GenInv – Health and Wellness

Avoiding chocolate to prevent migraine is not necessary – it isn’t about the chocolate!

The thought of living without chocolate is unbearable but I know that for many of you, the experience is not worth it!

However, many of my patients are now eating chocolate, in fact this is what I ask them to do after 3-4 treatments – and you can imagine their (and mine!) delight when they do so without headache or migraine.

But why is it that I can eat chocolate without headache – I’m sure that

chocolate has the same effect on me as it does on someone else who ends up with a headache. For example phenylethylamine (PEA) is a chemical in chocolate that causes blood vessels to expand and contract – this probably happens for everyone, but not everyone gets headache or migraine. Some might say that the chocolate sensitises their system, whilst some authorities suggest that their system is already sensitised before the chocolate came along.

I suspect that just as in migraine and tension h

eadache sufferers, the brainstems of those whose headache or migraines are triggered by chocolate, are already sensitised. The normal response of the blood vessels to PEA is to expand, but the pain interpreting centres in the brain understands this (normal) increased activity to be much more than what it is and pain results.

What’s causing the sensitisation? It is easy to confirm a neck disorder because temporary reproduction and lessening of head pain occurs when examining the joints of the

upper neck – it is important to confirm the source of sensitisation …

… then you can enjoy the benefits of eating (good quality and dark) chocolate:

a natural mood enhancer

a stress reliever

a memory enhancer

improves your levels of serotonin (which will desensitise your brainstem).

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YourHeadacheSoultions.co.uk is one voice of the Watson Headache Institute.

The Watson Headache Institute was established to increase the awareness of cervicogenic (neck) disorders in headache and migraine by imparting my (and that of others) clinical experience and knowledge; to present and discuss past and present relevant research and to undertake and support rigorous clinical and scientific research in this specialty.

Appropriate and up-to-date knowledge is self-empowering; I believe that every headache sufferer has the right to know their headache diagnosis as precisely as possible (and what it means), to know the nature of their headache disorder, its outcome and possible types of treatment.

What has yet to gain acceptance is my (and that of others) belief, supported by my unparalleled clinical experience and a significant body of international research, that it is incorrect to consider headache and migraine types as totally different entities and that cervicogenic (neck) disorders can be instrumental in the headache and migraine process.

Although Physiotherapy, Chiropractic and Osteopathy are different disciplines, we are supporters of the idea that headache and migraine sufferers, no matter what their diagnoses, can be helped to live their lives more effectively through appropriate neck treatment. However, because treatment of the neck does not fit the medical model of headache and migraine, the model has demonstrated little interest in exploring this as an option. It is essential that all factors, which have the potential to sensitise the brainstem, be investigated equally.  Currently this is not the situation – the neck is largely disregarded.

So, whilst YourHeadacheSolutions.com is also about Education, it is also a directory for headache and migraine sufferers to source practitioners who have a particular interest in and are skilled in examination of the neck as a source of your headache or migraine – to create a more comprehensive approach and provide an alternative, medication-free treatment.

ver the past 15 years I have developed a series of techniques, which, by way of temporary reproduction of headache and easing of the headache as a technique is sustained, confirm that a neck disorder is the cause of or a significant factor in the mechanism of the headache or migraine – this a key diagnostic criterion for cervicogenic or neck involvement in headache according to the International Headache Society – importantly for the disorder to be related to the headache or migraine process the headache has to ease as the technique is maintained. If both reproduction and lessening are not possible then the neck may not be the source