Effects of Lifestyle Modification on Vestibular Migraine

Vestibular migraine was recently addressed by the International Headache Society (IHS) as separate from other types of migraine. Vestibular migraine is one of the most common causes of vertigo attacks, affecting 1-5% of people. People with vestibular migraine have lower quality of life compared to others and some are completely debilitated by their symptoms. Symptoms include vertigo, nausea, head motion-induced dizziness, unsteadiness, balance problems, and lightheadedness. Most reports of vestibular migraine management have focused on treatment with medications; however, recommendations also include some form of lifestyle modification. Lifestyle modifications like avoidance of certain foods, improving sleep, exercising, etc. have all been reported to help migraine in general, but there are no reports on the effects of lifestyle modification on vestibular migraine as defined by IHS. It is important to investigate the effects of lifestyle modifications on vestibular migraine because the underlying causes of vestibular migraine are unclear. So, it is also unclear if lifestyle modifications are effective for vestibular migraine. Many investigations of lifestyle modification on migraine include a single modification like diet, weight loss, or sleep. Our modifications include food triggers, restful sleep, exercise, and eating regularity. We hypothesize comprehensive lifestyle modifications will improve symptoms of vestibular migraine. We will measure how people feel dizziness and headache activity is affecting their lives before and after our intervention. This project is important because vestibular migraine is reported to be the one of the most common causes of vertigo and interventions useful for other migraine types may not be effective for vestibular migraine. If we demonstrate improvement with comprehensive lifestyle modifications, we will continue the line of investigation with randomized, controlled studies. This work furthers our goal of helping the many people impacted by vestibular migraine.