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A Root Cause For Migraines And A Simple Solution M
igraines are one of the most commonly debilitating conditions in the world, affecting 20% of the population. Those who have suffered at least one, with any combi-
nation of the hallmark Migraine symptoms ranging from pain to sensitivity to light and/or sound to nausea to vomiting to visual disturbances to numbness or tingling to clumsiness to having difficulty communicating, etc.) can vouch for how it takes over your world from when it hits to when it goes away. In a single word, Migraines are awful. They are also one of
the most aggravating conditions to treat through traditional medical options, as drugs used to combat symptoms are poten- tially dangerous and can cause a whole host of side effects, in- cluding increasing the likelihood of more consistent Migraine episodes. As with most complicated matters, part of the frustration
over the prevalence of Migraines is a lack of understanding as to what causes them. While many triggers have been discovered – caffeine, cigarette smoke, excessive light or sound, fatigue, certain foods, head trauma, hormonal changes, hunger, poor sleeping posture, stress, and weather changes among them – the causes largely remain a mystery; and, without knowing the causes, treatment programs are predominantly designed either around stopping Migraine symptoms after they have already been triggered or prophylactically taking medications.
Years ago, Dr. Seymour Diamond, Executive Director of the
National Headache Foundation, identified what he believed to be perhaps the root cause of Migraine Headaches: a malfunction in the nervous system’s hub, the brainstem. Using advanced imaging, he mapped neurologic activity throughout the brain and the brainstem before, during, and after Migraine attacks. Before a trigger was introduced, the brainstem was overactive. Once the trigger was introduced, there were spikes across the board, consistent in the brainstem as before and also in various parts of the brain. Imitrex was then introduced via injection and, although the turmoil reduced throughout the brain as Migraine symptoms decreased, the brainstem remained overactive. After subsequent follow-up studies, Dr. Diamond concluded
that the drugs used to suppress Migraine symptoms were not affecting the brainstem and that the brainstem remaining over- active was the reason that symptoms were so prone to return even after drug therapy. The research begged the question: if the brainstem mal-
functioning causes Migraines, what causes the brainstem to malfunction and, then, what if anything can be done to correct it?
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NaturalTriad.com Given that the brainstem is located where the head con-
verges with the neck, a misalignment in the Upper Cervical spine quite commonly affects the brainstem’s function. The brainstem is the control center of the body responsible for the regulation of pain perception, breathing, heart-rate, balance, blood pres- sure, digestion, and the expanding and contracting of blood vessels; when it malfunctions, it provokes a state of crisis through- out the body and prompts the blood vessels surrounding the brain to swell, laying the foundation for one of the aforemen- tioned triggers to set off a Migraine. Upper Cervical spinal misalignments have been shown
through a variety of clinical trials to be underlying causes of several vascular conditions, Migraines, Hypertension, and Mul- tiple Sclerosis among them. The primary reason why these misalignments occur is physical traumas, particularly those as- sociated with the head and/or neck. Traumas occur throughout our lives, from the birthing process to the thousands of falls we incur during youth to sports injuries to bike wrecks to major falls to car accidents. When the upper neck vertebrae consequently misalign, the brainstem’s ability to normally regulate internal functions is impaired and the vertebral arteries which run through tiny openings on either side of the vertebrae can be compressed, decreasing the blood and oxygen supply to the brain and pre- venting the veins that drain fluid in the brain from working the
1st bone in the neck (Atlas)
Brain stem compressed
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