Posted by lc bob on March 19, 1999 at 14:38:51:
In Reply to: solution which worked for me posted by JOhn Davis on March 19, 1999 at 09:31:44:
John - i believe i have stumbled onto something very similar - although not as structured as meditation.
as regulars here are aware, i am a proponent of the theory that the CH emanates in the muscles, vertebrae, and/or nerves of the upper back/neck. i have recently tried chiropractic after having some luck with self manipulation of my ch-side shoulder and neck. i believe the chiropractic did not help (didn't hurt - but he was doing the same thing i was doing to myself, essentially). however, i had the opportunity to study the anatomy charts in his offices while i waited for him to get to me.
what i saw was the atlas/axis vertebrae (cervical nos. 2 and 3, i think) support a nerve which exits the spinal cord and goes DIRECTLY to where my ch starts(back of nose/behind eye). Also, there is a muscle beneath the trapezius that connects to the rear base of the skull. there is another set of muscles that are anchored to the base of the skull at the same place and go upwards and over the top of the skull. beneath this muscle is the cerebellum, which houses the pituitary. also, the trigeminal nerve, and about 3 or 4 other ganglions leave the brain just under this muscle.
i'm not a doctor - i'm a programmer. i looked at this as if i were trying to find a bug in a program by learning the program structure (anatomy) and observing the effects of the bug (CH).
we're all struggling to come up with a description of ch ... something common to us all. but we have trouble with this. there seem to be many many variants. some get the pain in the temple ... some have facial "heat" ... some have neck pain ... some earaches ... most have teary eye. some find water helpful ... some find exercise helpful ... most find oxygen helpful ... some find muscle relaxants helpful ... some find heat effective ... some find ice works. most have the circadian (daily timing) and seasonal symptoms. but nothing universal.
so, as i looked at the nerve charts, i saw where those ganglions under that muscle go (note there are 2 sets ... one for EACH SIDE of the head) some go to the face, some the ear, some the nose, some the eye, hmmmm ... the muscle that covers them connects to the clavicle and the skull and to muscles that go over the top of the head (another pain center for some of us). hmmmmmm
i'm thinking, what if that muscle cramped? like the cramps one gets in a calf or hamstring from running ... you know the kind - painful as HELL and the only thing you can do is stretch it somehow and massage it to get it to "let go". but if the muscle there beneath the trapezius cramped ... there would be NO WAY to stretch it or massage it to get it to release. hmmmmmm.
i looked up muscle cramps. guess what? some things that cause them are lack of oxygen and dehydration. (!!) hmmmmmmmm ... and the recommended therapy is hydration (water), oxygen, massage and EITHER heat or cold compresses. hmmmmmmm
one last thing ... the muscle is quite near the pituitary gland. we all look to the hypothalmus as it's the "timer" gland. true - but what happens is the hypothalmus releases chemicals that activate the pituitary gland, which in turn releases hormones and such to effect body changes and reactions (not the least of which is turning off the hypothalmus!). if this muscle cramps, i thought, and somehow affects the pituitary, it's at least conceivable that abnormal circadian rhythms might result.
so ... armed with all this ... i began to imagine those muscles - the one beneath the trapezius and the ones that go over the skull - during a ch or at the outset of one. i imagined the ones on the ch side were cramping, and i imagined them releasing, relaxing. almost every time, i feel a sort of knot there behind my ear that seems to go away as i think about relaxing those muscles. and before i start this, i'd have sworn that my neck/head muscles weren't "tight" ... and it surprises me to feel that knot go away - as if the only way i know it was tight is that i feel it relax. most of the time i also feel one or two "pops" in my upper neck on the ch side, sometimes my ch ear pops, many times my ch nasal passage clears - just from imagining this.
the effect takes about 3 to 5 minutes to start reducing the pain - but that's the sequence. i imagine those muscles cramping. i imagine them relaxing. i feel my neck pop/ear pop/nose clear ... and then while i'm still concentrating (as you say - not easy during a ch) on those muscles ... the pain starts to dissipate after a few minutes.
so i think you're really right, john. this biofeedback (really what it is - except instead of an electronic feedback signal - your feedback is the reduction of pain) meditation/concentration/imagination is key. perhaps i'm doing the same thing you are when you recognize and analyze your pain by imagining it as a physical phenomenon, that/those muscles cramping.
my apologies for the length here ... i've been wanting to post this for a week or so - but couldn't come up with the right forum. John's post was too close to ignore. i hope others can find success with some of this. thank you, John.
pain freedom is a human right!
-lcbob