Migraine 101
According
to Mosby’s medical dictionary Migraines are idiopathic meaning that the general
cause of a migraine is ‘unknown’. That
is to say that there is no identifiable pathological cause. The effects are
obvious but the physiology behind them is a mystery, according to standard medical understanding. What if we look at it
from a non-medical, non-pathological perspective and examine the physiological
cause of migraines?
When we
look at a migraine from a purely physiological context it becomes easy to
understand. Once you understand what is
causing the migraine it then follows that you can address it and make it stop. This
is where I will begin to lose some of you because ‘you’ have had every prescription
medication under the sun including possibly a marijuana card, which might take
the edge off, if it, works at all. The
trouble is that migraines are not generally caused by a lack of
medication.
At this point
you might be asking “Ok then, Dr. Smarty pants, if it isn’t a pathological
disease why does my head feel like it is about to explode and why has my doctor
not figured this out if it is so ‘easy’ to understand?” The answer to this question is that your
doctor was never trained to do more than medicate a migraine because there was no known cause of a migraine in terms of
medico pathophysiology. So the only
recourse left to them was to ply ‘you’ with what medications were recommended
in their pharmacopeia handbook and hope for the best. I like to equate this to
playing a game of blindfolded darts.
What is a migraine? The short answer is ‘A hyper-active’ nervous
system’. This means that the nervous
system is ready to react to whatever trigger you might have. An example of this concept would be a pistol.
In order for the pistol to be fired the hammer must be pulled back so that when
you pull the trigger it will fire. If the hammer is not pulled back you can
pull the trigger until Christmas and nothing will happen. The concept behind the migraine would be to ‘un-cock’
the nervous system so that your triggers are less likely to set off the
migraine.
What is
a trigger? It is exactly what the word suggests a ‘trigger’. It could be as
innocuous as a blast of ‘El Cheapo No. 6’ perfume, a sip of red wine or even an
emotional trigger like a pending visit of your favorite mother in law. A trigger is as numerous and varied as there
are people on this earth; the one common denominator being a hyper active
nervous system and that is where I come in, your chiropractor.
Yes,
seeing your chiropractor is your best chance of getting rid of or at least controlling
your migraine headaches. Nervous system
malfunction is what a chiropractor addresses by focusing on your spine. It just
so happens to be the brain stem, where 99.99% of migraine headaches are
centered, and is the junction where the skull and spine meet. This region is
where your chiropractor will focus his/her attention when they address your
migraines.
How is
that the cause of a migraine?
Mechanically the basilar occiput or the base plate of the skull can be
pulled off its articulation and become fixated.
Chiropractors call this a subluxation.
This causes the brainstem to rotate ever so slightly, causing the dense
nerve bundles within to become irritated. Being the most dense nerve bundle in
your body (every nerve that connects your brain to every cell in your body
passes through this point) it is a prime facilitator of your migraine
headache. In short the brainstem is
twisted, think of wringing a towel, and imagine how your nerves might react to
being twisted like that.
The
occiput also happens to be a muscle attachment point for the trapezius muscle, sternocleidomastoid
or SCM muscle which turns the head one way or the other. If we are under any sort of emotional stress,
physical stress, trauma that might cause the occiput to pull off its
articulation and lock into position you might find your brainstem under strain
which then primes you for a migraine.
The
adjustment is simple and quick, and exceptionally
safe. Generally when a person presents with a migraine they can expect one of
three possible outcomes
1.)
Instant relief of the migraine.
2.) Migraine
headache gets worse, then eases off.
3.) Migraine
fades out slowly
Most
often you will experience one of these three possible reactions to your first
adjustment. The protocol will take
several months to stabilize and see permanent reduction of your migraines. Most often we see a reduction in frequency
before we see a reduction in severity. And
yes, you will likely have to keep seeing me regularly as a means of keeping
your migraines under control.
Ahaaaaaaaaaa!!!! It’s just one of those queeropractor gimmicks
to get me to keep coming in forever!
Okay,
you got me my whole thing is to make sure that you are pain free for the rest
of your life, sorry. If you want to live
with your migraines because you do not want to live under the tyrannical wellness
regimen of a chiropractor who has conspired against your being sick, that is
your choice.
Yours in
Heath and wellness.
