Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, The Liberal, Copyright February 20, 1990

Dear Dr. Horowitz:

I have been a regular reader of your articles for many years and I know you have addressed this topic before. But now that it is affecting me, I want more details.

I have developed fairly regular headaches. These have been bothering me for the past year or so, and I am now 55 years old. Previously I did have one headache every few months, but never anything terrible and not ever anything which lasted or was as consistent as these headaches. The headaches start at the base of my skull and travel around to my temples.

It feels like my head is in a vice. Aspirins help the headaches or if I go to sleep for even an hour I will wake without a headache. My doctor sent me to a specialist who did a bunch of tests and told me the headaches were being caused by stress. (I don’t think I am under any greater stress now than ever before.) I was told to keep taking the Aspirins. Could these headaches be related to something in my back?

Do you think there is something which could be done to help me? I thank you in advance for answering my questions.

ANSWER:

If you have been a reader of this column over the years you will remember many similar questions, and my answers have usually been to say that the great majority of headaches have a spinal problem (usually neck) as at least part of their origin. I don’t think your headaches sound any different.

Through the neck travels the blood from the heart, the nerves from the spinal cord and brain, sensory organs which detect blood pressure, veins returning blood from the head, muscles, tendons, and ligaments which move and support the neck and head and the spine itself which acts to stabilize and ‘hold up’ the head.

If there is the slightest disturbance in any of these structures, the delicate balance will be upset and a headache is the likely result.

I am not saying that all headaches are caused by problems in the neck. However, a problem in this area might make a subclinical headache become evident.

For example: You wake up and your neck is a bit stiff from the way you slept that night. You stumble out of bed and realize you are late for work. The bus has already passed and you call a cab.

The cab driver almost kills you six times in nine minutes, then charges you $21 plus GST. Your boss is in one of those moods. You didn’t have time for breakfast and you didn’t make any lunch and the cab driver has your lunch money. You don’t eat. It is raining and miserable outside and you don’t even have a window in your office. When you get home you are so hungry that you gobble down that chocolate bar you had been saving for a day just like this.

You have three cups of coffee to ‘settle you down’ and then your mother calls and asks why you never go to see Aunt Bessie anymore. You then realize that you have a terrible headache. What is the cause? The specialist you saw would call it stress. So would most people.

However, remember the neck and how important it is. This should get my point across: Let’s say you have to reach 100 points before you actually feel a headache. The stresses you went through during the day gave you 30 points. Not eating and allowing your blood sugar to drop gave you 30 more. Eating chocolate gave you an instant, but improper blood sugar surge, and another 15 points, as did the three cups of coffee and caffeine which goes with it.

This totals 90 points and still would not be enough to give you a headache. Remember the fact that you woke up with a bit of a sore neck. You may have been operating the entire day with a problem in your neck and this would give you the extra 10 points needed to bring on the headache.

Without the neck problem you still would have had a rotten day but maybe no headache. Maybe the rain, lack of fresh air and talking to your mother were the major culprits, but maybe still no headache without the neck problem.

I don’t know for sure, but maybe. Maybe there are allergies, hormonal disorders, thyroid problems and other things causing your headaches, but if the doctors say it is ‘stress’, Aspirin and sleep help and all tests are negative, then the neck is a good place to look for the true cause of your stress headaches.

Next week I will outline how a chiropractor would test to see if your neck was the culprit.

Allan Horowitz, D.C., is a chiropractor who practises in Richmond Hill and writes this public service column. He will attempt to answer readers’ questions about a variety of topics including back pain, headaches, nutrition, sport injuries and preventive medicine.

Address your questions to Allan Horowitz, care of The Liberal, Box 390, Richmond Hill, L4C4Y6.