LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Migraine

If You Get Migraine or Tension Headaches, You MUST Do This

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Headaches suck.  Period.  When severe, they disrupt your entire life.  Even mild, they affect your mood and relationships.

The current culture in medicine generally supports the primary care route for headaches.  The primary care doctor may try a few prescription meds like ibuprofen or Tylenol.  When these don’t help they may try a medication like Topamax, which has been shown to reduce headache frequency a paltry 1.5 days in 3 months.

Imaging may or may not be done at this point, but a referral to a neurologist at this point is imminent.  This is where the mistake is made.

For some strange reason, the general public does not normally associated chiropractic care and headaches.  I can tell you from the results we get in our office alone that we can complete alleviate the vast majority of headaches that come into our office.  Some are simply structural and respond with soft tissue work and adjusting.  Some require much more by-in from the patient that will likely include significant lifestyle changes to include quitting smoking, stress management, exercise and dietary changes.

This particular study suggests that the PCP to neurologist pathway is likely not the best choice.  Chiropractic care first would appear to be the best use of resources.  Researchers looked at headache sufferers to see how many of them had pain over the base of the skull that reproduced their headaches.  Results were very telling:

  1. ALL tension headache patients experienced reproduction of their headaches
  2. All but 1 migraine headache patients experienced reproduction of their headaches
  3. In every case, the referred head pain was similar to the pain they usually experienced during headache

You may say “Wow!” but I say “Duh!”  This is an extremely common finding in patients who experience all types of headaches.  In my upcoming book, Migraines and Epilepsy: You are not alone, I cover this aspect of headaches in greater detail.

So how many patients never made it past the neurologist?  How many thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands of headache patients have NEVER had a physician evaluate the structures of their neck, let alone administer any treatment?

What have you found to be the most helpful for your headaches?

When Wheat Allergies Cause Seizures

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There has been much increased awareness of the problems associated with wheat allergies. Celiac disease. Allergy to wheat. Gluten sensitivity. Whatever you call it, it’s here to stay. But exactly how far do the negative health effects run?  And can wheat allergy affect the brain?

Let’s start with the basics. Traditionally, celiac disease  was a condition where an allergy to the gluten containing grains (most commonly wheat, barley and rye, but also in trace amounts in oats) sets up an autoimmune reaction that destroys the villa of the small intestine. You may have heard that the total surface area of the small intestine is close to that of a tennis court because all of the villi increase the surface area.  Consider this shrinking to the size of a ping pong table and you get the idea. Nutrient malabsorption results and all kinds of bad things follow.

That was then…this is now…

Over time, we have come to understand that the scenario described above is the far end of a spectrum that starts with slight sensitivity that can only be picked up via stool sampling at specific labs (like www.enterolab.com). The real problem is that the inflammation set up by exposure to a common allergen such as gluten wreaks subtle havoc that compounds over the course of years and decades.  Celiac disease has been linked to:

  1. Type 1 diabetes
  2. Very strong association with all thyroid problems
  3. Osteoporosis, osteopenia and overall poor bone health

Before you begin to think this is new news, you need to understand that this was on the radar screen over a decade ago, if not longer. Strong concerns were noted with celiac disease in toddlers. 

But can something occurring in the gut actually affect something as far away as the brain?

The answer is a clear yes. Almost 20 years ago researchers where calling for evaluation of gluten sensitivity in any undiagnosed neurological disorder. This particular study demonstrates very strong links between epilepsy and celiac disease.  Those with the far spectrum of celiac disease (villus atrophy) had a 40% increased risk of developing epilepsy.

Two very important factors come to mind.

First, this is the far spectrum showing a 40% increase, but what about the entire range of the spectrum?  What if we looked in reverse to see how many epileptics had sensitivity to gluten?  We may be surprised at what we would find.

Second, the ketogenic diet has been shown to be an incredibly powerful therapy for seizure control for epileptics. Interestingly, researchers are not really sure how the diet works to control seizures, although some have speculated that the fat intake is key. But, on the ketogenic diet most grains are eliminated or cut back on severely. Could gluten really be the key?  Based on this study, it may very well be the link researchers have been looking for on the reason why the ketogenic diet works.

Migraine Prevention? This Natural Compound Trumps Drugs

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The first thing to accept is that migraines should not be controlled.  Rather, they should be eliminated with the correct attention to lifestyle changes.  In the meantime, though, it is nice to have tools to control the pain of the headache.  Mainstream medicine is quick to jump on expensive drugs (like Topamax) with a long list of side effects, high cost and minimal efficacy.  Anti-inflammatories are frequently prescribed as well.  But what if a natural compound was proven to be more effective?

Understanding that migraine headaches are a problem with the body and not just the head is critical to overcoming the condition.  Merely controlling the headache does nothing, and evidence even supports the idea that damage to the brain continues to occur despite “successful” headache treatment.  Since many natural compounds actually function by restoring normal physiology (there are few supplements that will actually override normal physiology like a drug will), it would make sense that natural compounds may play a role in controlling the pain in a migraine headache.

Several have already shown a benefit such as melatonin, fish oils, magnesium, riboflavin and feverfew.  This particular article ranks approaches based on a A-B-C recommendation.  Several of the natural compounds just listed share the stage with drugs, but only a single compound gets the A rating.

Butterbur is a plant in the daisy family that has its medicinal origins among Native Americans.  It has been shown in multiple studies to be successful in preventing migraine headaches, even in severe cases.  This is the compound that got the A rating in this review of natural compounds and anti-inflammatories.  Not too shabby.

However, remember that these are only designed as a patch until the lifestyle changes that are so critically important are fully implemented.

WHAT ARE THE TREATMENTS OF MIGRAINE? – (02-21-05)

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A study of IV magnesium vs. metoclopramide in acute migraine attacks

IV magnesium (2 grams-a pretty hefty dose) was shown to be just as effective as Reglen (normally used to speed up gastric emptying) for treatment of migraine in the ER.  So, most would look at this and ask why anyone would use magnesium if it is just as effective.  Hmmm… magnesium is much, much cheaper.

No known side effects (diarrhea if given orally, however).  Makers of magnesium IVs are not getting sued for damaging the nervous system.  Need any more reasons to use magnesium instead?

Read entire article here

 

MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION LEADS TO NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS – (04-04-05)

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Efficacy of coenzyme Q10 in migraine prophylaxis

Almost a 50% response with taking 300 mg CoQ10 per day.  Not too shabby.  This is yet another notch in the “mitochondrial dysfunction leads to neurodegenerative disorders” belt.  The research is no longer questioning the association between altered brain behavior/pathology and oxidative stress–the research is now moving onto the deeper, more practical questions.

Read entire article here

Simple Supplement Can Protect Memory in Seizures and Migraines?

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While most sufferers consider them separate entities, migraines and seizure share many common characteristics and the underlying problem with the cells of the brain are also similar.  What contributes to or triggers a migraine headaches can also trigger seizures, such as lack of sleep, stress and skipping a meal.  In the short term, both of these conditions dramatically affect quality of life.  Even more concerning is what these conditions due to the brain in the long run.

Read entire article here.

MIGRAINES ARE STRONGLY RELATED TO OXIDATIVE STRESS – (05-16-05)

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Platelet membrane fluidity and peroxynitrite levels in migraine patients during headache-free periods

Two things to mention here.  First, we are seeing a sustained movement towards the concept that migraines, just like the seizures that clinicians are not yet willing to throw in the same category, is strongly related to oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction.

This article adds more fuel to this concept by evaluating the peroxynitrate levels in migraine and headache patients in between attacks.  Levels were elevated, indicating either that oxidative stress contributes directly to the headaches, or that the headaches induce oxidative stress that persists long after the headache.

Also, I personally feel that migraines are constantly over-diagnosed by doctors that don’t understand HA.  They never touch the neck and so cannot possibly rule out problems coming from the neck.  And, most likely a patient who has had HA for many years has several types of HA going on, and they all need to be addressed for full resolution to occur.

Read entire article here

MOST POWERFUL WAYS TO PREDICT PAINFUL SEIZURES

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Seizure and migraine management consists almost entirely of medication use.  The list of anti-seizure medications has expanded over the years, but outcomes have not improved much.  Patients still suffer from migraines and seizures and can have their entire lives shut down during an attack and even up to days afterwards.  But is there a better way to manage migraine headaches and seizures?

Clearly exercise, dietary changes and targeted supplementation are powerful additions to every patient’s approach to migraines and seizures.  The research is strongly in support of using these tools.  The ketogenic diet alone is an approach with better outcomes than every medication on the planet.

Regardless of the condition affecting the brain, whether migraines, seizures, Alzheimer’s or dementia, stress is unquestionably a key trigger to symptoms flaring. Management or, better avoidance, of stress is critical.

But what if the patient cannot manage their stress?  Are there other tools that can be brought into play that might be able to abort a migraine or seizure before it starts? Turns out there are indeed very powerful tools available.

Behavioral psychology may yet turn out to be THE most powerful tool for managing epilepsy and migraines. Neurologists and psychologists will both agree that aberrant brain firing results in migraines and seizures.  The similarities stop there.  Neurologists traditionally believe that the problem is one of brain chemistry.  This brain chemistry needs to be “fixed” with medications.  The belief that patients can influence the condition is not propagated.

The view from the psychology side of things is different.  Extrinsic factors that are absolutely within control of the patient are more critical than internal factors. Teaching the patient to identify feelings and patterns of emotions and using successful tools to positively affect thought patterns is a powerful tool that has been around for more than 50 years.

The medical literature is filled with case studies and clinical studies of patients who are able to abort the onset of a seizure through a variety of interventions, all within control of the patient.

This particular study is a more recent example of just how incredibly powerful these techniques can be. This was a study looking at these techniques at aborting a seizure that was about to start.  Researchers found some interesting results:

  1. Half the patients (30/60) experienced at least a 50% reduction in seizures.
  2. 37% of the patients became seizure free by the end of the program.

Wow!  This wasn’t with medications.  No lifestyle changes.  No restricted diet.  Just the identification of a trigger or warning sign and the implementation of a behavioral action to abort the seizures.

There is a single, strong caveat here. The patient has to accept that the condition that he or she has has a strong intrinsic etiology, and an internal locus of control is required for the best management of the condition.  Not enough patients share this view of their problem.

The question I seem to be perpetually asking is, why, after 50+ years, is this type of approach a part of every seizure and migraine patient’s treatment plan???