Introduction

Are headaches ruining your life? Do you miss work due to headaches or migraines? Do headaches affect your ability to enjoy life to the fullest? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are not alone.

According to the National Headache Foundation, over 45 million people suffer from chronic recurring headaches, and of the 28 million who suffer from migraines, about 20% are children and adolescents.

Many years ago while studying martial arts, I was allowing myself to be put in a headlock during a training demonstration when I felt a sharp pull on the right side of my neck. Afterward, I felt fine, nothing that a little Advil couldn’t help, so I continued my martial arts training and completely forgot about the incident.

About a year later, I noticed that I was starting to get one or two headaches per week, usually originating
from the right side of my neck. This was something that I had never experienced in the past. Over the next couple of years, the headaches got more and more frequent, about four to five per week, and I noticed I was relying on medication to get through the day.

In looking at the cause of headaches and doing some post graduate studies, I found that most headaches today, including migraines, are really muscle tension headaches. These headaches have a musculo-skeletal component, which means that any past injury, such as auto accidents, even minor fender benders that most people overlook,
can be a major contributing factor. I had overlooked what I thought was a minor martial arts injury, but what I realized is that it had set me up for a chronic headache syndrome that started a year later.

Now, as a chiropractor, I should have known better, but up until that time, my practice consisted mainly of treating lower back pain. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, most chiropractic research was done on lower back pain syndrome and all of the studies showed very favorable results.

Initially, my research began by evaluating my diet. I found that certain foods seemed to contribute to my headaches and that caffeine seemed to eliminate my headaches. Although I loved to eat cheese on crackers, I found that certain cheeses, such as aged cheese, seemed to give rise to a headache. Red wine was another culprit. Of course, aged cheese and red wine seemed to go really well together! In doing further research, I found that certain foods, including nitrates and some food colorings, increase blood flow to the brain, causing headaches in some people.

Something else my research led to has to do with body positioning and sleep ergonomics. I found that if I took a nap on the sofa or fell asleep watching TV with pillows under my head, I usually woke up with a stiff neck and would get a headache within the next 24 hours.

Stress was another offender, especially mental stress. I noticed that if I had a particularly stressful situation at work or home, even though I thought the problem was resolved, I usually woke up the next morning with a stiff neck and a resultant headache.

I realized that I needed to address all of these issues if I was going to get a handle on my headaches. Over 45 million Americans each year, one out of every six, suffer from chronic headaches. In this book, I will explain why that is. I’ll explain what the “typical” treatment plan is and why it doesn’t address the problem. Then, I’ll present an effective, common sense approach to dramatically reduce, if not totally eliminate, your headaches within the next 30 days.