Had Headaches. Have Pressure On Head, Eyes And Squint A Lot. MRI Negative And High Glucose. Suggest?

Posted on Wed, 19 Jun 2013

Question: I have suffered from headaches all my life.For the past 3 years they are different. Primrily, I have pressure around my head;my forehead seems to be pressing down on my eyes and I squint. I am not dizzy in the sense that the room isnt spinning but I feel I'm going to fall or collapse. I recently had a brain MRI which proved negative. My glucose is high and so I eat a lot of sugar free foods. Could sugar substitutes be the problem? Drs. have ruled out migraine and anxiety as I awaken in the morning with the pressure and headaches, I'm not anxious when I sleep.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (23 minutes later)

Hi,
Thank you for posting your query.

It is good to note that your MRI of brain is normal, which rules out any serious underlying brain disease.
Since migraine and anxiety have also been excluded, there are two likely causes for your headaches:

1. Amlopipine-related: Amlodipine leads to dilatation of blood vessels, including the brain blood vessels, which can give rise to vascular headaches. So, if this medicine can be replaced with another anti-hypertensive such as olmesartan or hydrochlorothiazide, it would help.

2. Related to sugar substitutes- this can be confirmed if you avoid sugar substitutes for a few weeks and see, if your headaches come down.

I hope it helps.
Please get back if you require any additional information.

Best wishes,

Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad,
My personal URL on this website: http://bit.ly/Dr-Sudhir-kumar
My blog: http://bestneurodoctor.blogspot.com/

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar