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A New Hope for Migraine Sufferers in Brisbane
If you regularly suffer migraines, you know that the physical pain of a migraine is only part of the problem. There is also a deep emotional pain that comes with it. The one thing you want, more than anything else, is simply to live a normal life. An Australian survey revealed a few details about how severely migraines actually impact sufferers:
- almost all migraine sufferers and 60% of people who suffer severe tension headaches report that the pain affects their work, their social or their family life
- 36% of migraine sufferers say that the condition severely limits their lifestyle
- sufferers report losing an average of 21.7 days - almost a full month of their life every year - due to migraines.
But it is the last finding that is most distressing of all:
- only 17% of sufferers actually expect their condition would ever improve.
Hopelessness. That is the true tragedy of migraines: that people have done so many things over such a long period of time that they simply don’t believe there is a solution that can help them. A migraine affects not only your head but your entire life including the people closest to you.
I can appreciate that in your search for a permanent solution to your condition that it hurts to hope. You’ve been disappointed so many times from things that you thought would work, but for some reason didn’t, that you don’t want to get your hopes up again.
In other words, the physical pain of your migraines is still less than the emotional pain of being disappointed yet again. The reality is that I may or may not have the answers that you are seeking either! The treatments that you have done thus far have helped you to get to this point.
Be grateful for them! However, to move beyond where you currently require doing something different and employing a different strategy than you’ve done so far. And however difficult as maybe, taking action is the only way that can happen.
The Cause of Migraine and the Role of the Upper Neck
In the previous article, I discussed how the cause of migraines most commonly is irritation of the connective tissue that protects the brain called the meninges. Moreover, you have exceptionally strong ligaments in your upper neck called myodural bridges, which anchor your brainstem to the rim of C1, C2 and C3 so that you do not crush your own spinal cord when you move your head.
When you suffer an injury that affects the alignment of your upper neck - not broken or dislocated - but entrapped just far enough, it causes the myodural bridges to physically pull on the meninges. This physical pull is a source of irritation that your brain interprets as a migraine.
The specific nerve that transmits pain information about meninges is called the Recurrent Meningeal Nerve, which is actually a branch of a super important nerve called the Vagus Nerve (pronounced like “Las Vegas”). Because there is so much information that transmits via the Vagus Nerve into the pain-processing centers of the brain, some of it can spill over into other centers that process visual, auditory, vestibular (balance), respiratory, blood pressure and digestive information.
It is called the “dysafferentation hypothesis” and works very much like that computer running too many programs all at once, causing the entire system to freeze! In other words, your brain crisscrosses and misinterprets that noxious irritation affecting the meninges is also coming from somewhere else … hence the different symptoms and different categories of migraine!
- Migraine + abnormal visual signals = aura or “snow” = Visual Migraine
- Migraine + abnormal auditory signals = tinnitus or loss of hearing = Auditory Migraine
- Migraine + abnormal balance signals = dizziness or vertigo = Vestibular Migraine
- Migraine + abnormal digestive signals = nausea or vomiting = Abdominal Migraine
- Migraine + abnormal motor signals = muscle weakness or tremors = Hemiplegic Migraine
- Migraine + abnormal blood flow signals = sweating or anxiety = Cluster/Temporal Migraine
Crazy isn’t it? Nevertheless, this is the way that your body works. And really, the only crazy thing is that you’ve probably never had any of this explained to you before!
Natural Migraine Treatment - Upper Cervical Care in Brisbane
One of the most powerful ways to take care of your migraines may be to correct the alignment of vertebrae in your upper neck - the C1, C2, and C3. This specific approach is called “Blair upper cervical chiropractic.” There are a few specific ways that Blair upper cervical care is different from general chiropractic.
- Precision. We don’t play guessing games with your health. Part of the examination process includes highly specialized x-rays that you won’t find in a medical or even a general chiropractic office. Although everyone else is looking for broken bones, arthritis, or general curves, we measure your unique bone architecture to within 0.5 degrees so that any adjustment we make for you is custom-tailored for maximum effectiveness.
- Force. There is zero cracking or twisting the neck. Because we are so precise in our analysis, we do not need to use much force with our adjustments. It is like opening a locked door: if the key fits, the lock opens with ease. The amount of force that we use is equivalent to the total amount of pressure that you need to click a pen.
- Pre- and Post- Testing. We don’t adjust every visit. Unlike more chiropractors, we perform computerized nervous system tests on every office visit to determine if you do or do not need an adjustment. Here is the real secret to how we get the results that we do. Although most chiropractors adjust the spine every time, the true key to getting well is not in adjusting. It is NOT in adjusting … and then allowing your body to heal without interference naturally! The fewer adjustments you need, the quicker you will heal.
- Outcomes. Really, isn't that what it all comes down to? It's all about helping you to reach your goals and getting results. The reason that I am a Blair upper cervical doctor is that, more than anything else I know, it is the best way to identify and correct conditions of the upper neck without drugs or surgery.
The combination of these factors makes Blair upper cervical care one of the safest yet more effective forms of healthcare that I know.
The Next Logical Step
There are three things that you must never allow to make your health decisions for you: 1) your insurance company, 2) the government, or 3) your own indecision. Dr. Jeffrey Hannah has 10+ years of experience as an upper cervical specific chiropractor taking care of people in Brisbane who have suffered a wide variety of migraine and tension headaches. Indecision can take many forms: fear, skepticism, analysis-paralysis, or just plain old “waiting for the right time.”
In all things life, there never is a right time. In my personal experience, the best decisions I’ve ever made have not come from the prolonged internal debate. They have come from “moments of courage:” a single moment when I decided to take action because I knew what I wanted to do was intuitively right.
I fully appreciate if you have suffered migraines long enough that it “hurts to hope.” You don’t want to get your hopes up only to be disappointed again. The reality is that if you ever want your situation to change you have to give it a fair go.
As I hope you appreciate, an upper cervical chiropractor has special expertise and offers a unique perspective and potential solution for migraines that no other healthcare professional does. Even if you believe that you’ve seen every doctor under the sun including other chiropractors, I still strongly advise you to do so.
It could be the very thing you’ve been seeking for so long. You can call Dr. Jeffrey Hannah of Atlas Health Australia at 07 3188 9329.
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