Does Chiari make you have too much fluid in head?

General
1

I was reading an article about astronauts losing their sense of smell in space because their bodily fluids were not pulled down by gravity. They ended up getting a "Charlie Brown" face, they said, due to the fluids in the head.

This made me think of Chiari. Does the fluid tend to build up in the head in Chiari? I could relate in the article when it said that they always felt like they were stuffy--that's what is my daily norm, yet for the first 45 years of my life I didn't have any stuffiness.

2

I wasn't getting any CSF around my brain, but pressure will build up inside your head due to CSF Blockage. I have a bent Optic Nerve from the pressure.

Hopefully Someone Else Can Give You a Better Answer,

Tracy Z.

3

Thank you both for your replies. I have always felt like I had a balloon blowing up in my head. Ever since my lightheadedness began, I always thought if only a doctor could take the blood pressure in my head it would be worse than my body's b/p.

4

i was the same as katie,

i spoke to my NL about that, and what happens if fluid builds in the head, this is called Hydrocephalus,

she told me that in most cases the brain obsorbs the extra fluid and gets flushed out,

my brother in law suffers from it, he has had the problem since age of 4, he is now nearly 50, the only way to help it is a shunt, to drain excess fluid

with me personally i have my pressure checked with every mri, i always feel like my head is filling up and its going to explode, its not painful just strange, i then find my breathing gets hard, and can get dizzy. bending my head at all to even look to the ground was hard, if i bend over i thought it would kill me,

i really felt like i was dying. i got this all the time b4 surgery, it stopped straight after surgery, but now im finding it returning, some days are really bad,

joelene

5

It's funny. I actually thought the same exact thing. It's like my head is being squeased in a vice grip & it tighted as far as it will go.

ksue12 said:

Thank you both for your replies. I have always felt like I had a balloon blowing up in my head. Ever since my lightheadedness began, I always thought if only a doctor could take the blood pressure in my head it would be worse than my body's b/p.

6

i guess it would make sense because the majority of CSF is produced in the brain. Check out the wiki