home.
I have had some migraine episodes for decades, but recently had my first epilepsy attacs and was diagnosed as an epileptic. I'm now 62, and brain EMG and EEG showed an infarct scar and typical epilepsy waves. Preventive medication was started, with Trileptal, statin, aspirin etc. Now I feel fine, and haven't had symptoms. I have never had any problems with light or noise etc. provocation, episodes and attacks come unexpectedly. But anyway, I must be careful and I will avoid loud noise eg. outdoor or club concerts with loud PA and strobe lights. And I lost my driving license for at least a year...
How about you others? Epilepsy starting in childhood is obviously more difficult, but nowdays we seem to have many effective drugs that don't have nasty side effects. How about music and hifi?
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There's a lot online about it.
For instance:
https://www.epsyhealth.com/seizure-epilepsy-blog/the-link-between-music-and-epilepsy
Jan
For instance:
https://www.epsyhealth.com/seizure-epilepsy-blog/the-link-between-music-and-epilepsy
Jan
A clip from the link above:
Why might music help then? The truth is scientists still don’t really know. However, it might not be so different to how music affects people with musicogenic epilepsy. Listening to music releases dopamine in your brain – for some people this chemical may actually have an anti-convulsive effect.
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Scientists still need to do much more research before we fully understand the link between music and epilepsy. However, it is a fascinating topic and could help develop new therapies for the condition in future.
(One in 10 million people has musicogenig epilepsy)
I have so short history with E, that I can't comment on personal basis, but that makes sense (I have a medical degree). Anyway, I have never liked loud spl or monotonic rock, disco, rap etc. I have listened to mainly classical, jazz and 50's songs for the last 15 years. On the other hand I have been a national level pistol shooter for more than 40 years and used tools like chainsaw quite often.
Why might music help then? The truth is scientists still don’t really know. However, it might not be so different to how music affects people with musicogenic epilepsy. Listening to music releases dopamine in your brain – for some people this chemical may actually have an anti-convulsive effect.
---
Scientists still need to do much more research before we fully understand the link between music and epilepsy. However, it is a fascinating topic and could help develop new therapies for the condition in future.
(One in 10 million people has musicogenig epilepsy)
I have so short history with E, that I can't comment on personal basis, but that makes sense (I have a medical degree). Anyway, I have never liked loud spl or monotonic rock, disco, rap etc. I have listened to mainly classical, jazz and 50's songs for the last 15 years. On the other hand I have been a national level pistol shooter for more than 40 years and used tools like chainsaw quite often.
Music has a profound effect on the brain that isn't understood very well.
For instance, Oliver Sacks had patients that, after a stroke, were unable to talk or only with extreme stuttering.
However, they could sing a text fluently without any issue. Go figure.
Jan
For instance, Oliver Sacks had patients that, after a stroke, were unable to talk or only with extreme stuttering.
However, they could sing a text fluently without any issue. Go figure.
Jan
I feel for you, hope you keep recovering, Medicine has advanced A LOT.
You choice of "smooth" Music is quite sensible and avoiding "trigger" stimuli is safest, you´ll do fine.
You choice of "smooth" Music is quite sensible and avoiding "trigger" stimuli is safest, you´ll do fine.
That's no good. Migraines are bad enough and now epilepsy. Life is often random, weird and unfair.
Migraines, epilepsy and bipolar-affective -disorder are linked. Migraines were thought to be a vascular headache but they are overwhelming a neurological event with cortical spreading depolarisation akin to epilepsy in slow motion. So all three conditions are a form of neurological hyperexcitability.
Thanks goodness for the modern medications. You were born at the right time. Imagine just 80 years back what our forebears had to endure.
Id suggest getting a blood pressure machine and take your BP first thing on waking and during the day. Its life and death plumbing. A good antihypertensive can also prevent migraine eg an ARB like candesartan or otherwise a CCB that is lipid soluable and crosses the BBB. Same with a statin.
The right anticonvulsant will stop your seizures and stop the migraines too, as well as helping you feel in a good place mood wise.
Do you really want to stop going out and listening to music? Its incredibly rare music triggers seizures. You have identified your seizures were spontaneous and not triggered by music.
Going out is likely to do you much more good then harm. Stay active. See friends, go to concerts. Life is short. Enjoy yourself - its important medicine.
Why that 😵 ? Did anyone inform the authorities? I know that car or motorcycle driving may be dangerous for epileptics, especially when driving on alleys or galleries (stroboscopic effect as possible trigger). Anyway, my eldest son also is epileptic for more than twenty years now, but he didn't have any difficulties in acquiring his license here in Germany.
Best regards!
It can happen.
When my eye-doc saw my cataracts he told me I was not legal to drive. And let me drive home. Otherwise I stayed off the road for the weeks until I got new eyes. However a friend with a hidden brain tumor, causing a prolonged floor-smacking seizure, was reported to the state and not re-instated until a doctor had certified the problem was under control (surgery and drugs).
Of course it is impossible to make ANY universal statement in The States. All different road laws, even more so than criminal or commercial laws. It's not so long since we need yellow running lights in one state and white in the next state.
kazap, thank you for info! I take Candesartan now and my BP came down from 140/85 to 115/60 (measured at home) and I don't faint when standing up. Cheaper statins gave me joint and muscle pain, but atorvastatin so far doesn't. I'm ok with these drugs now. I will start working for only 3 days a week next year, with partial pension. And I can enjoy music still, but I don't like it loud. Live symphonic or jazz is ok, and I don't like rock clubs anyway.
Kay and PRR, driving licence cancellation after diagnosis of epilepsy is mandatory here. If one year passes without seizures, the doctor will send a letter to the police to give the card back. A new seizure will cause 3 or 6 months pause again. I can understand this, because I had grand mal attacks with loss of conciousness and heavy gramps without a warning. If I get that when driving I might kill many innocent bystanders... Riding a bicycle or a motorboat is allowed. And I'm old enough to be allowed to ride a 2/3-wheel moped without the license! This is my new (used) EV for rainy days.
Kay and PRR, driving licence cancellation after diagnosis of epilepsy is mandatory here. If one year passes without seizures, the doctor will send a letter to the police to give the card back. A new seizure will cause 3 or 6 months pause again. I can understand this, because I had grand mal attacks with loss of conciousness and heavy gramps without a warning. If I get that when driving I might kill many innocent bystanders... Riding a bicycle or a motorboat is allowed. And I'm old enough to be allowed to ride a 2/3-wheel moped without the license! This is my new (used) EV for rainy days.
So sorry to hear that you have epilepsy so late in life. I suffered from it in my '20s and was prescribed Epanutin, which I took for seven years - my "Grey" years as I call them, since that mind-numbing drug had me living in an other-worldy haze, and which permanently damaged parts of my memory. At 61 now I have been clear over 35 years, knowing now that my main trigger was lack of sleep, although as a child I appeared to be sensitive to flickering fluorescent lights and would often have to rush out of particular shops to vomit, but my first seizure happened at 19 after a long flight and a stupid effort to ignore jet lag. (I'd flown from here in the UK to Eugene to work for ten weeks installing the Assisted Resonance system in what is now known as The Hult Center). I guess that drugs have moved on, but I am understandably wary of long-term prescription drugs. and I hope that your prescription drugs don't do what mine did - at our age our memory needs all the help it can get!
Stay safe, Carl.
My son's drug is valproic acid, a long term proven anticonvulsant. It's the 3rd one in a row of different drugs in his epileptic 'career' that began at the age of 15, and the 1st one that really helps him, without impairing him at all. Of course he will be adherent to this drug for his whole life (he's now 37 yrs.)
Best regards!
Best regards!
Sorry to hear about this.
Fortunately it seems you have the medication sorted. Interesting to note what you said about the joint pain from a cheap statin. Does your prior medical knowledge help ?
If the three wheeler allows you to do your regular day to day things, that's good to hear.
Take care, Ray.
Fortunately it seems you have the medication sorted. Interesting to note what you said about the joint pain from a cheap statin. Does your prior medical knowledge help ?
If the three wheeler allows you to do your regular day to day things, that's good to hear.
Take care, Ray.
Btw, I'm also a migrene patient since my 13th year of life. That's for more than half a century now. The bouts used to start with partial losses of my visual field, beginning in the center, then becoming C shaped and promoting to the peripherals, and after vanishing heavy headaches remained with severe nausea. I only could stay in a dark and silent room. The doctors gave me dihydroergotamine which didn't help at all, but made me very tired instead. These symptoms remained until 1996 when I had a motorcycle incident with consequent hospitalization due to ridge fractures in Austria. Out of boredom, I asked the nurses to lend me the official Austrian list of drugs to have a read. I found that in Austria diclofenac (which the doctors gave me to ease my pains) was an approven migrene drug. In Germany it wasn't. Anyway, I tried it on my own risk, which indeed cured the pains and nausea, but didn't cure the visual losses. Anyway, present state is my migrene attacks are limited to the visual symptoms, but I do not suffer from headaches anymore. Of course I can't say if it is coincidental or coherent with the diclofenac intake in those days.
Best regards!
Best regards!
About statins - I'm a dentist, so my pharmacology knowledge is thin. But it's a common side effect of statins to cause joint and muscle pain, and severity of symptoms varies a lot between individuals. My occupational health physician started with simvastatin, then changed it to rosuvastatin after my complaints. Rosu was better but pains got problematic after several months and I stopped taking it. Now the neurologist changed it to atorvastatin (original drug is Lipitor by Phizer) which I have taken only for 8 weeks now.
There are many antiepileptic drugs, and dosage can vary. My dose is quite low, it can be doubled. We will see how this goes... I have had migraine episode only a few times per year, and without any special "cause" like exhaustion, stress or alcohol. Headaches and nausea comes in the morning, it wakes me up too early. Visual and hearing symptoms are (were?) more common, but have short periods.
There are many antiepileptic drugs, and dosage can vary. My dose is quite low, it can be doubled. We will see how this goes... I have had migraine episode only a few times per year, and without any special "cause" like exhaustion, stress or alcohol. Headaches and nausea comes in the morning, it wakes me up too early. Visual and hearing symptoms are (were?) more common, but have short periods.
My BP drug is Ramipril (2.5 mg/day), and I don't suffer from any adverse/side effects at all. Perhaps you may want to talk to your doctor about it?
Best regards!
Best regards!
I've had "occular" migraines for the last 5 years or so. Seems to be related to stress; physical or emotional. Fortunately for me, the headaches dont follow and once the occular effects make their way to the periphery, it's all gone and done.
Regarding my 65 year old brain's response to music, what used to be stimulating in SPL has now turned into an endurance run. "OK! Let's turn it back down please". Some days I dont even turn on any music at all. It's as-if I'd - somehow, imagine it - prefer not to expend the energy processing that stimuli. The tinnitus perhaps has something to do with it; who knows what's being expended in there keeping that just below the threshold of awareness, all day long.
I've had impaired hearing treshold of high frequences, since 10-12 years old. And around 20y I realised that I have so called tinnitus too, always "on", both ears about 3kHz. Sometimes it bothered me, but it is just a part of my life. I guess tinnitus, migraine & epilepsy auras all are symptoms of cortical hyperexcitability. But drugs have not helped for tinnitus, only sudden "broadcasts" in my right ear have disappeared.
In the link in post#2 there is suggestion that quiet classical music during sleep (and perhaps past time) prevents seizures and auras, sort of like immunothrapy. I find classical and swing etc, blue and soft jazz and songs the same - or whatever relaxing slow tempo music that you like. But like jjasnew I like silence even more, with sounds of wind, birds and waves.
In the link in post#2 there is suggestion that quiet classical music during sleep (and perhaps past time) prevents seizures and auras, sort of like immunothrapy. I find classical and swing etc, blue and soft jazz and songs the same - or whatever relaxing slow tempo music that you like. But like jjasnew I like silence even more, with sounds of wind, birds and waves.
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I suffered from terrible, excruciating migraines starting from maybe age 5. Ergotamine tartarate was the first line drug then, it didn't do much good. My family doctor then prescribed a barbiturate, so when my headaches got too bad I would just be knocked out for 12 hours and woke up after it had passed. When I got old enough to read for myself (15 or 16) I checked a couple of library books, found that a few foods could be triggers, stopped eating chocolate, oranges and cheddar cheese, and mostly stopped getting migraines.
Now in my 60's, I've had a couple of what I believe are vestibular migraine attacks. I get vertigo with no warning aura, the room starts to spin, followed by nausea and only then a headache, but more a feeling of pressure in the left side of my head than the pain I had as a kid. I had my second one this Monday evening. It may be coincidental that it came after spending a couple of hours listening to "spatially enhanced" / binaural tracks over headphones. Or did the spatial cues cause me to get disoriented so that when I finally stood up it triggered the attack? I know that playing or even watching a scrolling video game can make me motion sick.
Bill
Now in my 60's, I've had a couple of what I believe are vestibular migraine attacks. I get vertigo with no warning aura, the room starts to spin, followed by nausea and only then a headache, but more a feeling of pressure in the left side of my head than the pain I had as a kid. I had my second one this Monday evening. It may be coincidental that it came after spending a couple of hours listening to "spatially enhanced" / binaural tracks over headphones. Or did the spatial cues cause me to get disoriented so that when I finally stood up it triggered the attack? I know that playing or even watching a scrolling video game can make me motion sick.
Bill