What are Brain Zaps? A Common Symptom when Tapering Medications

Rain zaps. What are they and what can you do about it? When I was 10 years old, my dad made me lick a 9 volt battery. And if you've ever licked a 9 volt battery, you've noticed that that can be pretty shocking and pretty painful, right? And it's a surge of electricity that comes out of the battery and it goes through the conductor of your tongue and it can zap into your face, into your brain, into your head. It can be a really unpleasant experience. And interestingly, this is quite similar to what some people call brain zaps, brain shakes. And it is one of the common side effects of antidepressants and, and most commonly shows up when you're tapering off of an antidepressant. And incredibly, over 56% of people who are withdrawing from antidepressants experience brain zaps. But despite that, there is very little information in the literature about what causes brain zaps and what you can actually do about it. And so today I'm going to teach you what we think causes brain zaps. Okay? According to the most recent research and I'm going to share with you my top favorite supplement solutions to helping satisfy your needs for getting those brain zaps under control. So I'm Dr. Nicole and we will be posting a blog with all of this content a couple weeks after I get this live up. And so check back by clicking in the link in the bio. If you're dealing with medication withdrawal, if you're dealing with chronic withdrawal symptoms, and if you're dealing with brain zaps, then make sure to check out this content. And if you know somebody who would benefit, then please share this with them too. Because 56% of people who are withdrawing from medications getting brain zaps like electricity shooting through their brain, they need resolution, they need solutions that can help them feel better. So when it comes to the cause of brain zaps, we think based on a three prong approach, and that is strong, structural, functional and genetic. And so when it comes to structural, there's research that has come out talking about brain zaps as it relates to the motion of your eyes. And so what they've observed is that people, when they're withdrawing or tapering off of an antidepressant, that when they look left and right, which is a lateral rotation of the eye, that it can provoke the brain zaps, that feeling of electricity or vibrating or shaking or nerve pain shooting through the brain. And so they're thinking, okay, when you have the lateral movement of the eyes, there's pain provoked in the Brain or amplification of existing pain in the brain. And so they're surmising that there's a structural component to it. This isn't the first time we've seen movement of the eyes aggravating pain in the brain. Lots of migraine sufferers will report that when they have terrible migraine pain that even moving their eyes can make the pain worse. So it's not really a stretch to link brain zaps to motion of the eyes. Then they've done a little bit of a deeper dive into that. And they found that brain zaps may be related to REM movement of your eyes. So when you go to sleep, you'll enter REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement sleep. Your eyes, while you're asleep, will go back and forth, left and right, that same lateral movement. And after a night of that happening, some people awaken and they're experiencing more brain zaps in the first part of the day than perhaps in the latter part of the day when their eyes aren't moving as much. And the interesting thing that also happens during REM sleep is your brain is processing memories, but your neurochemicals are also changing. In particular, a chemical that's being changed is your serotonin. So this brings us to the second possible factor of why you may be experiencing brain zaps. And, and that's serotonin. And so we call this a functional factor. And so we know that the biggest chemical that's being changed when you're tapering off of your antidepressant medication is serotonin. We have SSRIs and SNRIs, and both of these medications will cause brain zaps in some people. So the serotonin levels are changing. And so it makes sense that, that we zero in on serotonin as a possible root cause factor. And so the other thing that we know about serotonin is that serotonin can be effective at modifying our experience of pain. Some medications used for treating migraines interact with serotonin, like Rel Pax or Imitrex. And some medications that help with depression because they modify serotonin can also help to. To quell pain and like fibromyalgia. So we know that there's a link between rapid eye movement and pain. Rapid eye movement in sleep, rapid eye movement in serotonin, and serotonin in brain zaps. And the other thing that they've been finding in the research with brain zaps is that people who have sensory processing disorders have a higher risk to brain zaps. They, they have a higher risk to cranial neuralgia, migraine headaches, fibromyalgias, and other pain syndromes. Sensory processing disorder is when the brain can't process incoming sensory information, like noise and light and smells and sound and movement and textures. Even watching a video like this can be provoking for pain or anxiety or even vertigo in people who struggle with sensory processing disorders. So then we look at genetic and epigenetic factors. And your genetics are the scaffold by which your body processes and deals with information, the way that it responds to medications and the way that it detoxes from medications. And so epigenetic factors are when we take that gene and we take that scaffold, and we impact the way that it's behaving. Epigenetic simply means the expression of your genetic traits. And I kind of think of it like a light switch on a wall. You can walk into a room and you have a light switch that can turn on a strobe light, but the presence of the strobe light will be impacted by whether or not that light switch is on. And you have the power to turn on the light switch or to turn off the light switch. That's epigenetics. And so there are, what we're observing in the literature, epigenetic factors that can predispose you for brain zaps. And there are epigenetic factors that can reduce the likelihood of brain zaps. So let's talk about some strategies to soothe the brain zaps. And I have notes here, and I'm going to make sure that they get all copied in there for you. But I want to give you some of my top strategies for soothing brain zaps. So if you have brain zaps, if you're having electricity in your brain, if you're struggling with a medication withdrawal, a medication taper, then talk with your doctor and see if these solutions might be appropriate for you. So Starting with number one is omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids decrease pain, they decrease inflammation, they're healing and nourishing for the brain. And they've been shown to be incredibly helpful with medication withdrawal symptoms. So that's number one. Number two is B vitamins. And there is so much literature about B vitamins and antidepressants. In fact, research out of the University of Michigan and has shown that antidepressant medications can deplete your brain of B vitamins. And B vitamins are used in many pathways to help you make things like serotonin, to help your body send all those signals to detox and process so that you can think and feel in a balanced state. And so if you're on a medication that's been depleting you of B vitamins and too low of B vitamins can cause symptoms, replacing B vitamins can be incredibly helpful. And I have a B vitamin that I really like. I have it in my shop@drnicolecane.com under shop. It's in the anxiety breakthrough bundle. So go and read the ingredients there and you can see the types of B vitamins that I've seen work best. So number three is acetyl L carnitine. And acetyl L carnitine is absolutely amazing if you've been taking antidepressants and if you've been feeling withdrawal side effects or even just side effects from the antidepressants themselves. Acetyl L carnitine is something that you should ask your doctor about. Acetyl l carnitine helps heal brain tissue. It energizes the brain, especially if you're dealing with brain fog or forgetfulness or you just don't feel sharp or crisp. Acetyl l carnitine can be really helpful for that. And acetyl l carnitine balances serotonin and adrenaline, which are out of whack when we're withdrawing or tapering off of our antidepressant. The next One is magnesium L3. The threonate form of magnesium really readily crosses the blood brain barrier. Instead of a magnesium that's more citrate based, which goes straight to your gut, the magnesium l threonate form goes straight into the blood brain barrier and it can help reduce anxiety, it increases relaxing neurotransmitter gaba. It relaxes the brain and it's a definite go to if you're struggling with brain saps. Vitamin D is the next one. And vitamin D is depleted by antidepressant medications. Vitamin D also has a really strong relationship with mood stability. And so if you're dealing with anxiety or if you're dealing with depression or anger or symptoms of ocd or postpartum or bipolar, anything related to how you're feeling in your mood and in your mind, ask your doctor to check your vitamin D. And if it's appropriate, replace your vitamin D. When supplementing with vitamin D, always make sure that you give it with your other fat solubles. Make sure that you take vitamin A, K, calcium and magnesium. And then the last tip for brain zaps is my absolute favorite. Saving the best for last is the herb Avena sativa Avena Sativa, or Milky Oats, has been used for centuries to help people who are dealing with side effects from medication withdrawal or who are dealing with the effects of toxicity. Avena Sativa is called a trophorestorative. A trophorestorative is something that restores the tropho, or the brain tissue. It restores health to the brain and it can definitely help reduce migraines. And we've seen it be really helpful in brain zaps. So I'm Dr. Nicole. Today we've been talking about why your head hurts. We've been talking about brain zaps, which can occur during a medication taper while you're taking your medications. And some people even report that they are long haulers while the brain zaps can continue. And we've also talked about what are some of the root causes of why you may be experiencing brain zaps and what to do about it. If this has been helpful for you, then stay tuned. We'll get a blog posted about this with all the content in the next couple of weeks. If you have any questions then please send us a DM or leave a comment. And this topic actually came from one of our community members who is asking about brain zaps and what you can do is and so you asked, we delivered. I'm Dr. Nicole. I'm so grateful to be here for you. Don't forget to check out the good stuff in the bio. I have a ton of free resources. My passion is to help you turn the page in anxiety and get your life back. And so thank you so much for watching and I will see you soon. Bye.