Small tricks to help Eagles with IJV compression

  • This is a topic where I would like to discuss small things that have helped anyone with Eagles , especially IJV compression symptoms. Anyone have any tips on head positions for people with IJV compression. Ways of relaxing the stylohyoid ligament. Any medications/vitamins that have worked for the symptoms. Diets that have helped. Sleeping positions. And anything that you have learned to avoid.

  • I figured if we can pool our experiences together and create one location for things that have helped us, and things to avoid. Then maybe we can help each other get as much relief possible. While we are dealing with this.

  • Doesn’t matter how big or small the benefit is. Everything adds up and helps.

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Try to gently release upper trapezius muscles. That might help to return the neck back from the “straight” into the C curve and move the styloids slightly away from the C1. Might help a bit. Better to discuss with a professional neck physiotherapist before doing.

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Also, the more I think/read about “military” (straight) neck, the more I suspect straightened neck must give extra stretch on the neck muscles (scalene, scm etc). They might put extra pressure on the blood vessels and nerves too when the body is not lying relaxed. Just a hypothesis…

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Here is what I found helpful. Starting with unhelpful things.

Not good for me:

  • Coffee
  • Forces working on my head neck (e.g. from car driving, walking/running)
  • Sitting upright
  • concentration tasks (already much better since last surgery)

Helpful was/is:

  • Lying elevated head, body or sitting lyed back in a TV seat (heard that jugulars are mostly used when you are lyed down completely)

  • back stroke swimming (with rubber swim cap is good, maybe the compression?)

  • resting after activities (listen to your body)

  • staying hydrated

  • blood thinners (Xa-Factor inhibitors)

  • Osteopathy

  • Neural Therapy

  • fresh garlic (among other things lowers blood pressure)

  • Vitamin ADEK supplements (after being in a long term pain condition took that as a vitamin cure for 30 days)

  • Vitamin B complex for nerve healing (look for Vitamin B6 blood level when taking longer, that can be too much at some point)

  • Magnesium supplements

  • Omega 3 supplements (be careful with blood thinners)

  • CBD capsules (at least 40mg per dose up to 160mg; when legal available!) [unfortunately only found very expensive CBD products when I was in California]

  • medical marijuana, indica strains containing the terpenes Myrcene, Pinene, Linalool (only use legal medical marijuana if allowed in your state; there is one case report where it helped with IIH)

    • lavender pills containing oil and extract (good calming effect (Linalool))
    • mangos (containing Myrcene)
  • eating ice pops, water ice

That’s it. If I can think of anything else, I’ll be happy to add it. I hope there is something that brings you some help.

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Thank you for all of those! You are awesome. How did the blood thinners help you? I’m just curious on how it provides relief.

I agree with that, I notice I feel the best when I lie down flat and focus on relaxing my neck and shoulder muscles. I have a feeling that most of my problems stem from my neck curvature.

Thank you, my pleasure!

Blood thinners were discussed here earlier e.g.:

It helped with head fullness, tinnitus and dizziness or brainfog. All these weird symptoms and muscle tension in neck.
It makes the blood less viscous or rather more liquid. So it can pass quicker through narrowings. And maybe it has effect on the currents inside the vessels too. It is described, that there can be reflux phenomena and other vortex flow effects inside jugular and sinus veins due to compression.

Forgot to mention: Helpful:

  • Wobenzym (against inflammation and also a bit for blood thinning; not recommend to combine with blood thinners.)
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Sleeping propped up helped, it stopped the horrible headaches when I woke up! Avoid any strenuous exercise, avoid too much heat if possible. Gentle neck stretches laying down (slow chin tucks, slowly turning head side to side) helped release neck muscles, but obvs the position of everyone’s styloids are different so this could make symptoms worse for some.

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It is true that Eagles affects each person differently I am sure that’s why it is so hard to diagnose correctly. I found almost nothing to helped me with my symptoms.
What I avoided

-caffeine
-excessive physical activities
-medical marijuana (which helps most, this only amplified my pain)

Helpful to relieve pain-
-cbd 2X daily 750mg oral liquid (Hempworks)

  • upper Cervical chiropractic to bring my neck back to a normal C curve. This was the most helpful in relieving pain caused by the pressure the styloid caused on the C1 and C2 nerve.
  • Tramadol 50mg 2X daily.
    -lying down on a memory foam pillow to relax the head.

That’s about it. My pain levels were very high due to the styloid pressing on the back of my hypoglossial tissues. I was diagnosed very quickly due to that. I could physically see the bump in my throat. 1 ENT visit and it was an immediate diagnosis. 3 weeks before my left side surgery I felt the right side styloid pressing on my tissues as well. I have had both removed at this point.

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Thank you for your update & the good info about what helped you pre-op @ESinLV. How are you doing post op?

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Post-op was a little rough this time. My styloid-mandibular ligament was fighting to be removed, so that part was really sore during recovery. I still have First bite syndrome (FBS), looking forward to that going away. Most of my pain has subsided at this point. Dr. Samji performed this surgery as well as my first one which was almost a year ago. I am finally off all medications and starting to get back to what was normal before the styloid reared their ugly points. Being that I had Eagles on both sides both of them were different in how they affected my nerves and pain. Which I would be happy to give details if needed.

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I have the same problem, the styloid is causing my c1 to be pushed out of place. I have recieved relief from the corrections which are not high velocity. But other times it made it worse. I feel like when I fix my c1 then it blocks my IJV more and then when its knocked out of place it fixes the flow issue but causes spinal issues :frowning: I really need this thing out so I can fix my spine afterwards, because there is no telling what’s being pinched or compressed from my c1 being out of alignments. Plus I have military neck I guess from my body trying to distance itself from my styloid compression

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@Calebp Have you tried using ice? Whenever I had my bad days I would sit and ice down the inflammation. It helped a lot! It’s not really the weather for Epson salt baths but those are really helpful as well. I had C1 and C2 nerve compression on my left side that caused thoracic outlet symptoms. I didn’t really have it, it was all in the nerves. I still have some of those symptoms as I haven’t been able to workout yet. I’m 3 months post my right side surgery and feeling pretty good but the next steps are C1&2 corrections and exercise. Your military neck is more than likely making your symptoms worse. Have you tried massage? If you can find a medical massage therapist they may be able to help relieve some of the tension in the neck that exasperate the symptoms. Have you found a surgeon yet? Hang in there! Sending virtual support hugs!

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I have an appointment next week with a surgeon. I haven’t tried ice or massage yet. But I have seen a chiro for curve therapy. But they can only do so much. I have instability that is causing mild compression on my brain stem and spinal cord. Causing muscle twitching throughout my body and pseudo Raynauds.

Get on the ice wagon, Caleb! It’s an inexpensive therapy & so worth trying - 15 min on & 45 min off. Buy yourself a couple of covered gel packs from Walgreens, CVS or Target (or Amazon if you’re not up to shopping). You want one that stays flexible when it’s frozen so it will conform to your neck curve. There are also packs that can be frozen or heated. That would be a good option in case heat feels better/helps more than ice.

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I have an appointment with Dr Hepworth on Oct 15 already saw his PA…
My symptoms have been
Vomiting

Morning headaches sometimes waking me up dizziness follows then vomiting
I usually am in a fetal position with chin tucked if I get up before it starts I can avoid the headache sometimes

On the days with dizziness my energy is zapped and hard to get up. Take 500 mg Tylenol compounded with no mammalian and veggie capsule everyday

Always feel like I have a fever starting in afternoons

I am always looking down I am a massage therapist and am sure that aggravates but neuromuscular massage and acupressure you can do yourself YouTube has lots of videos
can help too for the massage and acupressure

I spray my neck with magnesium oil and that helps

Cold washcloth in mornings help

I had treatment for bppv which also caused me to vomit when turning my head to the right

7 years vomiting dx gastroparesis but I think it was styloids on my vagus nerve it went away when I stopped eating mammalian but I think too because mammalian is hard to chew which might affect the styloids now it is coming back

Epsom salt baths 2 times week with 4 lbs in tub

Have two knots under my chin that have intermittent swelling

Left styloid 2.75. Right styloid 3.0
Hope this helps
Hugs

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Did you ever get sharp quick pains in your head? I just got one and it freaked me out. And I’m going to order some ice packs soon

Make your own gel ones they are simple recipes on YouTube just alcohol and water

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Gunna do that right now

I have and also under my tongue on right side