Physical stress from somatic illness

Vicious circle of stress, persistent aura, anxiety and depression (larger image see here). If the positive feedback loop in which the system responds to perturbation in the same direction as the perturbation runs out of control, it can result in the collapse of the system. This is called vicious circle, or in Latin circulus vitiosus. © 2008 Klaus Podoll [more]

Physical stress from somatic illness (e.g. bad colds, flus, and other respiratory infections) can lead to a transitory worsening of the intensity of persistent aura symptoms. Sinus headache or other symptoms referable to the sinus area are particularly frequently blamed as the culprit for this problem. The majority of patients (ca. 90%) with self-diagnosed sinus headache have migraine or probable migraine (Schreiber et al., 2004; Eross et al., 2007), so in these cases the transitory worsening of the intensity of persistent aura symptoms is likely to be attributable to the attack of migraine without or with aura, corresponding to the effects described in items B.9 and B.10 of the MAS score.

Definite persistent aura without infarction

"Illness such as cold and flu make my symptoms worse as does emotional stress."

(viper123456 [subject #42], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Physical stress from somatic illness as factor for transitory worsening of the intensity of PMA/VS symptoms, November 18, 2007)

"When I get a cold or anything my symptoms are worse. Without a doubt."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Physical stress from somatic illness as factor for transitory worsening of the intensity of PMA/VS symptoms, November 19, 2007)

"This is absolutely the case for me. Just now for instance, I've come down with a minor cold, and my vision is noticeably worse. More snow, stronger palinopsia, and the edges of things are even less distinct than usual. Reading is distinctly more difficult right now than it is on a baseline everyday level. Emotional stress does the same thing, but the worsening due to emotional stress seems to be short-lived compared to being physically stressed from illness."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Physical stress from somatic illness as factor for transitory worsening of the intensity of PMA/VS symptoms, November 18, 2007)

"So I'm at work and all of a sudden my vision goes to total crap. A little while later my blood pressure goes wacky. I start to feel super nauseous. I think to myself, great, I'm going to totally fall apart before the end of the day. Sure enough, full blown illness by nightfall. Fever, giant headache, sore muscles, the works. Now I'm sweating and really hot. I was freezing just 30 minutes ago. Winter viruses are such a joy, aren't they?

I swear, this vision stuff is like the canary in the coal mine. It's always the first thing affected."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Ahhh... cold and flu season, December 18, 2007)

Worsening factor: serotonin syndrome

"I ended up in the ER today with serotonin syndrome. Apparently I can't take triptans and be on Lexapro (even though I'm on a small dose).

So for the record, having way too much serotonin in your brain does make visual symptoms far, far worse. I've got lattices all over the place, worse polyopia, and some really lovely autokinesis. Oh yeah, and the snow is larger grained and flashing more, and the synaesthesia is brighter than usual. My usual paresthesias, however, are less than normal, but who knows with the muscles twitching I ended up with. But hey, at least the uncontrollable shivering, diaphoresis, and whacked out blood pressure have stopped. Good times."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - worsening factor: serotonin syndrome, January 14, 2007)

"Muscle twitching, uncontrollable shivering, sweating through my clothes, blood pressure going all over the place, new headache, and confusion (although the confusion went away pretty quickly). I never did run a fever, and my temp was actually kinda low. My heart rate dropped pretty low too after the shaking stopped.

I didn't even know serotonin syndrome existed until this happened. So I'm on the floor of my office, freezing to death and shivering like crazy, and decide I ought to call my doctors office, then they get concerned and send me to the ER, and then there's consulting with poison control. I seriously hate the ER. I hate needles and they always take blood and stick in an IV, and I almost pass out, and it sucks.

What the hell? Can a girl not get a break? Seriously? On the plus side, I lost 3 pounds yesterday. I'm guessing that's from all the shaking I was doing. That and I'm not coming down with the flu, which is also a positive."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - worsening factor: serotonin syndrome, January 15, 2007)

"I forgot the massive nausea, where I always knew where the trash bin was, just in case.

Let's see, I took a 5 mg dose of Lexapro 11:30 the night before and 100 mg of Imitrex at 10:30 the next morning, and everything was falling apart within the next hour.

I hope I have calmer times also. Yesterday was going to be a wonderfully calm day at my desk, getting little things done."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - worsening factor: serotonin syndrome, January 15, 2007)

"The visuals are still bad. Iit could just be from being so tired from yesterday. But the polyopia is better and the autokinesis has settled down to the usual levels (thank goodness!).

My parasthesias are back to their typical tingly though. It felt weird to have that mostly gone for a while. I guess you get used to a certain 'normal' after a while."

(SopuliSusie [subject #405], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - worsening factor: serotonin syndrome, January 15, 2007)

Possible persistent aura without infarction

"I went to docs today as I have a really sore chest and bad cough. I have a virus....anyway, I have a headache from cheek to cheek over the head and behind my eyes and down my nose. I went out tonight and the lights from the other cars hurt my eyes as they passed."

(Janey [subject #282], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Symptoms, October 16, 2007)

"I recently had a bad cold and my sinuses were messed up. My eye problems were ten times worse during this time, they have now thankfully returned to the pre cold state... which I'm please about. But it seem if I'm under the weather my eyes are worse, maybe thats what's going on here??"

(pocanut, Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Symptoms, October 16, 2007)

"Yeah, when I had my last sinus infection my symptoms were definitely much much worse than normal, especially floaters and sparkly things. But after a while they gradually returned to normal for the most part."

(IanKC [subject #94], Yuku forum Visual snow or static - General discussion - Symptoms, October 16, 2007)

"Wenn meine Nachbilder schlimmer wurden, hatte ich komischerweise immer eine Infektion, meistens HNO Bereich."

(Deltalima7 (Maik) [Subjekt #544], Augenrauschen Forum - Augenrauschen - Noch jemand neues - mit vielen Fragen, 12.03.2008)

Physical stress from somatic illness

Definite persistent aura without infarction

Possible persistent aura without infarction

References