Bulging Temporal Artery

[Jay22]

I've had this over a year now (34m). The one on the right is especially noticeable. It forms a large 'W' shape, with the lower part pemanently bulged. I have my head mostly shaved, which makes it more visible. During heat it gets worse, when I get an occasional migraine, it turns into a monster.

I have seen doctors, who are dismissive and say it's an irreversible cosmetic issue and not to worry. However it bothers me.

Is there anything I can do with it?

 

[TheSir]

Is your scalp, especially the temporal area, sore or painful if you massage it firmly? It could be that fibrosis of the scalp (which you probably have if you are balding) sabotages the bloodflow to the extent that the arteries compensate by getting larger. Just an idea.

 

[Jay22]

I have extensive scarring alopecia on top of the head as a result of eczema. It's been that way for 25 years. Only last year did this bulge start. There is no pain. I began weight training again last year, I think this may have 'stretched' it?

 

[artist]

I’m interested in possible solutions for this as well. Mine started getting more prominent lately when I started having a big increase in lymph and swollen lymph nodes in my head/neck. Is it possible to shrink arteries? Is the issue that they have grown or is it usually due to local high blood pressure that they’re swollen? I’m hoping as I deal with the lymphatic issues it will go back down but I’m wondering if the topicals for vein issues like vitamin E could help as well.

 

[yerrag]

That's called temporal arteritis. Aka giant cell arteritis. From white blood cells ganging up on microbes that appear too resilient to destroy that the only way to contain it is to wrap it up like a coccoon to keep it from spreading and doing more harm. At least that is how I understand it.

I have it also. It came later in life for me. I also have keloids, which is also a superficial skin issue. Doctors are hard pressed to find solutions for such issues and I believe though that they are right that they're harmless.

Although they're benign, I still have a mind to deal with them and make them go away. But not on top of my list. My high bp is on top, but since I believe they share a common microbial origin, once I fix my bp issues naturally, I may start to see the cosmetic bulges go away more easily.

But it's not something our mostly miseducated doctors can help us with. Until then, live with it and don't get too conscious about it.

 

[artist]

@yerrag good thoughts. High blood pressure is likely a cause whether it’s universal or local high blood pressure. I have been feeling more pressure in my head lately presumably from the lymph. Body builders tend to get these and I think it’s due to the build up of pressure in the head during lifts.

 

[yerrag]

@yerrag good thoughts. High blood pressure is likely a cause whether it’s universal or local high blood pressure. I have been feeling more pressure in my head lately presumably from the lymph. Body builders tend to get these and I think it’s due to the build up of pressure in the head during lifts.

I have dissociated from the idea of high blood pressure being a primary cause of anything that ails us. The body is adaptive and does all manners of compensating for whatever stresses it encounters, be it from deficiency, physical trauma, toxins, microbial imbalance, or mental stress. High blood pressure, if anything, at worst is a secondary cause, and likely isn't even a cause but a solution the body uses to minimize further harm. As in the case of providing enough impetus to provide blood in very restricted vessels such as the capillaries that feed nutrients, including oxygen and sugar, as well as transport metabolic debris out of organs.

An old house with old water pipes filled with scales may need a booster pump to increase the decreased pressure from friction losses in the municipal mains supply. So that the shower pressure in the second floor bathroom isn't going to be a mere trickle. Same thing with our body.

Without the increased pressure, our organs wither and die with reductive stress. Less.nutrients delivered equals accelerated degeneration from poor energy generation to keep organs alive and kicking. This can be equated to an internal rusting out of the internal engines - heart, liver, and kidneys to name a few.

Since our blood vessels are all connected, it's also hard for me to think of blood pressure being local anywhere. If you feel some feeling of increases pressure, I would see that as increases stress from being low on oxygen, or sugar, or from high serotonin.

Serotonin is contained in the platelets normally, but when blood is alkaline due to low CO2, the serotonin is free to go elsewhere such as in the brain, instead of being delivered to the lungs where it is deactivated assuming healthy lungs.

 

[artist]

@yerrag...I have fairly low blood pressure myself (just measured 110/69 a moment ago), but the artery thing seems to respond to swelling in my head. My carotid becomes more prominent too. I've heard of people having this triggered by sinusitis. I would think anything that mechanically puts pressure could cause an issue with proper circulation and thus too much blood one place and not enough in another, similar to what you described with the pipes. This is certainly the case with varicose veins which can be worsened by lower body swelling.

 

[yerrag]

@yerrag...I have fairly low blood pressure myself (just measured 110/69 a moment ago), but the artery thing seems to respond to swelling in my head. My carotid becomes more prominent too. I've heard of people having this triggered by sinusitis. I would think anything that mechanically puts pressure could cause an issue with proper circulation and thus too much blood one place and not enough in another, similar to what you described with the pipes. This is certainly the case with varicose veins which can be worsened by lower body swelling.

I'm sorry if I gave you the impression in my water pipe analogy that blood would pool in one section of the body and be lacking in another. I can't imagine that happening within the constraints of my imagination of a functional system.

Do you have a lump in your temple? I have one but that may be a separate issue from what you described.

How is your head swelling? Is it physically swelled? Or is there a feeling of pressure from within that gives you a headache or discomfort?

Speaking of sinusitis, which I used to have before, but not anymore, I can offer my own rumination or hypothesis about it. Given that doctors rarely talk sense nowadays except use third-hand information purportedlbased on "science," I feel more comfortable now giving my take on this and let you decide whether it is plausible and logical, instead of me dressing it up as science, which I'm in no position to impress upon anybody.

I just think that nasal and oral excretions in the form of snots and its liquid version called phlegm and its less viscous version which has no name but associated with runny nose - they're as much the products of internal debri from the body's defense mechanisms against insults in the form of toxins and microbes as much as they come from defending the body against external insults.

I would wonder before why even in a very air filtered and sterile environment, I would have a snotty nose. And when my bp is high because I've been urinating a lot where the urine is not only foamy and frothy, and when my recorded nightly spO2 levels go low (due to the oxygen hungry needs of the respiratory burst of phagocytosis needed to kill bacteria), I would develop a foul smell in my nose, indicative of infection and immune responses towards resolving it.

The color of phlegm is said to indicate the nature of the insult. Green is for bacteria as it involves neutrophils dying along with it killihg bacteria, similar to how pus is colored. If clear, it is viral (but I now don't give this much credence).

I think that if there is a heavy load of microbes that require a lot of oxidative activity ta kill them, and the body is unable to provide enough antioxidants to counter enough the resulting oxidative stress, the phlegm becomes thick ( disulfide bonds in oxidized glutathione thicken phlegm). Thick phlegm distubs the lung's job of gas exchange as well as its job of deactivating serotonin. And when there is excess serotonin and they're freely circulating in blood (not contained inside platelets), blood vessels become leaky and the interstitial spaces become edematous.

In this state, the lymphatic system becomes restricted not being abre to transport waste out. Even blood vessels, especially the veins, which has less pressure on the return path of blood to the heart.

But edema as well as low metabolic energy plays a part in varicose veins as well. Steph Seneff also mentions the role of choresteryl sulfate in providing a motive force for blood flow that is independent of the heart pumping. Sunlight and cholesterol and sulfur is needed here.

I also notice my own platelet count to be on the low side of normal range. Still figuring out why that is. But I'm only glad my get isn't producing a lot of serotonin and endotoxins or I would be in a bad place. I am less resilient than I appear to be.

 

[Apple]

I have it also. It came later in life for me. I also have keloids, which is also a superficial skin issue. Doctors are hard pressed to find solutions for such issues and I believe though that they are right that they're harmless.

Have you ever experimented with DHEA to treat keloids ?

Ray Peat:
In Mexico recently, a friend found that applying DHEA in vitamin E to a very big, red keloid tumor caused it to quickly fade and shrink. As I was driving home, I applied a little of the same solution to one of the mole on my temple. A day or two later I noticed a concentric ring of brownskin on the opposite side of the mole, about a centimeter away. The next day, there were two such bands. Then a bright red line appeared at the front margin of the mole, where I had first applied the oil. Although it looked as though the edge of the mole had bled, it was actually just a thread-like region of extremely dilated capillaries. Day by day, the thread of red appeared to be
contracting around the mole. The brown rings took on a V-shape, and extended into the hair. The color of the mole became lighter for about a week, and as the red thread "contracted" the flat mole became pedunculated and mostly colorless, like a tiny mushroom. Two or three dots of color remained, apparently trapped, in the globe. After drying and shrinking for a couple of days,it fell off, and the point of attachment had become smooth, normal skin within a day.

 

[yerrag]

Have you ever experimented with DHEA to treat keloids ?

Ray Peat:
In Mexico recently, a friend found that applying DHEA in vitamin E to a very big, red keloid tumor caused it to quickly fade and shrink. As I was driving home, I applied a little of the same solution to one of the mole on my temple. A day or two later I noticed a concentric ring of brownskin on the opposite side of the mole, about a centimeter away. The next day, there were two such bands. Then a bright red line appeared at the front margin of the mole, where I had first applied the oil. Although it looked as though the edge of the mole had bled, it was actually just a thread-like region of extremely dilated capillaries. Day by day, the thread of red appeared to be
contracting around the mole. The brown rings took on a V-shape, and extended into the hair. The color of the mole became lighter for about a week, and as the red thread "contracted" the flat mole became pedunculated and mostly colorless, like a tiny mushroom. Two or three dots of color remained, apparently trapped, in the globe. After drying and shrinking for a couple of days,it fell off, and the point of attachment had become smooth, normal skin within a day.

Thanks.

I just happen Pansterone and I'll apply this over the next few days to a new keloid. It should be more receptive to treatment. While I believe it to be caused by a mycobacteria that is inherited (not genetic) that has stubbornly resisted eradication by the immune system, maybe Shea will provide an extra jolt of energy to the immune system localized to deal with the keloid. Will have to see how this goes.