I have headaches that are very painful. I have had an MRA & the doctors have said all is normal. I m on high blood pressure medicine & the doctor added another medication Metropolol for the headaches which seemed to help some, but I still get them sometimes out of the blue but especially when I cough, sneeze or laugh hard. When I feel a cough or a sneeze coming on I get very apprehensive cause I know it will hurt. I ve also had my neck scanned & been told 4 years ago that I needed to have vertebraes removed and/or fused together due to my spinal cord is not totally protected with spinal fluid as it should be & if I have an accident I could become paralyzed. my question is can too much or lack of seritonin or cerebral fluid cause headaches?
Hi, Thanks for writing in. The attacks of e during laughing or sneezing is due to the problem with cervical spine vertebrae. There is probably a pressure over the cerebellar tonsils region or spinal cord and this needs to be discussed in detail with your neurosurgeon. Pressure in the brain is called intracranial pressure. This pressure is different from blood pressure but complications due to high blood pressure can cause raised intracranial pressure. The intracranial pressure depends on the flow of cerebrospinal fluid which is surrounding the brain and spinal cord from every side. Increase in intracranial pressure can be due to brain swelling, bleeding within the brain, tumors inside the head and infections causing block of cerebrospinal fluid flow. Metoprolol need not necessarily cause increased intracranial pressure. Please discuss with your neurologist.