Headaches and Migraines: Osteopathy Can Help

Do you regularly experience headaches? If yes, you probably have painkillers at home in your first-aid kit, and you most likely carry these pills with you frequently in order to take them as soon as those unpleasant headache symptoms appear. If you take a pill in time, there will be no pain, and when there’s no pain, there’s no problem. And that’s how you deal with it until the next time you have a headache.

Some of you may be more concerned about this problem. You visit doctors, fearing that a headache could be a symptom of a serious illness. But doctors often prescribe the same painkillers, plus medication for any condition they might discover, that may be in their opinion, causing these symptoms. To process these drugs is a strenuously taxing task for the liver, and they can have many negative side effects.

Almost every adult has had a headache in their life. This is a fairly common symptom, which could be caused by many factors:

Post-injury effects;
Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine;
Diseases of internal organs;
Broken nasal breathing;
Nervous pressure;
Prolonged stress;
An uncomfortable position for a long time when seated; Dehydration;
Alcohol consumption and smoking;
Weather conditions.

Why does an osteopathic specialist never prescribe a headache pill?

The only tool an osteopath has is their proficient, practiced hands and knowledge of the abilities of the human body. Instead of drowning the pain with chemicals, the osteopath will do the diagnostics first, and then if there are no indications that such treatment would not be appropriate, the osteopath will remove the cause of pain in several sessions.

Osteopathic treatment is used to eliminate the root cause of the headache. The osteopathic specialist tunes the patient’s body like a musical instrument and brings it to a level of self-regulation, where the body can function correctly. The duration of the osteopathic treatment course is determined individually for each patient. As a result of the treatment, the state of health and mood improves, physical and mental activity increases, sleep returns to normal, and headaches disappear. Moreover, this is complete without medication and side effects.

Headaches sometimes torment a patient for years; is it possible to cure it in a few hours? It is indeed possible, especially for:

women who suffered from migraine attacks caused by atony of brain vessels (possibly with nausea, vomiting, photophobia);
men suffering from sudden, one-sided, throbbing pain (often with a runny nose and tearing), which sometimes is so strong that it immobilizes a person for several hours;
those who have a chronic headache, and who have spent years trying to find effective painkillers.

Imagine a piano that was out of tune for years and could produce only false melody, then a specialist works on it for a couple of hours, and all of a sudden this piano sounds completely harmonized. Of course, the human body is a more complex instrument, but the analogy is quite justified: it can also be reconditioned for better functioning.

Studies show that:

Women experience migraines three times more often than men do.
In many cases, it is a family disease or it is related to birth trauma.
Modern medicines can help to reduce the pain but they do not cure it.
Osteopathic treatment is an effective tool in bringing the patients back to normal life.
Osteopathy is very effective for stabilizing blood pressure, for dealing with spinal osteochondrosis, neuralgia, vascular dystonia, and the consequences of head injuries, etc.

Cases from the medical practice:

Case 1. A young man with severe hypertension came to the osteopathic clinic. Long-term traditional treatment did not improve his condition. Doctors discovered that he had a right kidney nephroptosis (his right kidney was lower than the left one), but they could not find the cause of his high blood pressure.

The osteopathic doctor, having carefully examined the internal organs of the patient, found out that he had an enlarged liver, which began to push the right kidney downwards. The right kidney is closely connected with the artery, and being displaced made the artery twist. This caused high blood pressure. So, it was necessary to bring the liver to its normal condition and improve the blood flow in it so that the liver gradually became smaller. As a result, the normal size liver ceased to put pressure on the kidney, and the kidney stopped twisting the artery. The blood pressure was stabilized and the patient’s condition improved significantly.

Case 2. A 39-year-old man, who was also a professional mountaineer, had frequent headaches in the right temporal zone, as well as pain in the right part of the face since 2015. Every year the pain increased. The patient said that in 2013 he had fallen down while climbing and had serious injuries: compression fracture of the ninth thoracic vertebra, closed head injury, brain concussion, right tibia, and fibula fracture and left talus fracture. The patient was diagnosed by a neurologist with “neuralgia of the ternary nerve on the right and migraine with an ophthalmologic aura.” He was repeatedly hospitalized in the neurology department of the hospital, but drug treatment did not improve the patient’s condition.

An osteopathic examination revealed the following dysfunctions: craniosacral asynchronism, intraosseous injury of the right temporal bone, obstruction at the level of the thoracic spine, pronounced fascial tension at the level of the tibia. It is known that intraosseous injury of the temporal bone, i.e. its pronounced tension leads to irritation of the ternary nerve, which causes facial pain. With the release of the Dura mater and balancing of the skull bones, the trigeminal nerve was released as well, and the pain disappeared without drugs intake.

In conclusion, do not ignore a headache. Osteopaths are doctors who will treat your disease individually and help you to live a fulfilling life without constant headaches so that you can always think clearly, feel light and live joyfully.

Victoria Kraskoff, Osteopathic Manual Practitioner, DOMP