Posted by lc bob on March 02, 1999 at 18:19:03:
In Reply to: Drugless Pain Reliever posted by Art L on March 02, 1999 at 11:53:51:
squat thrusts, pushups, pullups, washing a car, sex, treadmills, running, just about every conceivable kind of exercise has been found here to be CH-abortive. i believe it's the movement/manipulation/stretching of the neck and upper spine rather than the exercise, per se.. i exercise, too. but at CH-time, instead of heavy exercise, my CH abortive is twisting, rolling, stretching my neck and shoulder on my CH side. i know, i know ... Barbara D. (and others) have tried it - and it didn't work for her (much to my very great chagrin). gary g. and Bob P. and others have expressed their extreme distaste for chiropractic - the logical extension of my thinking here. The reasons expressed for the disdain of the practice of chiropractic range from an acquaintance (or oneself) who was not helped to one who was actually hurt by chiropractors. noted and acknowledged. but - it occurs to me that there are many here logged who have had similar, if not identical, experiences with medical doctors, neurologists, etc. … but we don’t cast all of medicine into the trash heap. we just say, "you need another/a better/a credible doctor. why shouldn’t the same apply to chiropractors? why can’t there be good and bad chiropractors just like there are obviously good and bad doctors? i’m not proposing that A chiropractor is our answer ... but I AM proposing that we be OUR OWN chiropractors ... that what they work with (vertebrae, spinal nerves, attendant muscles), and the philosophy they espouse (first manipulation, then drugs, then surgery) - is at least effective for the treatment of it. if nothing else, my experience along with that of those who’ve noticed and enjoyed the positive effects of physical exertion on CH serves to at least lend credence to the idea. it took me a while to get my neck and shoulder ... "loose" enough, i guess ... for it to work. that is, the first few days of rolling my shoulder/neck was not as effective as it is now. my first clue came one day while i was walking the CH death march around and around my living room with my head propped to the non-CH side, holding my CH side up in the air. (i now feel that my body knew what it needed, even if i didn't - and that's why i seemed to want to prop my head like that) ... my shoulder popped and my NOSE cleared!! And, of course, soon after my nose cleared, the CH was dispatched. there was a connection between my back/neck and the point of pain. so, for the first time ever, i've gone to a chiropractor 3 times over the last 2 weeks. to the skeptics, i must admit he pops the very same things i now can do myself. i also think that whatever he sets right is likely to go wrong again relatively quickly (by me sitting or standing "wrong"). so, i'm pretty sure his services are superfluous. i’m pretty sure that while he’s after the right thing (no, not my money, although there IS that incentive, i admit - just as that same incentive motivates your neurologist, GP, and HMO, too) - i think i’d have to go to him 3 or 4 times a day to get proper help from him (like, once per CH!). that being impractical, i think i must be my OWN chiropractor. so, i don’t think he "helped" me (any more than i had already helped myself). but … i studied the anatomy charts in his waiting room. two things i found significant: 1.) there's a pair of cervical nerves that emanate from the 1st (atlas) and 2nd (axis) cervical vertebrae. one nerve goes to each side of the head, into EXACTLY the spot that my CH starts. one nerve for EACH SIDE. now, we’ve speculated here that viruses, seasons, histamines, light, all manner of things (triggers et al) CAUSE the CH … none of which explain the "one sided" nature of these damned headaches. but if ONE of TWO nerves, each going to a different side of the head, is at fault here … well, that gives me pause for thought. 2. the pituitary gland (the gland that responds to the hormonal output of the hypothalamus, the "timer" gland that we all suspect of being responsible for the amazing clock-like attribute of CH) sits right behind the muscles that are attached to and support the axis and atlas. now, where i come from, that’s a lot of (admittedly circumstantial) evidence for a screw-up in the cervical vertebrae. could it be a misalignment of the atlas/axis pulling on the attached muscles (or vice versa) aggravating the 2nd cervical nerve ON ONE SIDE to produce that growing metal pinball in my nose that becomes the CH; also causing muscular pressure on the pituitary to produce a "memory" of the event and cause it’s timed recurrence? could the exercise that’s so effective be effective because it manipulates, adjusts, massages and stretches the spine in general, the cervical vertebrae in particular to relieve that atlas/axis problem? before you say, "no, impossible!" … i remind you of all the women here who were told only men get CH … for them, it was … well, "impossible!". careful of superlatives. ok, i’m done. and i promise (in anticipation of the angry responses) to resist the temptation to posit this theory again here. but I’m telling you … when we’re all through with the suppressive (and NOT curative) drugs, when we get to the CAUSE … it’s going to be physical and it’s going to be spinal! there’s just too much evidence, like the effectiveness of exercise, for it to be otherwise. i think. sorry for the length - it’s hard to address this quickly,
pain freedom for all humans, (including CHeads)!!!
-lcbob