HEADACHES – What a Pain in the Neck!
Well that’s one of the many possible causes for headaches. In this posting I’ll discuss this, as well as several others that are the most common.
1) Neck pain, aka cervical subluxation: This is a misalignment in the vertebrae of the neck that causes stress and irritation to the cervical nerves. When nerves are irritated, they become over-facilitated; meaning that they fire too much. All that firing to the neck, head and upper back muscles causes them to continually contract. This leads to dysfunction and pain—AND headaches!
The Fix: Getting adjusted (realigned) by a chiropractor, preferably an Applied Kinesiologist. An Applied Kinesiologist will also address muscular imbalances that can lead to the subluxation.
2) Temporal Mandibular Joint (TMJ) Dysfunction: This is most often caused by muscular imbalances, tension, and misalignments of the jaw joint(s).
The Fix: Chiropractic and/or Applied Kinesiology, for the same reasons stated above: i.e. to balance the jaw musculature inside and out; to align the joint; and to reduce tension, pain and dysfunction in the head and neck.
3) Sinusitis, i.e. inflammation of the sinuses: This can be caused by allergies, structural problems of the cranium and/or cervical spine, or microbial imbalance of the sinuses, mouth and/or gut. It can also stem from overall poor diet, resulting in inflammation and chronic congestion.
The Fix: Anti-inflammatory diet, removing allergens, correcting misalignments, improving systemic microbial balance via appropriate probiotics—oral and nasal—to support the immune system.
4) Hormonal Imbalance: Estrogen dominance; meaning too much estrogen relative to progesterone, has been linked to headaches, particularly migraine headaches. One possible reason for estrogen dominance is the prevalence of xenoestrogens in our environment. Xenoestogens are synthetic estrogens found in plastics, pesticides, and some skin and hair products. Other hormones that can contribute to headaches are cortisol—our main stress hormone—as well as thyroid hormones, pituitary hormones and pancreatic hormones.
The Fix: Avoid xenoestrogens as much as possible by eating organic, real food. Avoid foods and beverages packaged in plastic, or cans lined with plastic. Reduce stress by eating right, practicing meditation, exercising regularly, and getting 7-9 hours of solid sleep each night. In my office, I order salivary hormone labs and blood work. Having that information enables me to home in on what my patients need regarding specific adaptogenic and hormone balancing herbs and nutrients. It also assists me in making individualized dietary recommendations to promote further healing.
5) Fascial Dysfunction: The fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds one’s muscles, organs and glands. If we could somehow remove all those parts from our bodies, the fascia would stand as a 3D cytoskeleton of us. Regarding function, the fascia contains pain receptors and proprioceptors (receptors telling our body where it is in space): it provides feedback to the joints and muscles. When there is insult or injury to the fascia, stemming from either new or old injuries, densifications form in the fascia. This creates dysfunction and pain. Specifically, fascial densities in the muscles of the head, neck, jaw, or upper back can cause headaches.
The Fix: Fascial Manipulation. This involves analyzing where the densifications are, and then treating them with light manual friction to break them up. Often these densities form in a specific plane along the body. This can be one reason why some people when experiencing pain say, for example, “Everything on my left side hurts,” or “I always get injuries on the same side.” In order to fix the problem, we must work to break up the densities along the entire plane. In other words, your headaches could be related to that pain in your bum, and not just your neck 😊 ! For more information on fascia, please take a few minutes to read my previous blog posting.
6) Circulation: Blood flow to the muscles of the cranium and brain. Headaches can be the result of too much or too little blood flow. Migraines are frequently due to vasodilation (blood vessels being too open; too much blood flow to the head). That is why caffeine can be helpful with migraines: caffeine causes blood vessels to constrict.
The Fix: Figuring out why there are circulation problems and addressing them. Circulation problems can be hormonal, structural or dietary in nature. It’s important to determine the cause, and then treat appropriately by either correcting the hormonal and/or structural imbalances, or removing any environmental triggers.
So those are the basics! Needless to say, there can be other, less common headache causes. Generally, however, what’s listed above is what I most frequently see and treat in my office.
I recently had a patient who suffered from migraines for more than 20 years—most of her adult life—and who frequently relied on Imitrex, a heavy-duty prescription medication. After several fascial manipulation treatments, her headaches have become much less frequent. In fact, they’ve diminished from several episodes per week to fewer than 1 per month: a huge life change!
Of course, we’re still working together to gain even further improvement; but her case is just one among countless examples of how, given the right information and direction, the body has an enormous ability to heal!