Over a billion people worldwide are suffering from headache in a given year. It can last from a few minutes to months at a time, and vary from a simple discomfort to a debilitating pain that would prevent to perform any daily activity. There are numerous kind of headaches, and they all have their specific characteristics and level of severity, from totally harmless to life-threatening. Migraine is one of the most common, and is one of the leading cause days of work lost due to disability. It usually affects women more than men, and occurs most commonly between the ages of 25 to 55 years old. It tends to run in families and if a child suffers with migraine, the likelihood of having chronic migraine as an adult will increase. In many cases, migraine can be accompanied with various other symptoms such as visual disturbances, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, tingling or numbness in the face or one side of the body, or increased sensitivity to light, sound, touch or smell.
There are several other types of headaches that can mimic a migraine but have a different causation or pattern, such as tension headache, cluster headache, tension headache, or whiplash related headache. In total there are over a hundred type of headaches, but they usually will have a specific presentation (type of pain, timing,…) and will have one or combination of triggers. One of the key for a proper diagnosis and treatment is to identify the actual trigger(s).
What causes headaches?
Interestingly, the brain has no pain receptors, hence the pain felt during a headache is not coming form the brain, but from other surrounding tissues such as the skin, the muscles of the neck and face, the sinuses, and the blood vessels and other connective tissues surrounding the brain. When those tissues are irritated or inflamed, a headache will occur. The cause of the irritation of those structures are not all totally well understood, but we know that stress, fatigue, toxicities, hormonal imbalances, and many other factors play an important role.
Treatment
In conventional medicine, the most common way to treat a headache is using medication and rest. Most of the pain relief medication are found over the counter, but sometimes a doctor would prescribe more aggressive medications such as anti-depressant, beta-blockers, or anti-epileptic drugs as a preventive manner. In some more extreme cases, injections of Botox can be used. All of those method can technically provide some relief, but they usually don’t go without any side-effects and they don’t do much to find the real cause of the headache but rather treat the symptoms.
In our approach, we focus on finding the trigger(s) and root causes of your headache and develop a specific treatment plan targeting your own needs, including neurologically-based rehabilitation, lifestyle and nutritional advice, and advanced metabolic testing.
I was referred to Dr. Tanaka for treatment as I was having severe headaches […] Dr. Tanaka took a very holistic approach in his treatment for me while displaying a genuine concern for my welfare. He was very easy to talk to and took the time to explain the source of my discomfort and worked with me through the healing process. He prescribed instruction and treatment on everything from my diet to physical activity. Over a period of approximately 6-8 weeks, I noticed a definite improvement in my health, physically and mentally.-M.F.
