LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

headaches

Closure of patent foramen ovale reduces the frequency of migraine attacks – (06-10-04)

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Closure of patent foramen ovale reduces the frequency of migraine attacks

I’m finding this article very interesting. Fixing a patent foramen ovale (this is an opening from right to left ventricle that bypasses the lungs in the fetus who does not use the lungs, this should shut at birth) cuts migraine frequency in these patients by HALF. This really opens up a can of worms here. I’ve always had a problem with mainstream medicine’s approach to headaches in general. There is almost always an underlying physiological or anatomical imbalance that creates headaches. This needs to be found and fixed NOT COVERED UP WITH PAIN MEDS!!!! I cannot tell you how many times patients come into my office after years of unsuccessful treatment of headaches from the medical community and they are gone in 2-3 weeks.

This article would suggest that some degree of oxygen deprivation (patent foramen ovale leads to some blood skipping the lungs) was a major contributor to these patient’s migraines. Might some degree of this be present in patients without PDA? Maybe approaches designed to improve oxygenation, oxygen delivery and facilitate efficient use of the oxygen that is there might show strong benefits in migraine patients.

Neurology — Abstracts: Schwerzmann et al. 62 (8): 1399

Read entire article here

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Triptans – (06-10-04)

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Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Triptans

I was not aware that there was concern with triptan use (in this case when used for the treatment of headaches–in my opinion, not a very good use) in patients with cardiovascular disease. Live and learn. However, what makes this VERY interesting is the following article….

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment and Triptans – Headache, Vol 44, Issue s1, pp. S31-S39 (Abstract)

Read entire article here

Natural Remedies for Migraines: Avoid Most Common Food Allergies

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Some of the meds used for chronic migraine relief can have a long list of side effects. Because of this, patients look for natural remedies for migraines.

One of the more popular migraine support group type websites promotes the idea that migraines are genetically based and there is really nothing that can be done to “cure” migraines.  The best we can do is hope to manage them successfully with medications and, to a lessor extent, dietary choices.

I personally think this is one of the most damaging thought processes to promote when it comes to pretty much anything in healthcare.  This attitude removes personal responsibility for recovery and a solution.  Some feel safer here, but will never achieve ideal health.  Only until a sick patient adopts the belief that healing comes from within will they truly get better.  Anything else is “management.”

So why they rant on locus of control?  This particular study demonstrates how much power lifestyle can have on the experience of the patient who experiences chronic migraines.

Researchers looked at migraine sufferers who also experienced irritable bowel syndrome and checked them for 270 food allergies, including some of the most common food allergies, via IgG4 testing in the blood.  Before we go into the results of this study we need to cover a very important aspect of this study.

To the uninformed, the presence of irritable bowel syndrome and chronic migraine headaches would be considered “comorbidities.”  This means that they are occurring together in the same patient but are generally viewed as separate diseases that need to be managed separately (typically using two different sets of medications).  An example would be high blood pressure and diabetes.  These are absolutely, positively being caused by the same mechanism in the body (related to insulin affecting AMDA levels and driving up blood pressure) and can both be addressed by fixing the problem.  But mainstream medicine does not share this viewpoint; rather, they medicate each separately, warning doctors to look for high blood pressure in diabetics and treat (i.e. “medicate”) if found.

 In this particular situation, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic migraine headaches are not comorbidities.  Rather, it is easy to see that something is wrong with the gut, thereby producing the irritable bowel syndrome.  When the gut becomes inflamed there are direct connections between the nervous system of the gut and the cells in the brain.  If the irritating factor to the gut is a food, then essentially this food can be a factor in the migraine.

Not two ships passing in the night, but rather one problem leading to another.  Don’t think that identifying and avoiding some of the most common food allergies could play a role in chronic migraine relief?  Then you need to look at the results of this study I mentioned earlier:

  1. The average number of reactions was 23
  2. An elimination diet led to a 44% reduction in the number of migraine attacks.
  3. The attack duration dropped from 2.6 to 1.4 days (46% drop).
  4. The migraine duration dropped from1.8 to 1.1 days (39% drop).
  5. Migraine headache severity dropped from 8.5/10 to 6.6 (22% drop).
  6. The number of needing rescue meds dropped from 4.0 to 1.9 (53% drop) (Tweet this).
  7. Overall, there were improvements in pain and bloating with the irritable bowel syndrome as well with an overall improvement in quality of life.

So basically, avoiding the most common food allergies for these patients who also had problems with his or her gut led to very strong improvements in all aspects of the chronic migraine headaches experienced.

I go back to my earlier statement.  This demonstrates that the irritable bowel and the migraine headaches are not comorbidities.  Rather, the dysfunction in one system (the gut) led to problems in another system (the brain).  Let me emphasize this last line:

ANY PHYSICIAN WHO THINKS TO TREAT YOUR CHRONIC MIGRAINE HEADACHES WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOUR ENTIRE HEALTH PICTURE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND MIGRAINES.

And that means that it is time to find another one who does.

Nearly all Headache seen in Primary Care is Migraine – (10-10-02)

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Based on this article, I’m sure that I could go to my PCP right now with the headache I am experience as a result of beating my forehead against the computer screen and it would promptly be diagnosed as migraine. I’m sorry, this is a very biased opinion, but I started to believe that headaches are no longer a diagnosis that should be handled within mainstream medicine. Sure, we need to rule out aneurysms and tumors, but that’s well within the scope and competence of most chiropractors. Currently, and I’m sure this will change at some point in the future, but I have achieved 100% resolution of all headache patients in my office that have listened to all the recommendations and lifestyle changes necessary. And I can’t begin to tell you how many of those patients were given a diagnosis of migraine by previous doctors. Ironically, although most of these patients came in with multiple types of headaches (which is very, very common), true migraines are quite rare in my office. Needless to say, this article just plain floors me. One question I do have is, in the physical exam given, does anyone actually ever touch the neck????????

14th Migraine Trust International Symposium.

The overwhelming majority of people who visit their primary care physician complaining of episodic headache have migraine, but an inaccurate patient self-diagnosis can lead to mis-classification, researchers said at the 14th Migraine Trust International Symposium on Tuesday. Dr. Stewart Tepper, from the New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Connecticut, reported an analysis of findings from the 14-country, multicenter Landmark study, which enrolled 1,217 patients attending a primary care physician with a complaint of headache. At the beginning of the study, each patient made a self-diagnosis, and was given a diagnosis by their doctor. They then kept diaries for each of their next six headache attacks. The diaries of around 400 patients with newly diagnosed migraine or non-migraine headache were reviewed by Dr. Carl Dahlhof from Sweden, Dr. Andrew Dowson from the UK, Dr. Larry Newman from the US and Dr. Tepper. The panel assigned a diagnosis based on International Headache Society criteria. Ninety-four percent had either migraine or migrainous headaches, Dr. Tepper said. “If a patient comes in and complains of episodic migraine and the exam’s normal, it’s migraine until proven otherwise,” he told Reuters Health. The expert panel then looked at the correlation between the primary care physician’s diagnosis, the patient’s self-diagnosis and the diagnosis based on the analysis of the six diary entries. “If the GP diagnosed the patient as having migraine then 98% of the time the GP was correct. If the patient diagnosed themselves as having migraine, there was a high chance they were right,” Dr. Tepper said. “However, where things went awry was if primary care doctors diagnosed non-migraine. Then there was an 80% likelihood the patient had migraine. If the patients self-diagnosed non-migraine, there was an 85% likelihood the patient had migraine.” Several factors were linked to the misdiagnosis, but the most important seemed to be an inaccurate self-diagnosis by the patient, he said. “If the patient said to the GP I don’t think I’ve got migraine, then the GP would say OK. It didn’t seem to matter about the intensity of the headache or the frequency of the headache, it was what the patient said the headache was that drove the diagnosis.” Dr. Dowson commented, “These were very remarkable findings, we were not in any way expecting this.” He noted that only migraine was commonly severe enough to make people visit their doctor. “We know there are many, many hurdles for patients to get to the doctor and then to get the message across, so what we’re saying here is that tension-type headache is not severe enough to make people go and see their doctor and jump those initial hurdles. If someone comes in and says that they’re having problems with their headaches, probably one of the first questions you should ask is, are these headaches that stop you doing things? Does it actually affect your quality of life? If the answer’s yes, they’re liable to be migraine.”

 

Chronic Migraine: Why Migraine Relief Has to Focus on This

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I can’t imagine life fraught with chronic migraine. Society doesn’t support the idea of a “cure;” that’s because migraine relief doesn’t focus on what matters.

All too often, migraine headache pain control is the goal. Or, even better, suppression of flare ups of headache with medications. This is what mainstream medicine focuses on and considers your treatment successful if one or both of these goals are obtained. Sure–they help to rule out the scary things like strokes, tumors and weird blood vessel formations, but these are very rarely the cause of headaches.

I have repeatedly stated again and again (I know–redundant, but I wanted to get the point across) that the problem with migraine headaches are not in the head, but rather a systemic problem affecting every aspect of the body and health. However, if we needed to focus on a single organ, the blood vessels and cardiovascular system would likely be the most important.

 The research showing that migraineurs have problems with their blood vessels is quite plentiful:

And these are just a few of the studies available. Overall, it seems pretty hard to deny that anyone with migraine headaches are having problems with their blood vessels. Here’s the kicker…

There is not a darn migraine medication out there that actually addresses the health of the blood vessels. In other words, migraine medications (of which, many are actually anti seizure medications) do not, in any way, shape or form, actually treat the migraine cause. They merely function by suppressing the pain. 

You will never get better by using medications to address your headaches. Period.

Certainly, migraines do go away seemingly on their own, or after a course of medication, but the true answer likely came from some other change that occurred.

This particular article continues to support the importance of focusing on the blood vessels in the health of anyone who suffers from a migraine.

The researchers looked at aspects of vascular (blood vessel) health in migraineurs. Most notably, they looked at epithelial progenitor cells (EPCs). Think of the EPC are a little “fix it” cell that helps to keep your blood vessels healthy. Higher levels of EPCs have been shown to protect the heart.

Researchers also found that, with time, less and less EPCs were present. In other words, the longer a migraine progresses, the sicker the blood vessels become.

It doesn’t get more serious than that. It also means that, if your neurologist or primary care doctor who is treating your migraines has not address lifestyle changes geared towards improving the health of your blood vessels (such as those found here), it’s time to find a new doctor.

So what changes have you made that have given you migraine relief?

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?

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

INSULIN METABOLISM IS ALTERED IN MIGRAINEURS – (08-04-08)

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Insulin Metabolism is Altered in Migraineurs: A New Pathogenic Mechanism for Migraine?

One of the major problems with the way we treat headaches in this system of medicine is that we never step back and ask “why” this headache is occurring. Nope–just given some medication to suppress the signal the brain is sending out. The problem with this approach is that we know that migraine patients are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke.This article just adds further weight to the idea that just treating the headache is flat out wrong.

This study finds that patients with migraines had higher insulin levels, indicating some degree of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance will lead to problems getting glucose into some cells, like the neurons. Less glucose means less efficient energy production. Less energy means a sick neuron. And who wants sick brain cells? The ONLY treatment for headaches is a whole body approach.

Read entire article here