Headaches: Maybe You’re Annoying

After Reading: Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain By David Buchholz, M.D.

Your composure may be compared to that of a presidential elect, your mood to that of sunny afternoon with the flowers abloom, your smile to that which no dentist could achieve, but that’s due to the illusion our appearance exudes. I bet that you are quite annoying, maybe even one of the most annoying…

“The right way begins with the knowledge that nearly all headaches, of all ties, arise from a single mechanism—the mechanism of migraine—that is built into us by nature and generates painful blood vessel swelling when activated by specific triggers.”

David cannot pinpoint the location of this migraine mechanism—maybe it’s located within the hypothalamus, a region unprotected by the blood brain barrier, making it susceptible to more of your habits—but he does his best in staking his claim: “Dietary items, stress, medications, hormones, sensory stimuli, barometric pressure changes, sleep deprivation, and other triggers add up in the control center.”

As you know, this is very similar to my philosophy in how I will achieve longevity. Life is a bundle of factors, many of which can lead one astray only to become besieged by their culmination. “The greater your trigger load, the more likely you’ll get a headache and the worse it will be.” Yes, it is you who is at the forefront of your own chronic war, you can be the bad guy Monday through Saturday and the good guy on Sundays, this is clearly your choice.

 

WHAT IS A HEADACHE?

 

David writes and writes, endlessly trying to get his point across: headaches are part of the migraine spectrum, on the less severe side. He writes that the very uncomfortable pain experienced during a headache is due to the swelling of inflamed blood vessels which in turn stimulate the pain receptors on nerve endings.

According to him, the migraine spectrum also includes car sickness, various other motion-related illnesses, and many other ailments of the head, neck, face, shoulders, and possibly those of the back. Three steps, comprised of avoiding the quick fixes, reducing your triggers, and raising your threshold are expanded upon in his book and backed mostly by his experiences in successfully treating many patients over the years.

 

STEP 1: AVOIDING THE QUICK FIX

 

“By relying on a quick-fix approach, you allow yourself to be victimized by headaches…”

This can and will be an uphill battle for those who choose to make this trek. You will be returning to the earlier times when you did not rely heavily upon medications—sinus included—and various sources of caffeine to get you through each and every two-hour segment of the day. You will fight through the rebound effect which is “insidious and cumulative” and can be the “greatest potential impediment to headache control,” and you will endure, equipped with a new vigor.

Either way, if you choose to go cold turkey or to continue onwards down your current path, it is an uphill battle. In one, you are guaranteed to reach the peak of relief while the other offers no comfort nor feeling of freedom when your climb is finished—your climb is never finished.

David urges the reader to go cold turkey on their caffeine and medications (Excedrin contains caffeine!), unless you are using a narcotic or other medication which may induce withdrawal symptoms when aborted abruptly. These quick fixes offer a temporary resolve and only allude to the next headache. It does wear off and you do get more headaches as these meds often increase their tendency and severity in the long run.

“Each quick fix leads to another headache and each…”

 

STEP 2: REDUCING YOUR TRIGGERS

 

Here is a list of what David considers common culprits:

1. Caffeine
2. Chocolate
3. MSG
4. Processed Meats & Fish
5. Dairy
6. Nuts -> contain some tyramine
7. Alcohol & Vinegar
8. Some Fruits/Juices
9. Some Vegetables (especially onions)
10. Fresh Yeast Risen Baked Goods
11. Aspartame
12. Soy & Fermented Tempeh -> He is iffy on them, especially the processed variety.

Did you say nuts, fresh fruit, and even vegetables, this is bunch of cockamamie! Do not be hasty to write this man off just yet. I must admit, when he passed the buck to nuts and the various fruits and veggies I eat every day, I thought it was some unsound advice too.

Then I recalled that I cannot even recall the last memorable headache I ever had. David recommends that you purge them in a genocide-like fashion and possibly reintroduce them down the road. This is where I must get up out of my seat and separate myself from this author. Is this not another quick fix? Is this not contradictory to his earlier remarks?

I don’t want you to fall privy to the reckless abandonment that David encourages. I do however want you to take action, but disable the friendly fire option while doing so. Take that list and eliminate all the processed food items in each category. Trust me, they are no friends of yours.

Next, observe yourself and identify whether or not this elimination has helped. If you still experience the headaches a good duration of the time and if you have not eliminated animal products, sources of caffeine, and fermented items (alcohol included), do so. These are not your friends either.

If you have taken this information to heart and have experienced no relief, you may have a more serious underlying problem and it may be helpful for you to seek additional medical advice and maybe give this book a read to gather and genocide the rest of the foods he peddles as potential skull daggers.

A valid point offered by David: we need to avoid being tricked by our triggers. One day you may get a serious headache, so you resolve to eliminate that substance. A week passes, maybe two, or maybe even just one single day, the temptress awakens your gut and your cravings are yet again temporarily pleased. You may feel great or you may get another attack, but that feeling of superiority could be a false negative.

It is likely that you have lowered the total of your triggers and likely your threshold too, hence why you experienced no pain on this fine day. This false hope and mischievous act of playing with the enemy may not kill you today, but bring the pain it will. These triggers may affect us instantaneously or they may haunt us in two days, and David urges you realize this.

 

CAFFEINE

 

As I briefly mentioned earlier, Excedrin is an over the counter medication which treats headaches. Excedrin utilizes caffeine to constrict the swollen vessels bullying you from within. I must admit, I never imagined a headache as being rooted in swollen vessels. Instead, I imagined it being due to the compression and caffeine-like effects of various items consumed or from external trauma.

Overly constricted vessels would definitely merit a pain badge, but now I understand, enlightened by David, that the squeezing of vessels for any duration of time will inevitably produce swelling. The greater the constriction, the greater the swelling. This is exactly how caffeine impacts our blood distributing tubes throughout our bodies.

What scares me though and likely affects the majority, our vessels can only take so much action. In time, they do wear down and become incapable of functioning appropriately. This can end in a ruptured aneurysm or an endless trudge along with poor blood pressure control. Be careful…

 

MSG

 

“…many processed and then canned, jarred, bottled, bagged, boxed, or frozen —contain either MSG or an ingredient rich in MSG.”

Sometimes it is found in foods marked as all natural or no artificial ingredients and many times it is found in exercise supplements. MSG is a very potent excitotoxin and even small amounts can trigger migraines.

“The best way to avoid MSG is to eat food made from fresh ingredients, otherwise, read labels carefully.”

 

PROCESSED MEAT/FISH & DAIRY

 

Processed meats, such as hotdogs and those of “finer” quality, contain a considerable amount of nitrates, MSG, and or tyramine. As animal products age, dairy included, tyramine and glutamate—linked to headaches by David—accumulate and this is why he recommends: “young and fresh is best.” Just keep in mind that these sources already contain a considerable amount of headache triggers, and it is the culmination that disrupts your peace.

 

ALCOHOL & VINEGAR

 

Is red wine truly a de-ager and natural restorer of youth? David writes that it is the breakdown molecules (acetaldehyde) that accumulate and produce that hangover effect. It is these chemicals that develop when fermenting that produce a headache, even when drinking non-alcoholic drinks or when using vinegar to prepare a meal. Too many people exceed this threshold due to their excessive exposure to these triggers, but if a headache is a sign of youth, then yes, be patient, squash those grapes, don’t eat them yet, and let them ferment for awhile.

 

 

HORMONAL CONTRACEPTION & PMS

 

“Just a thought: when symptoms of so-called “premenstrual syndrome” are mainly headache, nausea, dizziness, and others common to migraine, doesn’t this suggest that in such cases so-called PMS may be migraine?…”

You may, if you are a woman, want to hang this man, but…

“It is a mistake to think that headaches regularly related to the menstrual cycle reflect a hormonal ‘abnormality’ and (generally) a greater mistake to try treating headaches with hormonal contraception to ‘correct’ a presumed normal imbalance or irregularity.” He also writes that hormonal contraception is a “potent trigger.”

…remember these are the opinions of a man (my opinion) who has possibly overestimated how involved migraines are. It is just a thought and it does bring up some incredible questions, but he comes off as believing that everything is due to a migraine.

I am tempted to feel that he jumps to way too many conclusions about a variety of diseases being rooted mostly in migraines, but we have to remember that our blood vessels are intricately involved in every bodily process. More about this shortly.

Will eliminating these triggers help you as a woman? You bet they would. The mechanism of relief may be different from that of what David believes, but there are a group of triggers that are the common bad guys. For more information about PMS symptoms and relief please refer to my article on endometriosis.

 

HERBAL REMEDIES

 

“Be especially careful of herbal remedies touted to boost energy, promote weight loss or treat ‘sinus’ problems.” As I have mentioned before, herbs are drugs, unregulated drugs.

 

STRESS, DEPRESSION, & METHODS OF RELAXATION

 

“If the idea is to use some such method on a regular basis to manage stress long-term, few people have the time, dedication or ability to do so.”

These are the feelings of David and as you may have already guessed, I completely disagree with him. I believe stress culminates and disables our ability to stop it in an increasingly so manner, if we choose to be bystanders. He does write that a vicious cycle exists between stress and depression in that one begets the other and together they produce an endless synergy of pain.

If you are an individual with an inability to manage your life in the long-term, you will inevitably suffer more headaches…

 

REINTRODUCTION

 

“…but don’t even think about adding back caffeine.”  True triggers, whether they continue to produce that memorable pain you have endured for so long, will cause damage, whether or not you feel it.

 

STEP 3: RASING YOUR THRESHOLD WITH PREVENTATIVE MEDS

 

“Regularity is key: you should sleep, eat, and exercise on a regular basis.”

If your headaches are truly this bad and you have tried eliminating all potential triggers and avoided cheating along the way, even just a little, you may wish to read this chapter.

One way we can naturally raise our threshold though: exercise. This activity, which does not have to be grueling, nor should it ever be, reduces stress and increases circulating endorphins, thus a “natural way to help raise your migraine threshold.”

 

TENSION & SINUS HEADACHES

 

“…tension and sinus—are mythical.”

“Tense muscles are not the source of your head and neck pain.”

David writes that tension and stress are potent triggers of headaches—something we have all come to know and not necessarily appreciate—”…but they act in concert with other triggers.” He concludes that headaches are not caused by the contraction of muscles, but rather the swelling of blood vessels.

As for sinus headaches, David more or less focuses on the approaches of decongestants and their often misaligned attempts. Decongestants reduce swelling—hey that sounds good—but you have to remember one thing, swelling is a symptom, not the root cause.

Effectively treating the swelling effectively avoids the migraine that caused that swelling and will proceed to feed the fire. Migraines can also block sinuses which results in an overloaded buildup of bacteria—bacteria which normally exists within your nose at lower levels—and an eventual infection. How do we treat this? We treat the infection of course…

Some of the best advice offered by David within the text is why you should avoid surgery to treat a headache. This can consist of a tooth removal or even brain alteration, but David writes that it usually consists of only temporary relief. Just as with the decongestants and infection meds, this surgery may only treat the symptoms temporarily, or not at all.

 

EVERYTHING IS ROOTED IN MIGRAINES?

&

CONCLUSION

 

David does not come straight out and prescribe the reader to believe that every single health calamity is in some part, if not completely, rooted in the mechanism of a migraine, but you can become entangled in his vision and utterly lost—I was—but another disease helped clarify his message.

“…little bright spots—on MRI scans.” David is referring to multiple sclerosis, a progressive disease due to the damage of nerves within the brain and spinal cord. After reading sentences like this: “Such spots are common, nonspecific and usually insignificant—and may be associated with migraine,” I must admit, I began to write David off as a partial-loon.

I was still stuck in a thick mentality, one which has led me to believe headaches are simple pains rooted in nothing deeper. They come and go, certain things trigger them, and we proceed until we can no longer.

“But neuroradiologists also report that using magnetic resonance imaging, they can detect little white spots in the brains of Americans at about age fifty. These spots represent small, asymptomatic strokes.” This a quote from Caldwell, B. Esselstyn Jr., M.D., a surgeon well-known for his expertise and his switch to a dietary approach to help patients gain true control of their health, a feat surgery cannot tackle. His book is also the source for my next literature topic, heart disease.

So, when David makes links to:

1. Fibromyalgia
2. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
3. Whiplash
4. Temporomandibular Joint Disorder
5. Trigeminal Neuralgia
6. Multiple Sclerosis
7. PMS
8. Hypoglycemia
9. Eye Strain
10. Pains throughout the body
11. Etc…

…cut him some slack and begin to realize how every detrimental decision you make affects how your body will react and endure. He writes that we “…create trouble by looking for it,” but I believe we create trouble initially, recognize it only when it inhibits our habitual ways, and then we create even more trouble when we seek a “cure”, a quick and easy cure, one that does not disturb your current ways.

Our blood vessels carry the substances that sustain life and are often flooded with those that impede long-term health. Even a lifestyle comprised of being overly stressed, lazy-by-choice, and conceding to the notion that a little bit here and little bit there will carry no consequences, will surely deteriorate your blood carrying tunnels at a compacting rate.

Do not step aside. Do not become a spectator. Do not cherish traditions that end in memorable and painful events. It is normal in our society to have headaches and bring total body failure upon ourselves at a young age. It is normal to seek over the counter medications, energy boosters, or even surgery to counteract these normalcies. However, it is abnormal to live a long life, one which there is little or no pain nor a hidden disease ready to pop-up and become commander of your life. It may be abnormal, but that does not deem it an impossible feat…

How often do you have headaches?

Have you identified any triggers?

How have you treated them and has it been successful?

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Related posts:

1. Endometriosis: Whimpering Wisdom
2. Epilepsy: Carpe Vitam