Pain Relief from Chronic Headaches

A severe pulsating or throbbing pain starts to develop in your head, behind your eye, or maybe in your temple. You realize this is another headache and must reach for ibuprofen, or a migraine medication if necessary.

Woman suffering from Headaches

The medication may help with the pain, but you know the drawbacks of taking these medications day in and day out, year after year.

You are looking for a solution for your chronic headaches but aren't sure where to turn. The only way to stop the headaches is to figure out the causes, which may be numerous, and balance the body naturally.

The three main types of headaches are tension, migraine, and cluster.

• Tension headaches are the most common, and is typically described as a band-like vice that creates pressure and pain uniformly around the head, and may involve the neck as well. Tension headaches can occur episodically or chronically.

• Cluster headaches usually occur for a period of time throughout the year and than cease for a period of time. They are characterized by very severe pain usually on one side of the head. Symptoms can last from 15 minutes to three hours.

• Migraine headaches are characterized by a series of four phases that occur with some regularity but which do vary widely among sufferers: prodrome, aura, headache, and postdrome. Pain can last from two hours to three days. There is usually a sensitivity to light, sound, and smells associated with migraines. Some people prefer to stay in a dark quiet room because the pain is so severe.

Whatever headache type that you have been diagnosed with, the simple fact is that your body is in a heightened state of inflammation and out of balance. Some of the many causes of headaches may be environmental pollutants and toxicity, heavy metal toxicity, chemical sensitivity, hormone imbalances, food sensitivities, yeast overgrowth, parasites, dysbiosis, endotoxins, mycotoxins, and  spinal and cranial bone misalignment.

I have had excellent results with helping many headache sufferers get their lives back and live headache free. Here is a recent case study on a cluster headache sufferer. 

A Case Study

A family member referred me their good friend mike, one year ago this week, for his chronic cluster headaches. Mike was in his late thirties and developed cluster headaches eleven years ago. He had no major health issues before the headaches started and was at his wits end, ready to try anything to make the headaches stop.

For the last ten years mike had cluster headaches anywhere from october through march. Sometimes they would start in october and sometimes later, but no later than december. He would take medication, but it seemed to only curb some of the symptoms. With cluster headache sufferers, it is very important to start treatment six months before the typical cluster time period would begin.

This was perfect because it was march when he began treatment, giving us six to seven months before the headaches generally began. I decided that I would start mike off with the nutrition response muscle testing analysis to detect any underlying toxicity, deficiencies, imbalances and food sensitivities.

Through my thorough testing, I discovered that he had many food sensitivities including solanines (night shades .. tomatoes, potatoes etc.), gluten, and caffeine. This was a patient that never experimented with food in any way. The great thing about mike is that their was no struggle in him receiving this information, he just wanted to get better and would do whatever it took.

I think the more severe the symptom, sometimes the easier it is for people to make lifestyle changes. I also identified a sensitivity to certain chemicals, lymphatic drainage problems, and a gallbladder deficiency. In chinese medicine, the gallbladder and liver meridians are addressed frequently to treat headaches. Mike was put on about six Standard Process Nutritional Supplements to balance and address all of the deficiencies that I identified through the testing.

Mike began chiropractic care with me as well. Structural misalignments can cause headaches. I started to adjust him once per week. I found that his occiput (base of the skull) was putting a lot of pressure on the nerves in the left occipto/atanto junction.

October came and went and mike reported that he had zero headaches. Each month I would do a follow up visit with mike to check his nutritional status. There were a couple of tweaks along the way. November, December, January, and February came and went and not one headache.

Mike told me that his wife remarked to him "do you realize this new years was the first new years in ten years that you actually enjoyed yourself because you didn't have a headache?"

This week is one full year that mike has not had a single headache! Mike's body was in a state of imbalance, when his body was given the right tools to function better his headaches ceased.

You don't have a deficiency in ibuprofen, advil, or a migraine medication! You may have a nutritional deficiency, a spinal imbalance,  a sensitivity to a food etc. that may be the true cause of your headaches.

Dr. Louis Granirer
NYC Chiropractor
Holistic Chiropractic Center