Anyone Get (non-spiritual) Migraines?

[anthony574]

I read in a book called "Blink" about biofeedback and it explained a study done that trained people to be able to direct bloodflow to their fingertips. This was done as a potential "cure" for migrained as it directed bloodflow away from the head and eased or eliminated their symtoms.

[david_obsidian]

Jim said:
Make the dilation feel warm and yawn-ish.

Very, very interesting stuff Jim.  Have you just begun the elevation of the yawn to a yoga practice?

Do you snore Jim?  Interestingly, some problems in the throat can also lead to snoring and sleep apnea;  and sleep apnea can in turn exacerbate migraines.  These things seem to be linked. Are yogic exercises focussed on the throat area of value for mitigating all of these problems?  And maybe many Kundalini symptoms while we are at it.

This brings up another tantalizing question:  is a yawn a spontaneous yogic mudra already?  You have suggested a yawn-related yoga practice. Could other kinds of deliberate yawning then be a useful yogic exercises?  One option might be to just do a series of deep yawns geared to developing the throat muscles.

On the subject of both apnea and migraines,  (oh yes, I have had painless migraine, but only occasionally),  here is a suggested practice that can help with both sleep apnea and migraines (and presumable snoring, since what helps apnea will probably reduce snoring).  It's basically about slanting the bed so the head is higher than the base:

http://www.menopauseatoz.com/sleep-killing-you.shtml

We tested our theory by having about 100 volunteer migraineurs sleep with the heads of their beds elevated, from 10-30 degrees. Head elevation, we theorized, would improve the brain circulation by providing some gravity assistance to drainage. Interestingly, we found that Space Medicine researchers discovered that brain circulation (and heart pumping) is optimal at a 30-degree head of bed elevation.

To our amazement, we found that the majority of the migraineurs in our study experienced relief by this simple sleep position change! Many had no new migraines, after being migraine sufferers for 30 or more years! The results were very fast, within a few days. And there were very interesting side effects, too. Our volunteers woke up more alert. Morning sinus congestion was significantly reduced for most people. Some reported that they no longer had certain allergies. Could we have discovered the real purpose and cause of migraines?

[Scott]

I hope the yawn is pursued more, because I've found it to be a very integral practice...along with cat stretching.

[Jim and His Karma]

David, yawn is the deepest conscious dilation one can do without a lot of yoga practice. And yawning needn't just take place where it normally takes place...with practice, the move can be directed just about anywhere. It's a helpful move to direct to achieve a temporarily opening at a block....sort of a foreshadowing of how things will feel after mantra and/or asana has more deeply and enduringly worked on it. When parents teach kids to clear ear pressure via yawning and swallowing, they are, yes, teaching them a yoga move.It's not the yawning that does it, per se...it's the yawning-ness. And that's what I'm suggesting here, as well. Don't just yawn, but dilate the exact spot at the base of the throat, front of the collar bone, with a yawny feeling.

Scientists don't know why we yawn. I'm increasingly convinced that all the things which strangely elude scientists about the human body and its energy, etc, are energetic-body yoga issues. For example, shivering, laughing, and crying - all mysterious to science - are all telltale yogic diaphragmatic contractions which evoke a tiny spray of healing/energizing/consoling kundalini. That's not gonna come up via research!

The dilation strategy I wrote about seems to create a strong temporary unblocking at the front of the throat chakra (and, yes, it works on any chakra, but even I, who is way more on the hatha/hacking end of things than I probably should be, refrain from working under the hood unless there's a serious problems). I'm not sure, however, how much enduring help it brings. That remains to be seen. But if you have migraines or TMJ, even temporary help is a godsend.

And yes, energetic throat block is, in my mind, unquestionably the cause of snoring and sleep apnea (neither at all understood by medicine, btw). And it's also, I'm pretty sure, responsibile for a lot of kundalini syndrome issues....hence this posting: http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/index.php?topic=3296
I do have snoring and sleep apnea, and am doing this practice just before sleep. I'm not sure how far into the night the effect extends at this point. Work in progress! It may also help with tinnitus and glaucoma, I'd imagine. Though tinnitus is touchy....if you open a throat block and more energy coarses thru head, that can increase ringing in ears - a standard kundalini symptom.

The practice you suggest will surely help. People with front channel block at throat tend, posturally, toward jalandara bandha (when watching tv or reading, I slump way down in couch until chin just about hits collarbone).  So anything that keeps the head at a greater angle while sleeping is good (I think that's what's happening here,, just via gravity of the body pulling down).

[Jim and His Karma]

I need to hasten to add that once you get the knack of this dilation, there's no semblence of actual yawning. Much like after you learn to clear ear pressure, you don't need to actually swallow or yawn. You refine the action to its essence. It's the sensation of temporarily pulling back on a big rubber band that's been constricting at the base of your neck (I "spread out" the dilation slightly, to just below my collarbone, too).

And once you can do that, first, it's a great move to hold in AYP pranayama (and it's in keeping with Yogani's suggestion to be "open" in the throat in pranayama....this is just a much more specific way of attaining that) and second it's much easier to maintain during the day. Though, once again, the jury's out as to how enduring the effects are. My intuition says it's not doing much to diminish the block, it's just routing around it. But who knows....

[yogani]

quote:Originally posted by Jim and His Karma

I need to hasten to add that once you get the knack of this dilation, there's no semblence of actual yawning. Much like after you learn to clear ear pressure, you don't need to actually swallow or yawn. You refine the action to its essence. It's the sensation of temporarily pulling back on a big rubber band that's been constricting at the base of your neck (I "spread out" the dilation slightly, to just below my collarbone, too).

And once you can do that, first, it's a great move to hold in AYP pranayama (and it's in keeping with Yogani's suggestion to be "open" in the throat in pranayama....this is just a much more specific way of attaining that) and second it's much easier to maintain during the day. Though, once again, the jury's out as to how enduring the effects are. My intuition says it's not doing much to diminish the block, it's just routing around it. But who knows....

Hi Jim:

Yes, this is what we mean by opening the throat on inhalation during spinal breathing pranayama. Nice discussion here on some of the underlying reasons. Similarly, there are underlying reasons why we gently restrict the epiglottis on exhalation (ujjayi) during spinal breathing. And we self-pace as always, of course.

Like the old saying goes: "One pill will cure us, and two pills will make us sicker."

The guru is in you.

[Jim and His Karma]

Yogani, I'd thought I was diligently following your throat-opening direction for several years now. I thought my throat was quite open the whole time! But mounting evidence led me to understand that my throat wasn't just failing to be particularly open, but it was, in fact, horribly blocked (in the FRONT....the "down" route...not in the back, where prana runs up smoothly). And I'd had no idea.

So merely trying to "be open in the throat" was, for me, not nearly enough. It's taken me several years to puzzle out my simple-seeming solution (for more details (and a bunch more things to do), people are invited to read the posting I keep linking to,  at:  http://www.aypsite.com/plus/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=3296 ). I hope it helps others both in their practices and also in their health.

BTW, the inevitable question is: AYP pranayama happens in the back route, not the front....so why would a block that's stritcly in the front affect it, and why would openness there be critical? I don't pretend to know the answer. And I'm still doing my pranayama in the back, as always. But the diff is huge.

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:Originally posted by Shanti
I did feel some purification symptoms in my throat area though.. the scratchy throat and feeling very thirsty.. but this was for a short period.

Shanti, the sore throat may have been the result of aiming at the wrong spot. It's extremely easy (I do it all the time myself) to accidentally work on the larynx/adam's apple instead of the base of the throat.

One trick is to rest your index finger in the notch of the collar bone and very gently prod forward on the flesh of the throat with the fingertip...just to "mark the spot".

[Buddy]

Sometimes migraines can be caused by trigger points underneath the occipital lobes. Have someone press under the occipital ridge so see if there is pain there.

[Shanti]

quote:Originally posted by Buddy

Sometimes migraines can be caused by trigger points underneath the occipital lobes. Have someone press under the occipital ridge so see if there is pain there.

Welcome to the forum Buddy.
Yes, you have it right.. I do have migraines, and there is considerable pain in that region (on pressing). I actually discovered this through my chiropractor. During really bad migraines, there are points under the occipital ridge that makes me wince in pain when pressed.
Do you have a solution as to how to ease this pain?

[yogibear]

Hi all,

Don't rule out chiropractic. I help so many people with headaches it is a yawn most of the time. Let me say that I don't help everybody. But maybe 80%. because I treat the true problem which is the degenerative arthritic process in the neck.

No bragg, just fact.  Am I dating myself?

Did you know that chiropractic was discovered by restoring hearing to a deaf man? A friend of mine just restored site to a man who had been blind in one eye for about 12 years.

I asked him what happened.  He said the guy came in for neck pain.  He said his neck was really stuck and the first 4-5x he only got slight movement of the joint and not a good release. Then on the fateful day, he got a good movement of the joint and the man's bad eye immediately started tearing. Then his good eye started tearing and when he went to wipe his good eye he realized that he had vision in his bad eye.

He says that all he needs is corrective lenses like any one of us for perfect vision now. He said that he was in just before I called him and that he can read the lettering on the side of truck 70 feet away with any difficulty.

Magic? No. When you understand the wiring of the brain stem it makes perfect sense. Here is a link if any one is interested.

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/13718517.html

Back pain?

Just fyi.

Best, yb.

[Buddy]

Shanti,
Absolutely. Just find someone who does triggerpoint therapy. Many chiros do this.  There are several style of triggerpoint, the vast majority coming from Raymond Nimmo. I do Zen Triggerpoint (R).
The only problem I have with chiros are when they try to claim that all sorts of maladies can be attributed to "subluxation."

[yogibear]

Buddy,

How do you know that this is not true? That all kinds of problems cannot be the result of subluxation? What is your direct experience? When there is a symptom caused by subluxation, nothing is going to help it until that stuck bone is released and the irritation tof the nervous system stops as a result. If subluxation is not producing the symptom, then chiropractic will not help. But if it is, nothing else will.

It is that simple.

But you are right in that some chiropractors take this to the extreme. I like the cases that have been everywhere else already and the problem is really simple. And there it is, sticking out like a sore thumb. When you adjust the right bone, bingo, you are a hero, and to you it is so simple and obvious as the nose on your face. But to the suffering person, it is like magic.

Best, yb.

[Buddy]

yb,
As you know this is a very controversial subject in your community. The bottom line is the idea that a bone being out of alignment causes disease is a false one, and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Can it cause pain and discomfiture? Sure. But not disease. Subluxation is always an effect and never the cause.

[yogibear]

Buddy,

I am not aware of much controversy.

And you are right, Buddy. The misalignment is not the cause. It is that the bone is stuck, that is the problem, and that is what causes disease, whether is is musculoskeletal or otherwise.

Lifestyle habits, of course, are the main cause of disease.

Most of the effects of an adjustment occur between the ears, i.e., supra-segmentally. An adjustment sets a chain reaction in motion that has far reaching effects thruout the nervous system and the rest of the body.  

What about the kid with colic that was screaming all night and their parents come in at their wits end and in 4 adjustments their child is "sleeping like a baby" and you have a happy family again?

What about the kids with ear aches that have them clear up with just a few adjustments, never to return and no tubes?

What about the 18 month old girl who has been constipated from day one and her parents have resorted to a weekly suppository to get a BM because all medical solutions have failed and she gets her first lumbar adjusted six times and turns into a little poop machine?

What about the guy who has been up all nite with severe allergies and his eyes are watering and red and he can't stop sneezing and his sacrum gets adjusted and 15 minutes later he is 90% improved?

What about the guy who has had asthma for the last 18 years and he gets his 5th lumbar adjusted and he reduces his medication by 90%?

What about the lady who has non stop bleeding whose period won't turn off for the last week and she gets her first cervical adjusted and in 2 hours it is totally shut off?

What about the 18 year old kid who has rheumatoid arthritis and if he forgets his medication has to crawl on the floor to the medicine cabinet to take some pills and he gets his 12th thoracic adjusted and he throws away his pills away?

I ask you....what about these people? I am speaking from direct experience. You saw the link about the blind guy who had his site restored? You dispute this? The patient sure doesn't. I know this chiropractor. I talked to him about it.

This is just off the top of my head. I can think of others. And so can my colleagues. They all experience the same with their patients. Of course, the majority of what comes to us are back pain, neck pain and headache.

But sometimes we can snag someone who has been sentenced to a life of misery because conventional medicine, for whatever reason, wouldn't steer them to chiropractic and we can turn their life around for the better because we found the true cause of their symptom, the chronic degenerative arthritic process which is progressing in each and every one of us, according to our own particular karma.

This goes for people who have overtly musculoskeletal disease symptoms as well as that manifesting in other body systems.  

I have 22 years of experience. What experience are you speaking from?

To put it in simple terms: Stuck bone, nerve pressure, symptom and disease. Release stuck bone, decrease nerve pressure, symptom disappears, health of the entire body improves.

The effect of the subluxation is ultimately systemic. If you understand the relationship between nociception, proprioception and neuroplasticity, it is obvious.

I invite you to explain your model of subluxation to me and its true relationship to pain and disease.

If you are interested.  

Best, yb.