Today I attended a lecture about headaches, cluster headaches and migraines with Lamberts Nutrition who helped me to understand better the mechanics of this condition. For instance, I was interested to learn that the pounding in the head comes from inflammation not having much space to expand. Inflammation lies at the root of many conditions and thanks to the gut/brain axis via the vagus nerve has an effect on gut permeability. Inflammation releases inflammatory cytokines, mast cells and histamine which leads to hypersensitivity and worsens the pain response.
Over the years I have heard some horrendous stories about people living with cluster headaches and migraines who tell me about needing to stop the car and wait for visual disturbances and disabling pain to cease, others who lock themselves in a darkened room for days sometimes until they can safely move again and those who get a dark dull pain descend for weeks at a time. I’m always impressed at how on earth people have managed young children and/or a job in these conditions.
I’m going to run a series of posts about some of the most common remedies I use in my practice and am starting with this one, Belladonna. In homeopathy the clue to the remedy is often in the appearance of it in its original form.
Look at the shiny black berries - sometimes the eyes of someone needing this remedy will look almost black as the pupils dilate and the headache associated with belladonna is a bursting, throbbing, pounding violent one. You can almost hear the thud thud in your skull. Light will make it much worse and the only relief comes from lying in a darkened room. It can come on after too long in the sun or dehydration but these are only two of a long list of triggers - see box below.
A Belladonna headache is usually quick to come on but should recede equally rapidly after taking the remedy. If it’s something you get regularly, or this remedy doesn’t provide relief it is likely another remedy would be a better fit for you and I can work with you to re-balance your body and stop them coming altogether.
Headache: for one word - a thousand different meanings
When I first started working as a homeopath I was fascinated to learn about the myriad of different ways people can experience headaches. Getting to understand exactly what a headache is like for you from beginning to end helps me to match this to a remedy. At your appointment I want to know every last detail: Is it front, back, temples? Pounding, splitting, dull? What triggers it? If you get auras or visual disturbances, what do you smell? What colours and shapes do you see? What sounds do you hear? And because this is holistic medicine - what you’ve eaten, what’s going on in your life, where you are in your menstrual cycle, other medications, other pains, how you sleep and how your bowels are, all play a part in helping me to find the right remedy.
I often work with other therapists if the problem appears to be mechanical and my reason for attending the Lamberts Webinar today was to find out more about nutritional supplements that can address the chemical imbalances which lead to headaches.
Listening to the advice today about magnesium, Co-enzyme Q10 and PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide), curcumins, vitamins B12, B2 and D and how a combination of these and reducing food triggers (cheese, chocolate, nuts, alcohol - literally all the fun stuff!) can help you to manage headaches.
Unless you have a number of expensive blood tests, that’s a lot to include/cut out. I thought how lucky I am to have homeopathy as a tool and how effective it’s been. I would expect within a few days of starting the correct remedy to notice improvements in energy levels and mood, then if you experience any migraines for them to be milder, shorter and less frequent until you don’t have any at all.
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