БРОНХИАЛЬНАЯ АСТМА – BRONCHIAL ASTHMA

Almost any type of headache will improve if you can relax. That’s because relaxation releases endorphins, the natural narcotics that block pain receptors in the brain and send the pain threshold soaring.

The majority of headaches are believed to be caused by emotional stress, particularly by anxiety and depression which trigger the fight-or-flight response, sending the body into an emergency state. It follows that the best way to reduce headache is to stay in the opposite state, one of mental calm and deep physical relaxation.

Practicing deep relaxation with muscle tensing is an important form of behavioral medicine. It requires that you assume an active role in your own recovery and it creates a wonderful feeling of being in control and of being on the path to freedom from medication.

An overall assessment of success rates at a sampling of pain and headache clinics showed recently that relaxation training helped approximately 60 percent of chronic headache sufferers to reduce and control their pain enough so that they could resume a normal life. Most people studied were able to reduce their pain level by 70 percent, though not all achieved total relief. In many people, the regular practice of deep relaxation alone made further pain medication unnecessary. While relaxation does not cure the underlying source of headaches, it is certainly one of the most helpful coping techniques.

Relaxation, biofeedback and pain relief imagery are all akin to self-hypnosis. Among their many benefits is relief of chronic muscle tension. This unnecessary tension not only creates tension headaches but keeps shoulder, neck and jaw muscles tightly constricted, constantly draining energy during much of the day.

Surveys based on a simple muscle-tensing relaxation technique at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City found that it provided symptomatic relief for 80 percent of patients suffering from chronic tension headache. Although relaxation appears to benefit tension headaches most, it has also helped relieve the pain of TMJ and combination headaches, and to a lesser extent classic and common migraines.

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Herbs and other naturally occurring substances are also used in treating headaches with homeopathic medicines. As more and more Americans lose confidence in conventional medical care, they are assuming responsibility for their own health and are turning to new and alternative healing options. The most popular alternative to drug therapy is homeopathic medicine.

Homeopathy uses a number of natural medicines. When given in large doses, these medicines tend to produce side effects. The side effects, or symptoms, of all homeopathic medicines have been carefully observed and catalogued over many years. The principle behind homeopathy is to treat a patient’s symptoms with a homeopathic medicine that produces the same symptoms. The rationale is that when given in very small doses, a well-chosen medication can cure illnesses that have similar symptoms.

Homeopathic medicines are best prescribed by a homeopathic physician. In determining a patient’s symptom profile, a homeopathic physician will consider not only physical but psychological and even spiritual symptoms. Thus homeopathy is clearly holistic. Symptoms are regarded as evidence of the body-mind’s attempts to heal itself. The right homeopathic medicine will stimulate those symptoms and speed the healing process.

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Fortunately, most migraineurs are sensitive only to one or two of these triggers. But cold can be a trigger for one migraineur in three. These people experience a sharp pain in the, forehead or temple after swallowing ice cream or an iced drink. Often called the «ice cream headache» it is believed to be caused by irritation to nerve endings in the mouth or face. Pain impulses are referred by the trigeminal nerve to the forehead area where they set off blood vessel dilation and create a vascular headache. Exposure to icy winds or to any kind of cold on the face, or to diving into cold water, can also excite nerves that set off a migrainelike pain in the forehead or temple.

Yet another vascular variant is the hangover headache, caused by overindulgence in alcohol, a powerful stimulant dilates arteries inside the skull so that bending forward increases the pain. In this same class are rebound headaches, due to withdrawal from vasoconstrictors such as caffeine, nicotine or ergotamine.

Cluster Headache. While emotional stress is often the underlying cause of cluster headaches. Stage 2 occurs without any sensations. Research has yet to uncover all the mechanisms involved in the cluster process. But several experts have suggested that stress hormones released in Stage 1 cause calcium to flow into the muscular walls of blood vessels in the brain and scalp.

The presence of calcium causes blood vessels to go into spasm and constrict. When cerebral blood vessels spasm, the biochemical histamine is released. Studies have shown that levels of histamine are sharply higher at the onset of a

cluster headache while levels of other biochemicais, such as serotonin, remain constant.

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Approximately ten percent of people with chronic tension headaches experience an occasional migraine headache superimposed on the tension headache. At this time, their headache worsens and they feel the throbbing pain of a vascular headache in addition to the steady, dull ache of the tension headache.

This is believed to be due to a vascular component in some tension headaches. Most combination headaches are free of aura displays but the symptoms of common migraine are superimposed on those of the tension headache. Such headaches are best treated as migraines until the migraine ends, at which time therapy should be resumed for the tension headache.

Sexual Headaches. Another combination variant is the Benign Sexual Headache. The headache appears in two ways; either as a steady ache starting a few minutes before orgasm; or as a pulsating headache that suddenly begins at or near climax. Either type of headache may persist for several hours.

Headache specialists have suggested that sexual headaches are due to a combination of muscle contraction and blood vessel dilation set off by a sudden increase in blood pressure resulting from the excitement and exertion. These headaches usually appear in middle-aged men who are overweight, sedentary and mildly hypertensive. After several months, they often disappear. Though physically harmless, a benign sexual headache can have a traumatic effect on a person’s love life.

Since a sexual headache could be confused with a stroke, you should consult a physician to confirm that the headache is actually benign. Your doctor may suggest a combination of exercise coupled with gradual weight loss to effectively lower blood pressure and overcome the headache.

TMJ Headaches. A fairly common variant of tension headache is due to the TMJ or Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome. People with deep anxiety often grind their teeth while asleep. This creates a painful spasm in face, neck and jaw muscles, particularly in the temporomandibular joint at the hinge of the jaw. Nerves refer the pain up to the forehead where it manifests as a headache in the temples and behind or below the eyes. A sign that a headache may be due to the TMJ syndrome is tenseness in the jaw on awakening and a reeling that the teeth have been tightly clenched.

The TMJ syndrome can often be relieved through relaxation or biofeedback naming (Chapter 8). Otherwise, one should consult a dentist, preferably a member of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Dentists are generally more aware of the TMJ process than doctors, and most are equipped to solve the problem.

They do so by making a light acrylic splint to be worn between the teeth while asleep. By making the teeth mesh correctly, the splint relaxes the jaw muscles so that they remain unstressed throughout the night. This usually stops the headaches.

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Contributing to the success of most headache clinks is the growing recognition mat stress is the underlying cause of the majority of headaches. This is hardly surprising since medical science now recognizes that virtually every disorder is stress-related, at least to some extent. Unresolved emotional stress is generally considered to be the underlying cause of at least 80 percent of headaches, with the remainder being due to a variety of other forms of stress, ranging

from the physical stress of noise or flickering lights, to the biological stress of low blood sugar.

Lack of funding, and difficulty in correlating stress to headaches in a laboratory setting, account for the paucity of documented evidence supporting the stress origin of headaches in medical journals. Compared to the $250 million awarded to research diabetes in 1989, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke allotted a mere $1.4 million for headache research. Nonetheless, among headache specialists themselves, there is wide clinical acceptance of stress as the underlying cause of most headaches.

For example, U.S. News (July 31, 1989, page 4) begins its major coverage report on headaches by saying, «Stress has long been considered the principal cause of all headaches». And Arnold Fox, M.D. and Barry Fox, Ph.D., authors of The Beverly Hills Diet, recently advised in Let’s Live Magazine (September 1989, page 59) that we should »start attacking the number one cause of headaches: stress».

Migraines are no exception. Discussing migraine trigger mechanisms, the Migraine Foundation of Toronto, Canada, states in its literature, »Migraine is triggered by precipitating or provoking factors—elements of stress, whether physical, emotional or situational that, given the predisposition, set off the actual headache process». The same literature notes that stress can consist of worry, anxiety, tension, emotional change, excitement, shock, repressed hostility, anger or depression, all arising from life situations.

Again, Dr. Seymour Diamond, director of the Diamond Headache Clinic and National Migraine Foundation, Chicago, stated recently that, «Our modem world is rampant with tension, frustration, anxiety, depression and repressed hostility, all of which can trigger headache pain. A multitude of chronic, recurring headaches are precipitated by stress». And in his headache classic, Headaches, The Drugless Way to Lasting Relief (Celestial Arts, 1987), Harry C. Ehrmantraut, Ph.D. states, «As a general rale, it is safe to say that a tension headache is precipitated by tension in the immediate life situation. This may arise from anger, aggravation, frustration, guilt or related emotional states.»

Several authorities believe that marital stress is one of the most common causes of headaches. To confirm this, Rajan Roy, Ph.D., associate professor of social work and psychiatry at the University of Manitoba, studied 15 married couples. In each marriage, one partner suffered from recurrent tension or migraine headaches and all were experiencing marital stress. After a series of counseling sessions designed to reduce marital stress, 11 of the headache sufferers reported that their headaches were vastly improved.

Certainly, headaches can be provoked by drugs, illness, alcohol or other causes. But the prevailing opinion of most headache specialists is that the majority of headaches are provoked by negative emotions arising out of conflicts concerning job, money, marriage or similar life situations.

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