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A headache is a common problem today. Who
does not get a headache? An executive, a philosopher, a
scientist, a business magnate, a clerk a housewife, a
student - everybody, at sometime or other, is afflicted
by a headache! It has no professional or age barriers.
Women suffer more than men. The reason may well be
premenstrual migraines during puberty. These get worse as
the years roll by, and are cured only by menopause.
Contraceptives are known to cause headaches in some women
and cure them in others. Headaches may become less
frequent in pregnancy.
In fact, a headache is not a killing disease, but its
attack is so intense that all the nerves in the skull
start throbbing due to great pressure. A lot of research
has been done to find out the cause of headaches. What is
a headache? Is it an allergic disease caused by something
we eat or breathe? Has it any relation to our posture,
incorrect way of sitting, standing or working? Is it a
product of tension in our day-to-day life, a way to
relieve frustration/ Or is it due to some mechanical
problem in the neck or head itself?
In the 5th century, it was thought that a
headache was due to a severe chill, exposure to sunlight,
or even fatigue. In the 11th century, it was
thought that it occurred after having cold things in our
food. According to Tissort (1784), vomiting often
concluded an attack. He also suggested that a reflex
irritation of the gastric nerves resulted in an attack of
migraine. Living (1873) said that a headache was related
to asthma and a convulsive state. Rilay (1932) suggested
that it occurred when noxious vapour entered the cerebral
blood vessels. According to another opinion, it occurred
due to eye strain. A few researchers concluded that it
was due to eye strain. A few researchers concluded that
it was due to adhesions of the cerebral membranes and
formation of excessive cerebro-spinal fluid. Disorders of
the ovaries and thyroid were also attributed to headaches
– for instance, a difficult father-and son-
relationship in business, tough competition, a tense
situation in the family, a hard struggle to get oneself
established… Apart from this, certain foods were
found to cause headaches: chocolate, cheese, fruits,
alcohol, fatty fried foods, tea, coffee, sea food, pork
and many more.Remedies
The long series of
researches in this direction have shown that the human
race has suffered a lot from headaches and though
thousands of remedies have been prescribed, they have
only succeeded in providing temporary relief. Many
migraine clinics and foundations have spent millions of
rupees to find a remedy which will bring permanent
relief. These efforts are akin to ploughing in the sand!
How long have we to live with such strong medications
which produce side-effects in other systems of our body?
After using a particular medicine for a long time, it
loses its effectiveness anyway.
Sometimes, while suffering from a headache, a striking
idea, solution or news gets rid of the headache and the
patient becomes normal again. During a battle, General
Ulysses S. Grant was seized with an attack of migraine.
The limping general received the good news that his enemy
was ready to surrender. Ulysses sprang to his feet at
this glad news, and his headache vanished miraculously.
Many victims change their environment, take to the
Himalayas Tibet or Somaliland, go from the highest
altitude to the lowest, from the wettest to the driest,
experiencing a new climate, food and cultural changes but
the migraine remains, because they carry their personal
environment with them.
Headache
of Cervical Origin
Frequently, a
chronic headache resistant to treatment is due to a
disorder of the cervical spine, which may be cured by
manipulation. Certain mechanical changes in the cervical
spine may cause an intermittent or a continuous headache.
These changes respond well to manipulation. The pain can
spring from the neck. Some people do not believe in the
possibility that pain can radiate from the neck to the
head.
An experiment was carried out by Kellgreen. A
concentrated saline solution was injected in the area
where the cervical spine first joins with the head,
producing tenderness and headache in the forehead region.
This proved a connection between the neck and the
forehead.
Important changes have been found in the cervical spine
in cases of headaches. These relate to disturbances in
the lumin of the vertebral artery which passes through
the transverse process of the cervical vertebrae and
supplies blood to the brain.
Sometimes the therapeutic effect of cervical manipulation
helps us to confirm whether a particular headache is of
cervical origin. Sometimes a headache is produced by the
head being kept in a certain position; keeping it in the
opposite direction relieves the headache. Sometimes
manual traction at the neck relieves the headache. These
are indications that headaches may be of cervical origin,
and manipulation succeeds.
Embryologically, the head and the first and second
cervical vertebrae are formed by the first and second
cervical segment. As they originate from the same
segments they ought to have some relationship between
them. So any abnormality at the level of the first and
second cervical vertebrae can give rise to pain in any
part of the head, the temple and the forehead. As it
happens elsewhere, local pain at the level of the
cervical vertebrae may be completely absent and the
patient may complain only of a headache.
This type of headache may come on while waking up in the
morning. It may be felt in the back of the head or the
front of the head, or may be only in the forehead. This
begins to ease after some hours and is much better by
mid-day. The patient is free from headache till the next
morning. As the years pass by, the headache may tend to
last longer during the day. It responds well to
manipulative treatment.
Dr.Bicker’s staff is of the opinion that headache is
due to stretching or tension in the muscles, vessels or
the outermost sheath of the spinal chord. It is due to
these mechanical reasons, the pain starts in the upper
neck muscles, and spreads to the upper back and head. It
may be associated with stiffness and pain in the upper
neck. It occurs off and on. The headache seems to spread
from the neck to the head rather than from the head to
the neck. There can be other causes of headaches too.
Keeping that in mind, a detailed of the patient can help
in pin-pointing the cause of the headache.
At times differentiation is difficult. But distinction is
important, as headaches arising from the neck can most
easily and lastingly be relieved. So it is a great pity
when the right
Other
Possible Causes of Headaches
- Eye strain
due to defective eyesight
- Sinusitis
- Toothache
- Digestive
disturbances
- Neurological
problems, e.g., an intra-cranial tumour
- Allergy
- Cardiovascular
diseases
- Psychogenic
(mental) frustration
Upper cervical
pain may be caused by:
… An
intra-cranial tumour of the posterior fossa
(portion) of the skull
… A disease of the upper cervical spine such
as tuberculosis
… Malignancy
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diagnosis is not made and
the right treatment is not administered. An old man is
often told that his headache is due to high blood
pressure. In fact, it may be completely unconnected and
it may be due to upper cervical osteoarthritis. Cervical
manipulation can relieve pain on the lateral side of the
face. This pain often has rhythmicity and may be
associated with a running nose or watering of the eyes.
It may radiate to the upper jaw or even the lower jaw.
The patient is often referred to a dental surgeon or oral
surgeon.
Osteopathic examination may show tenderness over the side
of the second and third cervical vertebra on the same
side, and if the X-ray picture is clear, manipulation
will be successful in many cases and the pain will
subside.
Migraine
Headaches
occurring at intervals on the right or left side of the
head, are associated with nausea And vomiting. There may
be a feeling of seeing non-existent objects in front of
the eyes before the onset of the headache. Such headaches
usually start before the age of 30. Many such patients
respond to manipulation. In some cases migraine may occur
at the back of the head. In such cases manipulation will
relieve the headache to a considerable degree.
Migraine
of Cervical Origin.
Spondylosis and osteo-arthritic changes in the
cervical spine can cause an inflammatory reaction. This
causes a spasm in the vertebral artery and its branches,
resulting in a headache with the following
characteristics:
- It is mostly
localised in the forehead and may be associated
with nausea and severe vomiting.The headache
always occurs on the same side. Manipulation
elicits a good response.
- Sometimes the
headache is localised at the back of the eyeball
and the initial symptoms pertain to visual
abnormalities.
Case
Histories
- A girl, eleven years
old, had a severe headache for five days. She
underwent laboratory tests of blood, urine, and
stool. X-rays were also taken. Every finding was
normal and the cause could not be detected. In
spite of all possible medication she did not show
any improvement. She was thought to be a case fit
for a psychiatrist. But her father brought the
child to me and narrated the following history:
she complained of upper back pain when she went
to school with a heavy bag strapped across her
shoulders. This pain continued till late evening.
She became irritable and would not listen to her
parents. The history of irritability and failure
of drugs proved that her ailment was not physical
but mental. She was treated manipulatively three
times and her headache completely disappeared.
She was taught to walk straight instead of going
about with a forward stoop. She showed complete
recovery.
- A 29-year-old lady
with three children had been getting headaches
off and on since her college days. She also
suffered from severe pain in the neck and both
shoulders. The headache would occur twice or
thrice a month during the day, lasting each time
for 10-20 minutes. It would become less during
the menstruation cycles. After she got married,
the headaches went on increasing in frequency and
intensity, and for two years she got headaches
every day and had to resort to pain killers. The
headaches were accompanied by tension in the neck
and were more intense at the back of the head and
in the frontal area, in her eyeballs and behind
them. Her condition was diagnosed as migraine.
She was given manipulative treatment for her
cervical spine and upper dorsal spine. Gradually
the headaches started getting less frequent and
less intense. She rarely used a pain killer. In
10 weeks the headaches completely subsided.
- A 36-year-old
engineer employed in the Railways had been
suffering from headaches since his school days.
They used to occur at fortnightly intervals and
later, almost every week. The pain was very
severe, starting from the back of the head and
then spreading all over the head. He also felt
pain in the upper back. His veins became
prominent in the temples during the attack, and
throbbed. He suffered from nausea and vomiting
and would last for twenty-four hours, sometimes
even for two to three days. Occasionally, when
there was no severe headache, there would be a
feeling of general uneasiness. He would prefer to
remain in the dark and not be disturbed. He also
preferred to lie down till recovery. He was given
glasses as his sight was found to be weak, but
this did not help. He consulted many doctors and
took treatment, but to no avail . He came to me
with his complaint. I examined him thoroughly and
found him to have a round upper back. X-rays of
the cervical and dorsal spine were taken, but
they did not reveal any abnormality; other
pathological tests too were all
normal.Manipulative treatment was started. He
felt no improvement after the first session. He
was called again after a week and manipulative
treatment of the cervical and dorsal spine was
repeated. He felt some improvement. After a few
weeks, his headache became less severe and less
frequent. In three months he felt completely
recovered, but he continued to come once a month
for three months. He has since been advised to
come twice a year for maintenance treatment. He
has had no attacks ever since.
- A young girl aged 21
years suffered from headaches for eight years. At
first, she used to have a headache once a month
became or once a fortnight. During the last three
years, the headaches became more frequent and she
started having headaches almost every day. The
ache was in entire head, though more severe in
the forehead. She did not get nausea or vomiting.
Due to the severity of the headaches, she had to
discontinue her studies. She was examined by a
few doctors but nothing seemed to help her.She
was then referred to me for manipulative
treatment. After being treated for three weeks,
she felt much better. By the end of six weeks,
she was completely cured and the headaches never
returned. She has resumed her studies happily.
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