If you suffer from chronic headaches, you’re not alone. It is estimated that 45 million Americans suffer from chronic headaches. Unfortunately, the medical approach does little to even attempt to address the underlying cause of these headaches.
How can you solve a problem if you don’t understand what is causing it?
Here is a link to a post I made There is no such thing as a normal headache.
What Causes Headaches?
There are many potential causes of headaches and if severe they deserve to be explored with the appropriate testing.
First, let’s look at headaches from the perspective of pain. All pain is an indication of some degree of nerve pressure, tension, or irritation. We perceive pain through our nervous system so if there is pain there has to be something causing pressure or tension on the nervous system.
I understand the desire for headache relief. The over the counter medication Excedrin was developed specifically for headache relief. But, there’s a problem here! Medication does one thing and one thing only. It covers up the pain. That might be ok if it’s the rare and occasional headache. But, when the headaches are chronic you are taking risks. One of the ingredients in Excedrin Migraine can cause severe liver damage.
If you are going to overcome your chronic headaches you need a strategic approach to correct the underlying causes. Let’s take a look.
The cause of chronic headaches isn’t often as simple as one imbalance or problem causing the headaches. Here’s a way to understand this.
The 4 Critical Steps to Successful Chronic Headache Treatment
The cervical spine is one key in a number of ways in solving the chronic headache challenge. Here are the most important 4 steps I’ve developed over my more than 35 years of clinical practice.
1. Cervical Spine Curve: the neck should have a curve going forward. As a result of trauma like car accidents and texting posture the normal neck curve is often lost. This straightening of the neck curve puts excess tension on the spinal cord and the cervical nerve roots. This puts tremendous tension on the small muscles of the neck and is a significant contributor to chronic headaches.
This alteration of the cervical curve sets up a self-perpetuating cycle that contributes to the chronic headaches. The loss of curve puts added weight on the delicate cervical vertebra. This in turn causes significant tightening and spasm of the neck muscles which causes tension and irritation to the delicate nerves.
2. Upper Cervical Spine: the very top of the neck is home to the Brainstem. The brainstem houses the Autonomic Nervous System comprising the Sympathetic ‘Fight or Flight’ System and Parasympathetic ‘Rest and Digest’ System. Chronic headache sufferers have an almost universal overactivation of the Sympathetic System that I call Sympathetic Dominance and a corresponding reduction in activity of the Parasympathetic System’s Vagus Nerve. The Vagus nerve runs right in front of the C1 vertebra so any imbalance in the upper neck can interfere with Vagus Nerve function.
The upper vertebra of the neck must be balanced and moving in order remove any tension and pressure to the brain stem and suboccipital nerves.
3. Body Balance: the structure of the body must be in balance. From behind the pelvis, shoulders, and head should be level. Any imbalance puts tremendous stress on the brain and nervous system in its effort to restore balance. Any imbalance creates a chain reaction of adaptations and compensations all the way up to the base of the skull.
Your brain is always working to keep your head level. If your pelvis is unlevel this creates increased tension through the neck, especially in the upper neck.
4. Raising Vagus Nerve Tone: chronic headaches are always accompanied by an imbalance of the Autonomic Nervous System. The Sympathetic ‘Fight-or-Flight’ System becomes overactive and this suppresses activity of the Parasympathetic’s Vagus Nerve.
Sympathetic Dominance drives increased muscle tension and pain through the shoulders and neck. Inflammation rises and sleep quality is impaired. All of this becomes a self-perpetuating cycle that creates a fertile environment for chronic headaches.
Chronic headaches like any pain is perceived through the nervous system. They are a sign of long term imbalance that the body is unable to correct on its own. Your body is exceptional at restoring and maintaining balance and healing. When it is overwhelmed with stress it exceeds its capacity to restore balance. The continued stress creates overactivity in the part of the nervous system that responds to stress.
The solution is to unwind this imbalance structurally and neurologically. In the process you will actually become more resilient to stress. This is a process and like all processes it will take time and repetition to replace the pattern of imbalance with a pattern of balance.
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