LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Migraine

Do Migraines Harm Your Developing Baby?

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If you have read any of my articles that relates to migraines, then the answer that springs to mind is a strong YES.

I really don’t need to belabor the prior bit of information.  Bottom line is, if you suffer from migraines, do not be led into a false sense of security if the migraine medication you are on is controlling your headaches.  Fix the problem instead.

This particular article looks at the relationship between migraines sufferers and the risk of of adverse pregnancy outcomes (low birthweight, preterm birth, infants born small for gestational age, Caesarean section (CS) and pre-eclampsia).  Here’s what the researchers found when they looked at the pregnancy outcomes from 4911 women with migraines:

  • Low birth weight – 16% increased risk
  • Preterm birth – 24% higher risk
  • C-section – 16% higher risk
  • Pre-eclampsia – 34% higher risk

What does this tell us?  That the problem with migraines are NOT limited to the head.  If they were and medications did anything to fix the problem, than these higher pregnancy risks wouldn’t be present.

Chronic Migraine Relief; Fats and Your Brain

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Natural remedies for seizures
fats and your seizures

Every migraine sufferer wants that miracle drug, treatment or cure that will provide chronic migraine relief. Personally, I don’t think this will ever happen.

Headaches are too diverse and too complex to be treated with a single approach. The only exception to this is those people who have been incorrectly diagnosed with migraine when what they really have is an isolated “structural headache.”  This is my term for a headache that comes from the structures of the head and neck. These headaches will respond incredibly well to treatment from a chiropractor who also fully understands how to treat the soft tissues involved in addition to adjusting the cervical spine.

But even patients with structural headaches are likely to have migraine-headaches overlaid upon the structural headaches. This means that structural treatment alone is not going to be enough in the long run. It may provide some relief in the short term, but ultimately the headaches will come back until you address the other factors.

Among other things, fats play a big role in how your brain works. If you remember way back to high school biology class, all of our cells are made up of a fatty cell membrane. And this cell membrane is a critical factor in determining what comes into the cell and what leaves the cell. This includes building blocks to make proteins in the cell as well as messages.

A healthy cell membrane makes sure that messages that are supposed to make it in get in and also make sure that messages that are NOT supposed to get into the cell stay out. This is why dietary choices that emphasize intake of healthy fats (raw nuts, seeds, wild caught fish, wild game and olive oil) and avoid the intake of unhealthy fats (corn oil, soybean oils and hydrogenated oils) are good the for brain. This applies whether we are talking about chronic migraine headaches, seizures, Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease or cognitive decline.

Fats play a critical role. Which fits into the results from this particular study. In it, researchers looked at the levels of a particular class of cell-membrane fat called sphingolipids in a group of 88 women with episodic migraine. For those of you a little rusty in Jeopardy’s “I’ll take brain fats for $500, please, Alex” sphingolipids are a specific type of waxy fat found in high concentrations in the cell membranes of your brian cells.  In general, higher levels means that your brain cells are going to be more stable.  In addition, certain sphingolipids play a critical role in sending messages within the brain cells themselves.

With this in mind, here’s what they found:

  • Total ceramide and dihydroceramide levels were lower in those with episodic migraine.
  • Each standard deviation increase in total ceramide and dihydroceramide led to a 92% lower risk of experiencing migraines when compared to a control group.
  • In addition, every standard deviation increase in the sphingomyelin species C18:0 led to a massive 428% higher risk of experiencing migraines.
  • The same was true with the sphingomyelin species C18:1, leading to a 293% higher risk.

So what does all of this mean?  Other than the fact that I apparently didn’t pay enough attention in biochemistry?

First of all, higher sphingomyelin levels have been consistently shown in prior studies to be linked to prediabetes.  This fits in incredibly well with the concept that prediabetes is very bad for the health of your blood vessels and the unhealthy blood vessels are the key player in the development of migraine headaches.

In addition, ceramides can be converted into sphingomyelin.  That would lead to lower levels of ceramides (increasing risk of migraines) and higher levels of sphingomyelin (again leading to increasing risk of migraines).  It all seems to fit.

While scientists are still trying to figure out what this all means, I would venture to say that this study again links the poor blood vessel health of prediabetes to chronic migraine headaches.  And an anti-diabetic diet will have huge payoffs when it comes to chronic migraine relief.

 

Should I See a Mesa Chiropractor for My Chronic Migraine Headaches?

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Why am I even asking this (it was rhetorical, by the way)?  The answer is unquestionably yes.

It never ceases to amaze me how many new patients come into my office that have been having headaches for years and have never been to a chiropractor in Mesa.  Many of these patients begin to feel better in as little as a week.  The caveat here is that you need to find a Mesa chiropractor who addresses the soft tissue (muscle, ligaments, tendons, fascia) aspect of your problem and not just adjusting.  Many times the soft tissue aspect has been present for so long that just adjusting, just exercising, just ultrasounding, just interferentialling (is that a word??), just strengthening or just adjusting is not going to be enough.

This particular study just supports this link, finding close associations between tenderness in the trapezius muscles and chronic tension headaches as well as migraine headaches that were present only on one side of the head.

Red Wine and the Brain

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DO I NEED TO DRINK MORE WINE TO PROTECT MY BRAIN?
It’s no surprise that wine (or specifically, the resveratrol content of red wine) has protective benefits in moderation, but you may not understand exactly how resveratrol works.
Calorie restriction without nutrient restriction has consistently shown to extend lifespan in mammals.  This calorie restriction works by improving the health and number of the mitochondria by activating a set of genes called the Sirtuin genes.
Research on resveratrol has found that it resveratrol activates this same Sirtuin pathway.  In this particular study, researchers looked at the additional ability of resveratrol to protect the brain from a neurotransmitter called glutamate, which can create a wave of brain damage with seizures and migraines.

 

Chronic Migraine Headaches, Inflammation and Your Belly

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Chronic migraine headaches and obesity
Naeblys/Dollar Photo Club

There ARE answers to eliminating or reducing your chronic migraine headaches, but the solution is not likely going to come in a pill.

Having been active on several of the larger Facebook migraine groups, the attitudes seem to be split.  There are those who are seeking answers because they know that there is an answer someone out there.  The others are there for support because they do not ultimately feel like there is a solution for their chronic headaches.  This group does not like to see the word “cure” anywhere near chronic migraine headaches because they do not believe that there is such a thing.

It’s very easy to see where these patients get this “there is no cure” mentality.  From their doctors.  If the only tools your doctor has in his toolbox are medications, then he or she will quickly run out of treatment options.  Then, since your doctor could not “cure” the headaches, he or she proclaims that there are no cures.

While I have definitely come across a small handful of patients who have, despite doing everything right, could not cure their chronic headaches, these patients are in the minority.  The vast majority of migraine sufferers can indeed find an answer.

But, as I mentioned, this answer is not going to be found in a single pill.  Nor will it be found in a single exercise or single supplement or a single perfectly executed chiropractic adjustment.  Rather, conquering true migraines requires a comprehensive approach that includes stress reduction, exercise, diet, chiropractic care, supplements, stress management and attention to the chemicals you are exposed to.

I never said it was going to be easy.

Sometimes, the answers IS easy and all it takes is the right advice or treatment from someone who can view migraines from a unique perspective.  Other times, the changes needed require a much more committed attack on your part.  Some of these may include:

  1. Identification and management of sleep apnea
  2. Quitting smoking
  3. Getting stress out of your life
  4. Achieving and maintaining an optimal body weight

These items can’t just be done with the flip of an internal switch.  I don’t really remember ever telling a patient that he or she needs to stress less. quit smoking or  lose weight and he or she got a surprised look saying that he or she never thought of that before and will start right away on making positive changes.  Nope.  These things require a complete turning around or your interior thought process and a solid commitment to making the right choices for your brain.

And yet they have to be done.  A smoker who is having migraines cannot expect a “cure” until he or she quits smoking.  The same with the other 3 on the list.  Oftentimes, when someone says there is no cure, what they really mean is that there is no medicine or supplement or manual treatment that is going to overcome the damage that these 4 factors are doing to your brain.  Period.

Just to emphasize this point, I’d like to present this particular article.  In it, researchers looked at a small group of migraine sufferers to evaluate the levels of abdominal fat-derived hormones (called adipokines–you can read a prior blog article where I covered this topic more in detail by clicking here) and how these related to the severity of the headaches as well as the response to treatment.  Here’s what they found:

  • Initial pain severity was higher as the number and ratios of adipokines increased (HMW:T-ADP ratio and resistin levels).
  • In those who responded to the use of sumatriptan/naproxen to control the pain of the headaches, certain fat-derived hormone levels dropped within 2 hours of being given the treatment (T-ADP and resistin levels).
  • In addition, in those who responded to treatment, other adipokine ratios improved (HMW:T-ADP ratio decreased and LMW:T-ADP ratio).

So what do the authors conclude?  That we need to look at these adipokines as a new route to treating migraine headaches.  In other words, we need to find a drug that can control adipokines and thereby better control headache pain.

It is this attitude that has kept migraine sufferers from thinking that there is no cure.  The real take home message from this study is that hormones that come from unhealthy fat in your gut play a very large role in chronic migraine headaches.  This means that achieving and maintaining an ideal body weight is an absolute necessity when it comes to migraine treatment.  Without this on the treatment plan, your abdominal fat is actually rising up against your brain, creating inflammation in the short term and damaging the blood vessels that provide all-important nutrients to your brain cells in the long run.

 

MS, Seizures, Migraines–Can Your Gut Protect Your Brain?

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gut bacteria and the brain
fotoliaxrender / Dollar Photo Club

Anyone with a neurological condition, whether anxiety, depression, epilepsy, migraines or MS, will tell you that symptoms wax and wane.  But why?

While a common occurrence, it seems that few question why this is so.  It is considered more as just a course of the condition.  But what if the fluctuations of symptoms are not only explainable, but possibly controllable?

The blood brain barrier (BBB) is a layer of cells that basically separates your brain cells from the rest of your body.  Consider it like the Great Wall of China for your brain.  And there are very specific gates that restrict access to only what your brain needs.  Even immune cells cannot cross this barrier.  Luckily, the brain has its own set of immune cells (called the microglia) to fight off anything that threatens to attack the brain cells.

The BBB develops very early in the womb and, as a result, the immune system never really “sees” the cells that make up the central nervous system.  In other words, it’s a very sheltered, protected environment due to the presence of the BBB.  Or at least it would be if the BBB remain intact.

We know that in certain neurological conditions, like multiple sclerosis (MS), the BBB solidity fluctuates, sometimes doing what it is supposed to be doing and sometimes letting in chemicals, compounds and immune cells that the brain would be better off not being exposed to.  This leaky BBB has been linked to symptom flare ups in MS.

What if you could better control your blood brain barrier through lifestyle choices?  That’s exactly the question raised by this particular study.  In it, researchers looked at two groups of mice.  The first were born to mothers who were raised in sterile, germ-free environments.  In other words, this group of mice did not have the benefit of being exposed to bacteria from the womb on.  The second group was born to mothers who were raised with normal exposures to bacteria.

Here’s what happened:

  • The germ-free mice had a leaky BBB while the normal mice did not.
  • The leaky BBB started in the womb and continued through birth and during adulthood.
  • The mice with leaky BBB had reduced expression of proteins that protect the brain barrier (tight junction proteins occludin and claudin-5).
  • However, when the gut bacteria from the normal mice were put into the damaged BBB mice, the blood brain barrier stabilized and there was a higher production of tight junction proteins.

This is an animal study and done under controlled conditions, but given how much the gut bacteria have been shown to play a role in other neurological conditions, the results of this study are likely to fit in with what we already know.  The relationship between the bacteria in our gut and just about every aspect of health is literally exploding at an exponential rate.  It seems like every day we learn more about how it affects our health and risk of chronic disease.

Despite this, I have patients come in time and time and time again given drugs like antibiotics, steroids and NSAIDs that completely disrupt the delicate balance of the bacteria in the gut.  This remains a topic that mainstream medicine seems determine to remain oblivious to no matter how much research is published.

Chronic Migraines and Seizures Linked-Does Your Neuro Know?

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chronic migraines and seizures
Piumadaquila / Dollar Photo Club

One of the first reactions to my Migraines and Epilepsy book is that people don’t understand what these two conditions have in common.

At it’s foundation, these two conditions share the same mechanism.  I have personally known this for at least a decade, but the information seems to be taking a while to get out there.  Which may seem strange because chronic migraine headaches and seizures are both within the realm of neurology.  Indeed, over the past few years there has been increasing overlap between anti-seizure drugs being used to treat migraines (Topamax, for example).  Taking this even further, anti-seizure medications like Depakote have also been used to treat certain psychological disorders like bipolar disorder.

All in all, if you can take a step back you can see that many of the “brain” conditions overlap.  There is a high incidence of depression in those who suffer from seizures.  Anxiety disorder is also found in much higher numbers in people with epilepsy.  And of course, the aforementioned relationship between seizures and migraines headaches has been demonstrated fairly consistently in clinical studies.

In many cases these relationships are termed “comorbidities” meaning that they occur commonly together.  Kind of like curds and whey.  You can certainly have curds without whey or whey without curds, and neither choice is really connected together other than at some point someone decided to start a trend of eating them together (most likely Little Miss Muffet…).

In most comorbidities pointed out by mainstream medicine the conclusion almost always recommendations to look for the comorbid condition and throw medications at this problem as well.  Need an example?  How about high cholesterol and high blood pressure?  Two conditions that are frequently seen together and considered comorbidities.  And these conditions are given two completely different types of meds for each one.

But these conditions are NOT two separate conditions!!!  Ugh!  At what point will medicine wake up and realize that, in almost every case, comorbid conditions are two conditions that occur from the same problem.  Sticking with the use of analogies, if your car has a severely worn out tire that is flip-flopping and making all kinds of noises as you drive as well as pulling the car to the right would it make ANY sense to adjust the steering so it counteracts the pulling and then turn up the radio so you don’t hear the flip-flopping?

Of course not!!  That would be the most asinine thing you could imagine and you’d shoot the mechanic who recommended this two-pronged “fix.”

Welcome to medicine.

When we identify two conditions occurring at a high frequency with one another, never do we step back and ask, “Hey!  What on Earth could be wrong with the body to produce both migraines and seizures?”

Nope.  We just add on more medications for the second condition.

When it comes to both migraines and seizures there has been evidence for many years now that the underlying mechanism is the same or at least real similar.  The underlying problem centers around the ability of the brain cells to generate enough energy for that brain cell to function optimally.  Without enough energy the brain cell goes haywire.  In some people this produces a migraine, in others a seizure.

Now, it’s not quite that simple, but that’s the basics.  This is also why so many things that have been shown to be helpful for migraines are helpful for seizures and vice versa.  Exercise, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, magnesium, vitamin D….the list is pretty long.

So what does all of this have to do with this particular study?  In it, researchers asked 772 neurologists across 89 hospitals as well as two tertiary epilepsy clinics about whether they thought current headaches are more frequent in people with epilepsy than in the general population.  Keep in mind that this relationship has been understood for some time now and I have written about this in past blog posts.  In other words, it’s not new news.

Here’s what the researchers found:

  • Only 1/3 of the neurologists correctly understood that headaches are more common among people with epilepsy.
  • A mere 8% understood that these headaches are consistent with migraine.
  • The number of years of experience did not influence knowledge on headaches in epilepsy patients.
  • However, the interest in epilepsy and the number of epilepsy patients per month seen in the polyclinic did.

I have said time and time again that the vast majority of physicians are decades behind the medical research, specialists included.  This article just reinforces the idea that there is a VERY good chance that your neurologist does not really understand the relationship between chronic migraine headaches and seizures.  Maybe you could buy him or her a copy of my book for Christmas…

Children, Gluten, Sleep Apnea and Headaches, Oh My!

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gluten sensitivity in children
duckman76 /Dollar Photo Club

Here’s the reality of human physiology; we will NEVER understand how complicated it is.   Gluten sensitivity’s effect on the brain falls under this category.

There’s no doubt that many of us has a grasp on small amounts of how the body works, but the big picture is just too big for any one of us to understand fully.  It’s kind of like–I can drive around here in Phoenix quite well and know where I’m at or at least how to get to where I need to go.  But drop my in Dubai without a map or GPS and I’m pretty much screwed (especially since my Arabic is a little rusty…).

That’s a pretty good analogy to the human body and its complexity.  The most that any of us can hope for is a glimpse of insight into how it works and how we, as physicians, can help patients heal and live full lives.

This is one of the reasons why my passion has always been normal physiology and how the lifestyles we are SUPPOSED to be living impact that.  I figure it’s easier to match how we are designed to live then to figure out the details of that process.  Sort of like recommending more vegetables in your diet (because it’s the right thing to do) instead of understanding how glucosinolates in broccoli assist detoxification of environmental contaminants.

Just to complicate things even more, every system in the human body communicates and interacts with every other system.  The connections between the gut and the brain are particularly strong.  This is why treatment for any “brain disorder” should always include a look at the gut.

While this relationship may seem a little strange at first glance, the reality is that the gut is considered the body’s “second brain” since its production of neurotransmitters is as heavy as the brain.  As an example, 2/3 of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut NOT the brain.

To further complicate matters, your DNA codes for about 25,000 different genes that make all kinds of different proteins to make sure your body is working the way it is supposed to.  Just in case that sounds a little overwhelming, the bacteria in your gut, collectively, have about 3 MILLION genes, all equally capable of making proteins that effect your health and risk of disease.

With this as a background, we can now look at just how absolutely jaw-dropping amazing this particular study is.  It brings together so many of these concepts that it is going to make your head spin.  In this small study, researchers looked at 19 children who had newly diagnosed celiac disease confirmed through an intestinal biopsy and followed them for 6 months while on a gluten free diet.

In these children with gluten sensitivity, there were some disturbing findings:

  • 37% of the children had headaches that affected daily activities.
  • 32% demonstrated symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea.
  • 48% of the children had abnormalities on EEG (a test using electrodes to check brain activity).

These findings clearly indicate that gluten (essentially a gastrointestinal condition) was having very definite negative effects on the brain.  And make no mistake–these are serious conditions to be found in children.

Luckily, the researchers then found some amazing things that were affected by 6 months of a gluten free diet:

  • The headaches disappeared in 72% of children.
  • EEG abnormalities disappeared in 78% of the children.
  • ALL children no longer had symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea.

As I mentioned, this is a small study.  However, it does link to and support other studies that have found an increase in migraine headache in those with gluten sensitivity, which gives it more weight.  While many have called the gluten free diet a “fad” I think these naysayers have managed to miss much of the medical literature linking gluten with a long list of health problems.

Even better, this is a DIETARY change with no real downside or side effects.  It is an approach that truly gets to the root of the problem rather than just glazing over the symptoms with dangerous medications with a long list of side effects.

Also, while this study only evaluated biopsy-confirmed celiac disease, which is at the far end of the spectrum, you can bet that lesser degrees of sensitivity will also link to neurological damage.  It will just be more subtle.