How can Chiropractic Resolve Headaches in Torrance?

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Written by Dr. Brad Barez, CCSP, QME, IDE.

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What is a headache in Torrance?

We all know what a headache feels like! They do not feel good, and we do not want them to be part of our lives. Headaches have been defined as pain arising from the head or upper neck of the body. However, I think a better definition is a pain that takes over the soul! Headaches are really a sign of stress on the nervous system.

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Three Causes of Headaches:

Most current literature written today is great for classifying all the different types of headaches but really does not mention the real causes of headaches. Since headaches are a sign of stress on the nervous system, the question is what is causing the various stresses on the nervous system?

• Emotional: The first type of stress is emotional stress. We are all way too familiar with the emotional stresses of life. Stress affects the neuro-emotional hormones in our brain. The three large stress hormones are epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. When we encounter stress in our lives, these hormones run rapidly into our nervous system causing headaches, and many other symptoms.
• Chemical: The next stress on the nervous system is chemical. Chemical stress can be caused by the hundreds and even thousands of chemicals that invade our lives. These chemicals can come through our foods, liquids, and even the air we breathe. One of the largest toxins in our nervous system is sugar. This chemical stress in the body causes the nervous system to work too hard and even overload, therefore causing headaches.
• Physical: The last form of stress on the nervous system is physical stress. Today, this is a very common cause of headaches. When the nervous system is interfered with, the brain’s stress hormones are set off to high levels. One of the most common causes of physical stress on the nervous system is direct pressure on the spinal nerves, spinal cord, and even the brain. The most common physical interference or compression of nerves is called a subluxation complex. The subluxation complex is a physical compression of the spinal nerves, compressing either efferent or afferent nerves, therefore decreasing the mental impulse to the brain or the tissue cells. With the subluxation complex, patients may experience with or without symptoms. Usually, the subluxation complex is caused when the vertebrae in the spine compress directly on the nerves, or the misaligned/subluxated vertebrae are causing the intervertebral disc to compress the nerve fibers that are controlling the body’s normal function. When this vertebral subluxation complex happens, the same chemical stress hormones in the brain are released causing a variety of symptoms over time.

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The Danger to Treating Headache Symptoms

You just learned the real underlying causes of headaches, stress on the nervous system. A huge problem today is our treating doctors are simply classifying symptoms, putting patients into categories of headaches, and medicating symptoms. When doctors treat symptoms and NOT the cause of headaches, the symptoms will come back, but more destruction is to come.

Treating symptoms is very harmful to human health. This philosophy of only treating the body’s symptoms are not good for the patients, and borderlines on negligence. Today, each patients’ classifications of headaches come with a drug/narcotic to alleviate headache symptoms. In addition, the drugs or narcotics are inhibiting the nervous system from working. All these medications for pain relief are known as neuro-inhibitory drugs. Neuro-inhibitory drugs will slow and effects of the nervous system, therefore impairing normal function to the body.

Lastly, most of these neuro-inhibitors, also known as painkillers, are harmful to the body. We are well aware of the opiate addiction problem in our country. Opiates are used widely for headaches and patients are becoming addicted by the thousands. Some doctors think non-opiate drugs are good for the body. However, regular use of these non-opiate drugs can cause equal and even more harm to the body.

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Finding the Cause of Headaches

Since we now know headaches are “caused” by one or more of the three stresses on the nervous system, why not find and treat the cause of the stress? To find out what part of your nervous system is under stress, a health history with a doctor should be performed. Next, a thorough neurological, chiropractic and nutrition examination should be performed.

The Chiropractic examination is an examination of the spine and nervous system to rule our physical nerve interference or the subluxation complex aforementioned.

Lastly, an x-ray and possibly an MRI of the spine, spinal cord, or even brain may be needed. It is always good to co-manage MRI studies of the brain with a Neuro-radiologist and a Chiropractor. When a complete perspective of a patient’s health is complete, the Chiropractor should be ready to present the patient with an underlying cause of the headaches.

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The Solution to Headaches