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Each day 5 to 10 million adults in the U.S. reach into the medicine
cabinet for an over the counter drug in the hope that it will relieve
their headache pain. Though some may find temporary relief, most do
not.
A survey at the University of Minnesota's headache clinic found that one
out of three headache patients were angry that their physicians did not
know enough about headaches. Thousands of these unhappy individuals
have turned to chiropractic care for relief.
While some headache sufferers may fear they have something seriously
wrong, it is comforting to know that less than 10 percent of headache
pain has an organic origin. High blood pressure accounts for some
headaches, but stroke and tumors are rare. 70% of headaches result
from pressure on the nerves in the neck. Chiropractic adjustments
restore the proper motion in the joints of the cervical spine (neck)
which relieves the pressure on the nerves and allows the neck muscles
to relax.
To keep headache pain (especially migraines) at bay, avoid trigger
mechanisms like foods and liquids which contain preservatives
(nitrates as in cold cuts, red wine,hot dogs), tyramine, alcohol,
caffeine, chocolate, ripe cheeses, pork, aspartame sweetener
(see article
Artificial Sweeteners) and MSG.
Do not treat yourself with over the counter drugs as research shows that
chronic headaches can actually be aggravated by daily use of these drugs.
The director of the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute
explains that once the painkiller wears off, the pain returns with
greater fury, escalating the cycle of higher doses of drugs to ward
off the greater pain.
A letter from Gary Gerard, M.D.
Associate Professor of Neurology
Medical College of Ohio
"In my 16 years as a medical physician, I had not taken the opportunity
to recommend Chiropractic for my patients. I understood little about the
principles and practice of Chiropractic. Despite the numerous reports
from patients who have benefited from Chiropractic I attributed it to a
placebo effect.
Several months ago I had the good fortune to meet Chiropractic
Physician, Dr. Roger Synder....Only by virtue of the trust that Dr.
Snyder inspired, did I decide to ask him to treat my chronically painful
cervical spine, of 15 years duration, in the last 5 years associated with
severe right frontal almost daily headaches....
In 16 years I've seen some astonishing results but the response that
occurred after merely one treatment, I found to be truly remarkable.
Following merely the initial treatment, I remained headache free for a
week, longer than in the past 5 years. After continued treatments I
have remained almost completely headache free for 2 months....
It was apparent that for all my years as a physician, as most medical
physicians, I had not been open to nor had I taken the opportunity to
consider the benefits of Chiropractic care. As a neurologist I am
keenly aware of the many causes of headache requiring medical or
neurosurgical care but was not aware that Chiropractic could provide
results of such magnitude for cervicogenic [headaches cause by neck
joint misalignments], muscle-contraction and/or migraine types of
headaches.
As Medical physicians we must be more receptive to and scientifically
explore the benefits of Chiropractic as practiced by the many skillful
Chiropractors...across the country."
MIGRAINE HEADACHES
An estimated 28 million Americans over the age of 12 suffered from
migraines in 1999. About 18% of women have migraines, compared with
6% of men. An estimated half of migraine sufferers are undiagnosed."
"Richard Lipton, professor of neurology at New York's Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, recently developed a list of three questions
that can help primary care doctors identify migraine sufferers: Has
a headache limited your activities for a day or more? Do you get
nauseated or sick to yoru stomach when you have a headache? Does
light bother you more than ususal when you have a headache? If
patients answer yes to two or more questions, there's a 93% chance
they would be diagnosed with migraine by a headache specialist."
McGough, Robert Migraine Often Goes Untreated
Wall Street Journal 7/1/03, p.D2.
Results of a study published in the scientific journal of the American
Academy of Neurology reported that "after three months, patients
taking vitamin B2 reported 37 percent fewer migraines than other
comparable patients not taking the vitamin. That reduction in the
frequency of migraine attacks is comparable to the effect of other
drugs used to prevent migraines."
The dosage used was 400mg of vitamin B2, or riboflavin. "The effect on
migraine frequency showed up after a month of daily doses and increased
over the next two months. The vitamin also appeared to lessen the
duration of migraines that did occur."
"Patients in the study had experienced from two to eight migraine
attacks per month for at least a year."
(Washington Post 2/24/97)
Other helpful supplements for migraine include magnesium (250mg-400mg
three times daily), vitamin B6 (25mg three times daily), 5-HTP
(5-hydroxytryptophan 100-200mg three times daily), feverfew and
ginger (1/4" fresh slice).
Finally, in a six month trial in Australia, chiropractic patients
reported greater reduction in the pain associated with the attacks.
(Natural Medicine Journal, March, 1998)
Excerpts from the 1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
Medical and Health Annual
The Anatomist's New Tools,
by Gary Hack, DDS, Gwendolyn Dunn, DDS, and Mi Young Toh, MS, MA
"The announcement of a new anatomic discovery is always astonishing -
and it is all the more so at a time when anatomy departments in medical and
dental schools around the world are closing their doors."
"The discovery was serendipitous, occurring during inspection of a sagittally
sectioned cadaver specimen…The scientists…noticed that the deep neck
musculature was physically attached to the dura…"
"The specific muscle that captured their attention -
the one that was actually attaching to the dura - was the
rectus capitis posterior minor (RCPM) muscle, which extends
from the base of the skull to the first cervical vertebra (C1),
or atlas…A bridge of tissue appeared to be connecting the RCPM muscle
to the spinal dura at the atlanto-occipital junction."
What is the clinical significance of this new
discovery?
"Sustained contraction of head and neck muscles
is known to produce pain that is experienced inside the head - i.e.,
tension headache."
"…the covering of the brain, the dura, is extremely sensitive, and
tension on the dura during neuro-surgical procedures can produce pain
experienced as headache."
"A growing body of literature relates headaches to injury or pathology
affecting neck structures. Moreover, a number of clinical trials have
suggested that treatments such as massage, spinal manipulation, and
biofeedback directed at the neck are valuable for managing muscle-contraction
headaches."
"The muscle-dura connection may represent - at least in part - the
underlying anatomic basis for the effectiveness of this treatment
(spinal manipulation). Such treatment, as performed by a chiropractor,
would decrease muscle tension and thereby reduce or eliminate pain by
reducing the potential forces exerted on the dura via the muscle-dura
connection."
"…surgeons who have severed this connection as part of some other
surgical procedure have found that at least some of their patients
experience fewer chronic headaches afterward."
Do other muscle-dura connections exist in the human body?
"…the cooperating scientists recently identified what appeared to be
another muscle-dura connection - this one located between the first (C1)
and second (C2) cervical vertebrae and involving two neck muscles - the
rectus capitis posterior major and the obliquus capitis inferior. Taking
the new information back to their laboratory, the researchers were able to
verify the existence of this second muscle-dura connection in cadaver
specimens."
SPORT AND EXERCISE INDUCED MIGRAINES
Nadelson C., Curr Sports Med Rep. 2006 Feb;5(1):29-33.
Atlas Orthopaedics, Westview Hospital, Indiana University Center for Sports Medicine,
Zionsville, IN 46077, USA. cnadelso@iupui.edu
"Sport and exercise-induced migraines are difficult to distinguish from benign exertional
headaches and other headache syndromes. Exertion can be the sole cause, or may be among
multiple triggers for an individual's headache. Because approximately 10% of these headaches
have an organic origin, a careful history and physical examination is necessary. The hallmark
of treatment for exercise-induced migraines tends to be proper warm-up before exercise,
minimization of environmental risks, proper sleep hygiene, and good nutrition and hydration;
however, in many cases, the pharmacologic solutions that are applied to other types of
headaches may also be necessary. Because there is a lack of large trial studies on the
athletic headache population, more research on the topic is needed in the future to help
clarify the mechanisms, classification, and treatments of these headaches."
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HEADACHES AND CHIROPRACTIC