Headaches… here are some ideas for treating them without drugs. In chiropractic school, we had a class for an entire semester labeled, “Headaches”. When I was in my early teens, I had a couple of headaches a week, usually after lunch. I would visit the school nurse’s office and lie down for a while. This didn’t actually do anything, but having a small break in the day, I often had a little more time to use the bathroom and would have a bowel movement. Looking back, I would bet that if I had been given a tall glass of warm water and a little more time to ‘go’, that could have been a cure for me. Physiologically there is a very strong gut-brain connection. The enteric nervous system includes more than one- hundred million nerve cells that line the intestinal tract from the throat to the rectum (John Hopkins Medicine). The stomach, intestines and the brain are so connected that sometimes a concussion can cause damage to intestinal health.
When dealing with headaches, it’s important to try to assess a possible root cause. Here in Colorado, it often is the result of dehydration. Worry and overthinking are also common causes as are: bright sun, eye strain, being over-heated, caffeine withdrawal, drastic changes in routine, lack of sleep, too much screen time, over exertion. There are also structural causes for headaches, but that is less common.
There is a structural predicament that was recently noticed by the discovery of anatomy of the muscles in the upper neck. Around 1999, a new set of muscles at the base of the skull were noticed for the “first time”. These are very small muscles, and most anatomy classes were cutting through them in the typically instructed pattern of dissection. Their position can affect blood vessels that go to the brain. When they are tight, they have the potential to limit fluid flowing upward and downward from what is normal. This immediately gave a physiological explanation for tension headaches from stress.
A possible remedy is to massage the upper neck at the base of the skull to help these muscles relax.
I read in the Epoch Times a very interesting method of getting rid of a headache without using analgesic pain killers. Ask your headache two questions. Yes, that sounds a little crazy, but what do you have to lose? Or, you can ask someone else to ask you these two questions. The first one is, “If your headache were a color, what color would it be?” The second question is, “If your headache had a flavor what would it taste like?” There is no right or wrong answer. The color mentioned in the newspaper article was more than one. “Green-orange-brown, kind of like an ugly shag carpet from the 1960’s.” The flavor can also be more than one – it can be a combo and it can include texture. Again, the example the paper used was, “peanut butter mixed with sand.” It’s okay to just think about it and come up with what is going on with YOUR headache at that time.
How can this work? Why does it work? A couple explanations can be offered. The paper said in tension headaches it changes your focus from letting the pain dominate your thoughts to you choosing thoughts that might help not only break up the pain cycle, but also cause some of the tense muscles to let go of their extreme tightness. The second explanation is similar, but with an Eastern medicine slant. With the change in focus, Qi that might be blocked starts to flow again. Qi is the life force energy that flows throughout your body. When your qi is blocked, energy doesn’t flow. Wherever qi is not flowing, the body has a problem functioning at its best. In the case of headaches, this can interrupt thinking, functioning and one’s ability to focus. Focusing your thoughts to label the headache’s color and flavor can break up the ‘blocked flow’.
Other people can teach us to focus energy into places in our body that are hurting. I have heard it coupled with deep, relaxed breathing. You would breathe in deeply, and in your mind, you send the extra oxygen to the part of your body that is hurting. The first couple of times I tried this, it didn’t work for me and it sounded so goofy I stopped trying. Years later I took Lamaze classes and learned how to breathe in different rhythms to deal with labor pains. That seemed weird too, at the time, but we practiced it anyway because the military would not give any type of analgesic option to us unless we needed a C-section. It does help. I’ve used it in the dentist chair, the time I broke my leg, even when chemotherapy was uncomfortable.
There’s some herbal help for anxiety, too. For mild anxiety, there are three herbs that are most commonly recommended: lavender, chamomile and ashwagandha.
Ashwagandha Withania Somnifers comes from a small shrub with yellow flowers (the name has a literal translation of, “smell of the horse”). Using it as a form of medicine has a long history. It is an adaptogen, which means that it helps the body adapt to things such as: mental or physical stress, anxiety, fatigue. Herbalists use the roots and the leaves of the plant for a variety of conditions. It contains about one-hundred and forty specialized compounds, along with phytochemicals. The anti-stress property, its ability to mitigate the effects of stress, also helps people with neurodegenerative disorders. Research has shown it to help disorders that include Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.
Anxiety comes with unwanted change. If you have patiently read this newsletter to this point, let me say I have some changes to announce. My husband has wanted me to retire a few years now. We are planning on moving to Loveland, where we have two of our kids with their spouses and six grandchildren. We already have a real estate agent for both the office building and our home. I’m thinking I might commute here for a while, maybe work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but that is still undecided. I love my work but I am starting to have some physical problems from the wear and tear on my body. I’ll be sure to keep you informed as things proceed.
When dealing with headaches, it’s important to try to assess a possible root cause. Here in Colorado, it often is the result of dehydration. Worry and overthinking are also common causes as are: bright sun, eye strain, being over-heated, caffeine withdrawal, drastic changes in routine, lack of sleep, too much screen time, over exertion. There are also structural causes for headaches, but that is less common.
There is a structural predicament that was recently noticed by the discovery of anatomy of the muscles in the upper neck. Around 1999, a new set of muscles at the base of the skull were noticed for the “first time”. These are very small muscles, and most anatomy classes were cutting through them in the typically instructed pattern of dissection. Their position can affect blood vessels that go to the brain. When they are tight, they have the potential to limit fluid flowing upward and downward from what is normal. This immediately gave a physiological explanation for tension headaches from stress.
A possible remedy is to massage the upper neck at the base of the skull to help these muscles relax.
I read in the Epoch Times a very interesting method of getting rid of a headache without using analgesic pain killers. Ask your headache two questions. Yes, that sounds a little crazy, but what do you have to lose? Or, you can ask someone else to ask you these two questions. The first one is, “If your headache were a color, what color would it be?” The second question is, “If your headache had a flavor what would it taste like?” There is no right or wrong answer. The color mentioned in the newspaper article was more than one. “Green-orange-brown, kind of like an ugly shag carpet from the 1960’s.” The flavor can also be more than one – it can be a combo and it can include texture. Again, the example the paper used was, “peanut butter mixed with sand.” It’s okay to just think about it and come up with what is going on with YOUR headache at that time.
How can this work? Why does it work? A couple explanations can be offered. The paper said in tension headaches it changes your focus from letting the pain dominate your thoughts to you choosing thoughts that might help not only break up the pain cycle, but also cause some of the tense muscles to let go of their extreme tightness. The second explanation is similar, but with an Eastern medicine slant. With the change in focus, Qi that might be blocked starts to flow again. Qi is the life force energy that flows throughout your body. When your qi is blocked, energy doesn’t flow. Wherever qi is not flowing, the body has a problem functioning at its best. In the case of headaches, this can interrupt thinking, functioning and one’s ability to focus. Focusing your thoughts to label the headache’s color and flavor can break up the ‘blocked flow’.
Other people can teach us to focus energy into places in our body that are hurting. I have heard it coupled with deep, relaxed breathing. You would breathe in deeply, and in your mind, you send the extra oxygen to the part of your body that is hurting. The first couple of times I tried this, it didn’t work for me and it sounded so goofy I stopped trying. Years later I took Lamaze classes and learned how to breathe in different rhythms to deal with labor pains. That seemed weird too, at the time, but we practiced it anyway because the military would not give any type of analgesic option to us unless we needed a C-section. It does help. I’ve used it in the dentist chair, the time I broke my leg, even when chemotherapy was uncomfortable.
There’s some herbal help for anxiety, too. For mild anxiety, there are three herbs that are most commonly recommended: lavender, chamomile and ashwagandha.
Ashwagandha Withania Somnifers comes from a small shrub with yellow flowers (the name has a literal translation of, “smell of the horse”). Using it as a form of medicine has a long history. It is an adaptogen, which means that it helps the body adapt to things such as: mental or physical stress, anxiety, fatigue. Herbalists use the roots and the leaves of the plant for a variety of conditions. It contains about one-hundred and forty specialized compounds, along with phytochemicals. The anti-stress property, its ability to mitigate the effects of stress, also helps people with neurodegenerative disorders. Research has shown it to help disorders that include Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.
Anxiety comes with unwanted change. If you have patiently read this newsletter to this point, let me say I have some changes to announce. My husband has wanted me to retire a few years now. We are planning on moving to Loveland, where we have two of our kids with their spouses and six grandchildren. We already have a real estate agent for both the office building and our home. I’m thinking I might commute here for a while, maybe work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but that is still undecided. I love my work but I am starting to have some physical problems from the wear and tear on my body. I’ll be sure to keep you informed as things proceed.
