About Me
Man plans and god laughs. That seems to be a pretty apt summary of the last 11 years of my life. While already on medical leave from university for GI issues, I woke up one morning with really bad dizziness and nausea. Thinking it was just a stomach bug, I thought I’d be back to normal in a week, 10 days max. Not only did my symptoms persist, but they grew more intense. That moderately dizzying sensation quickly turned into full blown debilitating vertigo. And that mild nausea and stomach upset morphed into feeling like my intestines were on fire.
The first ENT I saw claimed it was Labyrinthitis, or an inner ear infection caused by a virus. Not wanting to accept his diagnosis, I sought a 2nd opinion. And thankfully we did because there’s not much you can do for Labyrinthitis besides wait it out. A few weeks later I saw a neurotologist who gave me what felt like the Dr. House differential diagnosis. He said it was migraine associated vertigo (MAV). The vertigo and digestive upset were so intense, so all consuming, it didn’t even occur to me that my head was hurting too. While somewhat in disbelief, I quickly became a disciple of Dr. Rauch’s when I saw the positive impact diet alone was having on my vertigo, stomach, and head. After just 2 months of following his suggestions, a night and day difference already became apparent. I quickly gained a much needed 10lbs. and was no longer bed bound.
Just like how my migraines are triggered by certain foods, I soon realized the same was true for electronic devices. Being on a laptop for the most part seemed fine, but being on my desktop computer after just 20 minutes was agony. After much trial and error, and research online, I realized that something called ‘pulse width modulation’ (or PWM) flicker was to blame. While “Flicker-free” monitors are somewhat ubiquitous these days, knowledge and awareness on the topic back then was much more scarce.
Once PWM flicker was identified as a serious migraine trigger, I swapped all my devices to ensure they were the best suited for my migraine brain. This included desktop monitors, laptops, tablets, and even smartphones. My hope is that the information provided here on this website is able to help others, or at least spread awareness in some capacity. But please don’t view it as some kind of magic bullet, at least for migraines. I can only speak to my own experience, but identifying and eliminating PWM flicker from my life has only been 1 piece of the puzzle. There are also other potential sources of eye-strain and headache besides just PWM flicker. Some examples include: temporal dithering, other brightness fluctuations (different from PWM flicker), and even screen coating (matte vs glossy). And that doesn’t even include non-visual migraine triggers.
At the end of the day, each person is most likely going to have different triggers and different levels of tolerance. So trial & error will be the best test for most.
