The Most Common Potential Cause
Over the 25 plus years of working with people in natural health, I’ve discovered various atypical patterns of imbalances that can lead to headaches or migraines often not seen or missed by conventional medical testing. The most common pattern I see is, what I call, “the liver/gallbladder headache.”
When the liver or gallbladder are not clearing toxins as efficiently as they are normally supposed to, there is stress or a dis-stress signal sent along, what is called, a meridian pathway. Meridians are invisible energy pathways or channels that run through the body. There are 12 regular meridians in the traditional Chinese medicine model. Each regular meridian is believed to correspond to an organ, originating from different parts of the brain and grounding out, so to speak, through different parts of the hands and feet. Most acupuncture and acupressure points lie on a meridian. Stimulating these points using acupuncture needles or acupressure, helps correct and rebalance the flow of energy. The liver can be 40% under functioning and blood work liver enzymes can still be within normal range.
When the liver or gallbladder is stressed, meridian lines for these organs running through the neck up by the temples and through the optic nerve can cause tightness in the neck muscles. This can trigger temple headaches, headache behind the eyes, or from the back of the head, up over the head, and behind the eyes. When a person has a headache, often times the natural thing to do is to rub the temples, forehead, above the eyes, or back of the head just below the bone where the skull starts. Rubbing these points will often bring temporary relief. This is due to the person naturally rubbing over the meridians, performing a crude form of acupressure.
Another Cause of Common Headaches or Migraines
If a liver is functioning inefficiently, another common headache or migraine pattern we see is cyclical. Cyclical meaning with a woman’s menses cycle, or even with both menses and ovulation. The most common pattern is just with menses, starting anywhere from 2-3 days before to 2-3 days after. At this point in a woman’s cycle, it is crucial for the liver to clear or metabolize out excess estrogen, so the hormones keep in balance. This is done in the liver. So if the liver is less efficient in doing this, estrogen will dominate and throw off the balance between it and progesterone, triggering a headache or migraine.
Correcting the Liver or Gallbladder Problems
When working to correct these issues, it is important to look at factors that can lead to liver toxicity. This includes diet, environmental exposure, or even pharmaceutical medication a person may be taking. Providing education on how to minimize exposure, change diet, and providing the correct targeted therapeutic supplement support to help clear the liver/gallbladder channel is what we at Total Health find to be efficient in handling the issues discussed above. Sometimes further testing is needed to determine if some people have a genetic inefficiency to clear toxins in the liver. The need for these further tests is usually determined by how the client is responding to the initial mentioned treatment. If the person is not responding well, then we go on to further testing.
Final Potential Cause for Migraines or Headaches
A third and final potential cause of migraines or headaches is hidden infections in the jaw from teeth issues. This is not as common, but if nothing is working to give relief, it is worth exploring. It is a known fact, often not talked about, that past tooth extractions or root canals can have infections brewing in the jaw bone for years, without there being localized, physical pain. However, if these infections are being circulated throughout the body, it can cause a host of hidden health problems ranging from chronic fatigue, heart issues, joint pain, auto immune diseases, headaches or migraines. There are several books written on these topics, such as “The Root Canal Cover-Up” by George E Meinig, “The Root of Disease” by Thomas E Levy, and “The Toxic Tooth: How a root canal could be making you sick” by Robert Kulac.
The starting point we take to exploring this possibility is sending a client to trusted holistic dentists. They have the equipment, the experience, and opened mind to explore the possibility of a hidden infection or what is called cavitations in the jaw. If found, they either have the expertise to address the issue, or are networked with the right people who specialize in these issues.
Conventional Medicine is not the Solution
From my experience, many headache issues are rarely addressed at the root cause through conventional medicine. Almost all treatment is a chemical drug bandage to suppress the symptom, making a person even more toxic in the long run.
If you suffer from headaches and haven’t considered some of the things talked about in this blog, give us a call and schedule a no-charge phone consultation with one of our practitioners, to see if you might be a good fit for what we have to offer.
We Can Help!
If you struggle with migraines, poor digestive health, weight loss resistance, allergies, fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, or even an autoimmune disease, I would encourage you to get to the root cause and don’t settle for it being covered up with medication. It can get worse over time.
Give us a call 262-251-2929 to schedule a no-charge 10-minute phone consult with a natural health practitioner, to see how we can help! You can also learn more at one of our Free Seminars!