Pseudotumor Cerebri Support Group
Pseudotumor cerebri (PTC) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by increased intracranial pressure, in the absence of a tumor or other diseases affecting the brain or its lining. Diagnosis requires brain scans and lumbar puncture. Characteristic symptoms are headache, transient visual obscurations or transient visual loss in one or both eyes usually lasting...
I was just reading sophiasmom's story of overcoming sleep apnea which in turn resolved most of her PTC. I had low ferritin (7) and low hemoglobin( due to iron deficiency anemia) in May. My PTC headaches/tinnitus decreased to almost nothing after corrrecting my iron levels most of the way and wondering if PTC is simply caused by low oxygen in the bloodstream. Has anyone else corrected their apnea or anemia and seen dramatic improvement in their PTC? I never managed to get in for an apnea test, but it sounds reasonable as well as checking ferritin level if you never have. I agree that the so called "in range" numbers for thyroid are misleading. My endocrinologist always checks T3,T4, and TSH. My TSH went from a 1.5 to 5.3 in 1 month's time after 10 days of severe menstrual bleeding made me anemic again. The headaches/dizziness/fatigue/moodiness came right back that week horribly. Now I'm back to feeling better again.
I've been meaning to comment on one of your other posts, but hadn't organized yet what I wanted to say.
hemoglobin is the most important determination of oxygen carrying capacity. you can put 100% oxygen on someone but if their hemoglobin is 6 you cannot increase oxygen delivery to the tissues as much as you could by just giving them a transfusion.
hypoxia will cause cerebral vasodilation which will increase ICP.
you will not be hypoxic while awake, with a lowish hemoglobin, unless you are badly symptomatic from the anemia and short of breath and you will then end up in ER and get a transfusion. this generally doesn't happen unless there is acute blood loss.
however, you can be walking around with a lowish hemoglobin, not particularly symptomatic, just tired and pale, not hypoxic. BUT when you go to sleep and you start hypoventilating, THEN you will become hypoxic and experience complications from that. up to 25% of people with mild sleep disordered breathing can have subclinical strokes. if one is prone to ICP, well then, anemia in combination with OSA could certainly increase the risk of ICP rising during apneas/hypoventilation.
the thing is that hypoventilation and OSA will increase ICP by other mechanisms as well. as carbon dioxide rises, and if there is any valsalva during the struggle to breathe, ICP will rise. so I don't think that just fixing your oxygen carrying capacity is going to fix OSA and the influence on ICP for those of us with IIH. when you take CPR, it's called the ABCs because the most important part of keeping someone alive is making sure they have a patent AIRWAY. you can't get oxygen in someone if their airway is blocked. increasing your ferritin will do nothing for this.
however, the fact is that most of us here have mild sleep disordered breathing that usually is not associated with complete airway obstruction, and the local sleep labs cannot detect it. so many of us have been told that we don't have sleep apnea when in fact WE DO, and it makes our ICP much worse! so, every little bit helps. my sleep doc says when you have sleep apnea that your ferritin should be at least 50. I do think this is a reasonable goal for us, given that the docs refuse to treat most of our SDB anyway.
So, Shari, since the iron helped you so much, I think it's really important for you to realize that you probably have sleep apnea too, and that some of your symptoms that improved were those of OSA, not solely IIH. this airway problem still needs to be treated. OSA gets worse around your period because progesterone levels drop, and progesterone is needed to maintain airway tone. with such heavy menstrual bleeding as you describe, it sounds like you are not ovulating and are not making adequate progesterone. also, a TSH of 5 is absolutely too high and is abnormal, regardless of what the lab or your doctor says. you may need to be treated for that if it stays up. they may say it's "subclinical" and refuse, but those of us with IIH are hypersensitive to everything. an amount of hypoventilation that the docs think is "insignificant" will be significant for us.
I also have met another woman who had Graves, too, around onset of IIH.