The 'Migraine' type Headache

by Gary A Clark, myotherapist

If you have ever suffered from a 'migraine' you will know how all consuming the pain can be. Not only does your head hurt , but your eyes hurt, your face hurts and even bright lights or loud noises cause pain.

Migraine type headaches can come from more than one cause. If the cause is neurovascular, that is to do with the nerves and blood vessels within the brain, then you have a true migraine, and you do need to see a doctor as there are some medications that help.

On the other hand the most common cause, at least 85% of the time, for 'migraine' type headaches is pain that is referred from muscles in the neck and shoulders and also in the scalp. These muscles may be tight through overwork, injury, strain, chill, or as a result of food allergies, (to be covered later in this article.)

For example these are the places where the 5 most common muscles refer pain:

Muscle name	Area of referred pain
Upper Trapezius	Side of neck and side of head
Sternocleidomastoid	Across the forehead, behind the eyes, and sometimes in the ear
Splenius capitis	An area about 75mm diameter on top of head
Sub occipitals	A general undefined all over headache
Temporalis	Pain in the temples, the cheek and sometimes teeth

The above muscles in my clinical experience cause about 90% of muscular pain in the head. There are several muscles in the mouth, which can occasionally cause face pain, and some in the neck which can stimulate the above muscles to cause head pain.

Now imagine the pain if all five of those muscles stated to refer pain at the same time, your whole head would hurt, it would be overwhelming.

To understand why they would all hurt at once we need to look at perpetuating factors.
They are the things that cause the muscles to develop trigger points in the first place. And it is trigger points (a knot or tight band of hyper sensitive muscle fibers) that causes muscle pain.

So what perpetuating factors could cause migraine?
In the trigger point manuals Travell takes 53 pages to cover perpetuating factors, so lets just cut to the chase and narrow it down to migraine type headaches.

Magnesium deficiency

Taking extracts from various researchers we find that: Mauskop,Altura and Neurosci said. "The available evidence suggests that up to 50% of patients during an acute migraine attack have lowered levels of ionized magnesium. Infusion of magnesium results in a rapid and sustained relief of an acute migraine in such patient. Two double- blind studies suggest that chronic oral magnesium supplementation may also reduce the frequency of migraine headaches." They go on to say. "Because of an excellent safety profile and low cost and despite the lack of definitive studies, we feel that a trial of oral magnesium can be recommended to a majority of migraine sufferers."

Looking at the published works of two other medical researchers Michael Eades M.D. and Mary Dan Eades M.D. State that according to Paleolithic nutrition research ancient man seems to have consumed as much as 800 to 1500 mg of magnesium daily, with a similar amount of calcium. Compare that to the current consumption of only 200 to 300 mg of magnesium combined with 1200 to1500 mg daily of calcium. This indicated that our calcium / magnesium balance instead of being a 1:1 ratio as it was for early man, is now 5 :1 and even as high as 15 :1 in some cases.

What does that mean to me you might ask?
Well, ionized calcium (ca++) is used in the contraction of muscles whereas magnesium along with potassium causes muscles to relax, and remember tight neck and shoulder muscles are the prime cause headaches.

The Eades go on to say "Consider this list of the known conditions that research has correlated with deficiency of magnesium: heart disease and sudden death, diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and chronic bronchitis, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraine headaches, muscle cramps, PMS, depression and other psychiatric disorders, and susceptibility to the brain damaging effects of food additives such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG)"

If by now you have come to the conclusion that maybe a magnesium supplement would be worth trying , let me point out that raw mineral magnesium won't do you much good except to loosen your bowels. For the body to use any mineral it muse be similar to the way nature intended, such as it would be found in plants if they still contained enough of it. When you purchase a Magnesium chelate, look for the words citrate, malate or aspartate. All of which have been found to work well.

The two brands we recommend to the clients in our clinic are: "Fibroplex" , a US import, or "Ultra Muscleze" a NZ import, and available from most pharmacies. Both of these have magnesium chelate and Malic acid. Although the recommended dose may seem high at 3000mg that is the chelate, the pure magnesium in that is only about 1/10 or 300mg We recommend this to all our fibromyalgic clients. One word of warning If you have kidney problems, see your doctor before starting on a magnesium supplement

Don't expect overnight miracles, the magnesium has to get into the muscle tissue where it is needed to do the most good. This can take anywhere from one to eight weeks to happen, depending on how little magnesium was in your system when you started. If after three months of taking magnesium nothing has changed, then maybe there is another problem,

A quick way to get immediate relief from muscle pain is the magnesium bath. Epsom Salts is the cheapest form of magnesium. Dissolving 300 to 500 grams, that is up to 1/2 a kilo in warm water then soak in it, right up to your neck, remember it is the muscles in your neck and shoulders that are causing your headaches. The magnesium will penetrate your skin and get into your system that way. The effect is short lived, but it works quickly and is cheap.

Food allergies

Another most persistent systemic perpetuating factor is food allergies. A person can be allergic to almost anything, including inhalant allergens, in fact I always have a rush of clients arriving at the clinic to have their pains removed whenever there is an easterly wind blowing bringing all the airborne allergens from the wheat belt.

Which brings me to the most common food allergies. Wheat and similar grains such as rye oats and barley. Then come sugar, dairy, and eggs and sometimes chicken. If eliminating these foods from your diet completely for one week gets rid of the symptoms them try reintroducing them one per day, you'll know when you reintroduce the troublesome one because all your pain will return.

You may get temporary relief if you take an antihistamine, because allergens cause the immune system to produce histamine, and histamines are nerve irritants hence the pain. But the only way to permanent relief is to eliminate the offending food from your diet.

If after all this your problem still persists, you may be allergic to something else, another way to find the offending foods is through a total elimination program. This should only be undertaken with medical supervision.

about the author: Gary A Clark is a myotherapist and founder of Pain Busters Clinic, where he helps his clients find lasting relief from their low back pain and other chronic muscle pain. For more information or to make an appointment phone Gary Clark at Pain Busters Clinic (Western Australia) 9472 3852 or 0402 945 700