immune balance Archives | Linden and Arc

Do you ever wonder what the root cause of your headaches is? Probably not in the middle of having one! Realistically, you just want it gone. The functional medicine approach does not stop at the symptoms. It is a whole-body approach that asks what the root cause of those symptoms is. It’s at the moment you realize that your headaches don’t start in your head, that you are on your way to healing.

4 Types of Headaches

There are 4 different types of headaches, each with their own distinct symptoms but all are debilitating, no matter the form. Distinguishing the symptoms will help you categorize the type. These types are migraines, tension headaches, cluster headaches, and secondary headaches. Let’s explore the symptoms of each.

Migraine Headaches

The most severe and longest-lasting of all types of headaches are migraines. Migraines often times are preceded by an aura, flashes of light or blind spots. Sufferers may have difficulty speaking and experience tingling on one side of the face, an arm, or a leg. The throbbing or pulsing pain lasts from hours to days and is normally felt on one side of the head. Other symptoms of migraines can include light and noise sensitivity, nausea, and vomiting.

Tension Headaches

The most common headache is called a tension headache, or stress headache, It feels much like squeezing or “vice” like feeling around the head, temples, and upper neck. This type of headache is continuous and lasts anywhere from a half-hour to a week and symptoms can include trouble sleeping and difficulty concentrating.

Cluster Headaches

Cluster headaches, lasting 15 minutes to 3 hours occur in cluster periods, over a longer period of time. These are considered the most painful or excruciating types of headaches developing on one side of the head, in or around one eye and one side of the face. The severe, burning pain strikes at night.

Secondary Headaches

Secondary headaches are those that are caused by other conditions. These conditions can include sinus issues; high blood pressure, overexertion, medication side effect, withdrawal, or hormone imbalances, just to name a few.

The Functional Medicine Treatment of Headaches

Functional Medicine treats all types of headaches with success by looking deeper at the causes. We have remarkable success in treating headaches because we look deeper at the causes and treat accordingly. Often, more than one underlying cause contributes to each headache. Conventional medicine treats headaches and migraines with over the counter and prescription pain medications.

Noting the History of Your Headaches

Linden & Arc Vitality Institute doctors and practitioners will take thorough notes on the history of your headaches, along with an in-depth look at your full health story. We examine the location, type of pain, measured intensity, duration, and any other symptoms associated to determine the potential causes of the type of headache you are suffering from. We use the LMMD 7 Core Nodes of Healing approach to assessing your individual root causes and dig deeper. Let’s apply Linden & Arc Vitality Institute 7 Core Nodes of Healing to your headache relief.

7 Core Nodes of Healing For Headache Relief

The Gut

One of the 7 Core Nodes of Healing is the gut. Managing the gut and food reactions in terms of managing headaches could be the answer to headache relief. Food sensitivities and allergies are some of the most common reasons for headaches that we see in the clinic. You may not have symptoms immediately with a delayed IgG food sensitivity, the inflammation that grumbles from repeated exposure to a triggering food can result in daily headaches for some.

Histamine and Tyramine food reactions are common triggers of headaches and migraines. As well, dysbiosis, an imbalance in good and bad bacteria, can trigger headaches. An example of dysbiosis is high opportunistic candida overgrowth in the gut.

Hormones

High levels of cortisol, one of our main stress hormones, can lead to headaches. Therefore, take note of the timing of the headaches during your menstrual cycle. Typically, migraines are caused by an imbalance in Estrogen and Progesterone in women. This is why we typically see a surge in headache symptoms the week leading up to the period. Functional Medicine physicians call this Estrogen Dominance. High levels of Xenoestrogens in our environment and inflammation both cause headaches as well. We can manage migraines/ headaches in a cyclical fashion, using supplements or hormones at different stages of the menstrual cycle.

Energy

Mitochondria, the little ‘powerhouses’ or ‘factories’ in the cells, make our body’s energy (or ATP). They do this using nutrient substrates and oxygen. These mitochondria can function sluggishly from nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, chronic infection, and toxicity. This leads to a cascade of events that causes “energy failure” in the nerve tissue. This energy failure can activate headaches.We are able to test the Krebs cycle to assess for mitochondrial dysfunction and can test the individual nutrients that we know fuel the mitochondria. Riboflavin (B2), coenzyme Q10, magnesium, niacin (B3), carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid supplements are very effective in giving the mitochondria the boost that they need. Intravenous nutrients can start functioning much quicker in someone with an unhealthy gut.

Detoxification

The body needs regular detoxification to remove the many external toxins that we are faced with on a day to day basis. These exposures come from many different sources. These sources can be anything from pesticides on our food to the air we breathe, the water we drink, chemicals in our cosmetics, and cleaning products. We are exposed to other endocrine disrupters in places like receipts or plastic bottles. Detoxification system overwhelm and poor detoxifying genes allow our bodies to accumulate toxins much easier. These are well established in the literature to cause many health conditions. This “backlog” of toxins in the body can cause many different symptoms, one of which is headaches. Fortunately, we are able to test for all of the different chemicals and metals that we know to be an issue. In a stepwise, staged process, we teach the body how to detoxify more efficiently and see improvement in many symptoms including headaches.

Immune Balance/ Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation usually appears from infective triggers, known as “Biotoxins.” Biotoxins can appear from the inflammatory sources from food, gut imbalances, hormone imbalance, and toxin accumulation. Living toxins cause headaches. Examples are mold, Lyme, virus, or bacteria.

In genetically vulnerable individuals, these can trigger an inflammatory response termed Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome. This is a multi-symptom, multi-system disease, with headaches and other cognitive disruptions being very common. Mast cell activation syndrome, commonly associated with this, leads to the release of Histamine & other inflammatory cytokines, which can cause headaches. These are exceedingly common in our very ill patient population. We take a detailed history and analyze it appropriately.

Brain Power and Mood

Brain neurotransmitter’s imbalances can cause headaches and mood issues. A high level of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter, can lead to headaches and mood changes. It is important to rule out underlying neurological disorders or syndromes as a cause of headaches. Your functional medicine physician will be able to determine what to look for based on a history and examination.

Heart Vitality

Your physician will test your heart vitality with regard to headaches. There may be vascular (blood vessel) contributions to your migraines, from vascular activation of the nervous system. There is communication between blood vessels, nerve cells, and possibly Mast cells (mentioned above) in the activation of headaches. Headaches can be caused by high blood pressure so this is an important cause to initially rule out. We can establish from your personal and family history, and other lab results whether you have risk factors for the above.

Structural Issues

Cervical Spine, Head, Temporomandibular joint (TMJ), and Dental structural issues are all very closely related. Imbalances in one area can cause disruptions in the other. A detailed history of previous injuries is extremely important. Even “a bump to the head” or hidden dental infections or TMJ can be significant enough to throw things out of balance and contribute to headaches. We refer our patients to brilliant Nucca Chiropractors, Physio/ manual therapists and World Class Biological dentists with experience to assess these areas.

Mind Body Spirit Soul

The doctors at Linden & Arc Vitality Institute always look back to the emotional and spiritual contributions to your symptoms. Your mind, body, spirit, and soul are connected and one out of balance leads to all in illness. Addressing underlying issues helps to start the healing journey. We hold emotions and stress in our cells. Therefore, physical symptoms arise if these emotions have been held or suppressed.

Functional medicine practitioners have many tools to help you get the bottom of your headaches. You see from this discussion why medications fall short and do not help many headaches. If we look in the right places and treat your headaches with the individual care that they deserve, true healing and resolution can occur!

A HANDY RESOURCE
To track your symptoms: https://migrainetracker.ca. This can be useful for your physician to determine what type of headache you are having, which will help determine the root cause.

REFERENCES

Prevalence of Migraine in the Canadian Household Population. Pamela L Ramage-Morin 1 , Heather Gilmour 1. 2014 Jun;25(6):10-6. PMID: 24941316
Front Cell Neurosci. 2018; 12: 233. Published online 2018 Aug 3. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2018.00233. PMCID: PMC6088188
Vascular Contributions to Migraine: Time to Revisit? Bianca N. Mason1,† and Andrew F. Russo1
Alpay K, Ertas M, Orhan EK, Ustay DK, Lieners C, Baykan B. Diet restriction in migraine, based on IgG against foods: a clinical double-blind, randomised, cross-over trial. Cephalalgia. 2010;30(7):829-837. doi:10.1177/0333102410361404
Silberstein SD. Preventive migraine treatment. Continuum. 2015;21(4 Headache):973-989. doi:10.1212/CON.0000000000000199
Stovner LJ, Nichols E, Steiner TJ, et al. Global, regional and national burden of migraine and tension-type headache, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurol. 2018;17(11):954-976. doi:1016/S1474-4422(18)30322-3
Pringsheim T, Davenport W, Mackie G, et al. Canadian Headache Society guideline for migraine prophylaxis. Can J Neurol Sci. 2012;39(2 Suppl 2):S1-59.
Hajihashemi P, Askari G, Khorvash F, Reza Maracy M, Nourian M. The effects of concurrent coenzyme Q10, L-carnitine supplementation in migraine prophylaxis: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. Cephalalgia. 2019;39(5):648-654. doi:10.1177/0333102418821661
Bektas H, Karabulut H, Doganay B, Acar B. Allergens might trigger migraine attacks. Acta Neurol Belg. 2017;117(1):91-95. doi:10.1007/s13760-016-0645-y
Sadeghi O, Maghsoudi Z, Khorvash F, Ghiasvand R, Askari G. The relationship between different fatty acids intake and frequency of migraine attacks. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2015;20(3):334-339
Köseoglu E, Talaslioglu A, Gönül AS, Kula M. The effects of magnesium prophylaxis in migraine without aura. Magnes Res. 2008;21(2):101-108.
Andreeva VA, Szabo de Edelenyi F, Druesne-Pecollo N, Touvier M, Hercberg S, Galan P. Macronutrient intake in relation to migraine and non-migraine headaches. Nutrients. 2018;10(9):E1309. doi:10.3390/10091309

Author

Dr. Michelle van der Westhuizen, MD

There is an uncompromising connection between COVID-19 and the immune system. Having a supercharged immune system is proving to be our best defense against the virus. Let’s get into the heart of what COVID-19 is, how it spreads, and what supplements you can consume to heighten your immune system function. Before knowing how to fight or treat the virus, we need to better understand what is COVID-19.

What is COVID-19?

The Government of Canada states that the Human coronaviruses or COVID-19 causes infections in the nose, throat, and lungs. It is spread by touching your mouth, nose or eyes after touching respiratory droplets spread by an infected person. Let’s explore what to do to prevent COVID-19 from infecting our bodies.

What can we do to prevent COVID-19 from striking our Immune Sytem?

Just like with Influenza, the very best prevention from COVID-19 is washing your hands and not touching your mouth, nose, or eyes. This invaluable advice is only half the battle. let’s explore the best defense to stop COVID-19 in its tracks.

Your best defense to preventing COVID-19 is keeping your body healthy. Let’s supercharge your immune system with the proper vitamins and minerals and make it a new lifestyle!

Supercharging Your Immune System is Your Best Defense

Supercharging your immune system should be the focus of our everyday living. Let’s put it into perspective. If didn’t have an immune system, we would be fully open to the invasion of foreign bodies like viruses, bacteria & parasites, fungus & toxins. These invaders would overtake our bodies and we would be in a constant state of sickness. Pretty scary, huh?

A functioning, healthy immune system is always on the lookout for foreign invaders. These invaders are called antigens. Our cells, tissues, proteins, and organs all take part in the process. Our body responds, attacks, and rids them from our bodies. This is called immuno-response or immune system response.

Immune System Response

Our immune system responds by producing antibodies to fight the antigens. A copy of the antibody remains in your body for when the same antigen appears, which is why you get some diseases like measles, only once!

If our immune system is not functioning, your body will be open and susceptible to the myriad of diseases that come your way. A supercharged immune system can help fend off diseases, like COVID-19, or coronavirus.

Supercharging Your Immune System Response

How can we supercharge our immune system response? A healthy lifestyle is your immune system’s best friend. Here are 9 things you can do to raise your immune function and keep viruses like COVID-19 at bay.

Stop Smoking and reduce your consumption of alcohol
Reduce artificial sugar intake
Increase the consumption of fruits & vegetables.
Use essential oils with antiviral properties like oregano oil
Exercise daily
Sleep a minimum of 8 hours every night
Minimize stress and anxiety
Practice stress-reducing activities like meditation and yoga
Take the proper supplements

The Proper Supplements

At Linden & Arc Vitality Institute, our knowledgeable doctors can provide you with information about the proper supplements and doses your body needs for a thriving immune system. Amongst the many, 3 supplements stand out to supercharge your immune system: Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Magnesium.

Vitamin C and Immune System Function

Any infection at the cellular level experiences a higher level of oxidative stress and can have a destructive effect on the body. New studies on COVID-19 suggest that high-dose vitamin C is an effective treatment. Immune function is only one step to optimum health. Taking more vitamin C may not boost the immune system. We must look at the whole body’s health including gut health, hormone balance, detoxification, and treating underlying issues.

If you do not have enough Vitamin C in your diet, consider adding this to your health regimen. If you have a suppressed immune system, you might want to consider mega Vitamin C doses, monitored by a health practitioner. This along with other immune system boosting practices will hopefully keep COVID-19 away from you and your family.

Vitamin D-Light-ful: The Sun Source

This D – LIGHT – ful supplement is an incredible immune system booster. Most know that Vitamin D helps to prevent colds through the winter months. The lack of natural Vitamin D from the sun makes the winter months tougher. Colds and flu are prevalent in every household. It plays a huge role in activating immune cells or T-cells & macrophages that attack viruses and gives anti-inflammatory properties.

Vitamin D deficiencies can increase the risk of respiratory infections and the development of acute respiratory failure. COVID-19 is respiratory in nature, which puts humans at greater risk. Consider adding Vitamin D to your health regimen with the consultation of a physician.

Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants

Glutathione is the “mother of all antioxidants.” Our bodies normally carry a bountiful amount and it exists in many of the foods we eat.

Find amazing sources of sulfur-rich foods in vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, asparagus & spinach, and allium vegetables like onions, garlic, shallots, chives & leeks. Don’t mistake the power of glutathione for healthy immune function.

As a boost to the effectiveness of the healthy foods you are eating, glutathione is found in supplement form as well. What are the right vitamin & mineral supplement doses for you?

Vitamin Supplements & Doses

It is virtually impossible to consume enough vitamin-rich food to keep our body’s immunity heightened. Supplements will be beneficial to fight off COVID-19.

Never underestimate nutrition and the bountiful knowledge of your physician. With your health history on hand and the knowledge of risk factors under their belt, their advice will be very beneficial to you.

If you believe you have COVID-19, get tested immediately, and quarantine for the recommended 14 days.

Please refer to The Key to Healing, where we explore the art of breathing, which helps respiratory function.

Immune Function is one of Linden & Arc Vitality Institute’s 7 Nodes of Healing (see picture below), our holistic approach to optimum health. Achieving the health of the mind, body, spirit & soul is the only way to practice medicine.

Take your health into your hands and contact us at [email protected].

Tag: immune balance