Headaches Can Range From Annoying to Debilitating
Alright, guys, so today we’re going to talk about headaches. A headache can be something from just an irritation that keeps happening daily, weekly, or a couple of times a month—that’s kind of an annoying nuisance in the background—to a full-blown, debilitating migraine or cluster headache.
I’ll even talk about a patient of mine who had something called suicide headaches. That’s literally the clinical name for them.
Headaches, in general, are many, many, many times caused by a cervical misalignment or an issue in the joints, muscles, nervous system, or even the blood supply in the cervical spine.
I’ve been a corrective chiropractor now for 15 years. I’ve personally helped over 12,000 people in our clinic over that time, and we regularly see people every day with headaches and migraines.
Out of thousands of people who have headaches or migraines, I have very rarely ever found someone whose headaches and migraines we have not been able to reduce by at least 80% or more through corrective, specific chiropractic care. For many of them, they just completely go away. There have also been some severe cases that I’ll give some examples of.
Understanding the Anatomy of a Normal Cervical Spine
To understand more, you really need to understand the anatomy of a normal spine.
When you look sideways at someone’s neck, we have a normal, relaxed arch and C-shape. It’s there for two reasons. One, in that position, the head weighs about 14 pounds, so it’s like a bowling ball.
If that starts to go forward into this position, or you get this position, then that creates a chronic muscle imbalance. The muscles alone can create tension and spastic compression of the nerves or blood supply and cause headaches that radiate through the muscles to the back of the head, through the eye, or to the side of the head.
So there’s that component. But more seriously, there’s a neurological component, and there’s even a vascular component.
Forward Head Position and Blood Flow to the Brain
Research actually shows that, as the cervical spine goes forward, the arteries and blood supply—that red line—run straight through there and feed into the brain.
When you go into that straightened position, research shows that with a forward head and straightened cervical curve, you’re literally walking around every day with up to 35% less blood flow and circulation to your brain.
So yes, that can definitely cause headaches and migraines. But it also causes a slew of other things as you age. Imagine if you lost 35% of the oxygen to your brain throughout a lifetime. It increases the risk for things like brain fog, Alzheimer’s, memory loss, dementia, dizziness, vertigo, or seizures. There are a number of things that can happen over time.
Today, we’re talking about headaches and migraines. But from a normal health perspective, it’s important to have the full blood supply and oxygen to your brain. I’m sure you’d agree.
Pressure on the Brainstem and Spinal Cord
Now, there’s also what happens inside. If you look here, this is that same picture—a normal, healthy X-ray. The brain is right here, the brainstem is inside, and the spinal cord is here.
This is a cross-section. If you chop this and look down the tunnel, that’s the normal thickness of the hose of the spinal cord. If it’s like a hose carrying information, as that spinal cord goes forward, research actually shows that it creates a stretching of the spine.
That stretching creates a narrowing against that hose. The brainstem can become compressed and irritated, and the spinal cord becomes compressed and irritated. That neurological agitation between your brainstem, spinal cord, and brain—back and forth, back and forth, back and forth—can cause massive headaches and migraines as well.
Headache and Migraine Triggers
Many people are told their headaches and migraines are hormonal or that there’s a food sensitivity. Those things can be agitators or triggers.
But regardless of whether you think they’ve been hormonal, you’ve had them your whole life, or they’re from an injury or even a concussion, the results we get are pretty much the same across the board with any type of headache.
We’d love to talk to you if you’re someone who is suffering from headaches. We can almost always reduce them and eliminate them over time.
A Patient With Suicide Headaches
I’m thinking of a patient of mine who came in. Imagine, from the day he was seven years old, he had something called a suicide headache.
He had the most severe, debilitating, 10-out-of-10 headache constantly—24 hours a day, seven days a week—from the time he was seven years old until I met him at 29 years old.
He told me that the best day of his life, he remembers—I think he said he was around 10 years old or something—the headache was only a four out of 10. He still tells me that was the best day of his life.
He started crying and said, “Do you think you can help me? Everyone says you can help with these things, but I think I’m different.”
So I said, “Look, the only way we’ll know is to examine whether there’s an issue in your cervical spine. I’m a corrective chiropractor. That’s what we do. We help make the spine, nervous system, and blood supply in the cervical spine healthier. If you have an issue, there’s a good chance we can help. If you don’t, I can’t make it better than normal. So let’s give it a shot.”
We ended up adjusting him, and we found a massive subluxation completely folded over backward on top of his cervical spine that had been there for many, many years. From his first adjustment, [unclear].
This gentleman was also a Division I football player—six foot seven and about 340 pounds. He came into the office, picked me up, gave me a giant bear hug, and told me that, for the first time since the day he had told me was the best day of his life, his headache was a five.
By six weeks in, the worst it ever got was a one.
You Don’t Have to Live With Headaches
Even with the most severe cases—or even just a simple, daily, annoying headache that makes your day not so enjoyable—you don’t have to live like that.
You deserve to live a life without limitations and be there playing with your kids, going about your activities, going to the gym, having fun on the weekends, and going about your job without having this nuisance of a headache in the back of your neck.
So if you’re having headaches like that, please check out the link and make an appointment. We’d love to talk to you about what some other options might be and maybe a better way to deal with it.
