In 2003, The World Health Organization (2016) estimated that:
- 303 million people worldwide experience migraines regularly. Headache disorders are among the most common disorders of the nervous system.
- Almost half of the adult population have had a headache at least once within the last year.
- Headache disorders, which are characterized by recurrent headache, are associated with personal and societal burdens of pain, disability, damaged quality of life, and financial cost.
According to the National Institute of Health, Quantum Biofeedback is effective in the treatment of migraine and tension type headaches.
According to research from Harvard (2013) identifying the cause according to your biochemical individuality can help to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks.
Studies according to WEBMD there are differences in blood flow in the brain during migraine attacks and in the pain-free periods in between. Using biofeedback training, a person can change the blood flow to the brain and better manage a headache. Most studies on biofeedback show that it makes headaches shorter and happen less often in children and adults.
While preventive drugs are available for extreme migraine sufferers, they can cause serious, toxic and unpleasant side effects. Quantum Biofeedback retrains nervous system responses to stress, one of the biggest triggers of migraines; it also helps relax muscle tension, and relieve pain, two intense components of migraines.
With a Quantum Biofeedback Evaluation you will receive a 35 page analysis of your stress triggers for your headache or migraines.
- You can voluntarily learn to control functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension.
Body functions -- like heart rate, skin temperature, and blood pressure -- are controlled involuntarily by your nervous system. You don't think about making your heart beat faster. It just happens in response to your environment, like when you're nervous, excited, or exercising.
A Quantum Biofeedback session helps you relax so you can fine-tune to control different body functions. For example, you might use a relaxation technique to turn down the brainwaves from beta waves (worry state) to alpha or theta waves (relaxed state) to prevent a headache.
Quantum Biofeedback retrains nervous system responses to stress, one of the biggest triggers of migraines; it also helps relax muscle tension, and relieve pain, two intense components of migraines.
Relaxation training slows down the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the stress response. The sympathetic nervous system is involved in regulating heart rate, blood vessel expansion and contraction, blood pressure, sweat production, sleep, and alertness. During stress, heart rate and blood pressure increase, sweat production increases, breathing becomes shallow, and adrenaline and other hormones are released, causing blood vessels to constrict and muscles to contract.
Deep relaxation reverses many of the physical responses that can trigger headaches. Additionally, during deep relaxation, the relaxed person takes fewer breaths per minute, yet breathes more deeply. This results in “bathing” the blood cells in oxygen, which means more oxygen gets to the muscles and to the brain. Increasing oxygen supply to the brain seems to help prevent headaches. With practice, deep relaxation changes your body’s response to adrenaline and other stress hormones so that it takes a greater disruption from life stresses (and the stress response) to trigger a headache. Becoming deeply relaxed not only helps reduce headache frequency, but it can give a greater sense of self-control as well as decrease irritability, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and blood pressure.
We also suggest when doing a Quantum Biofeedback Session to have complete microbiological exam check up as well as an MRI (a test that makes clear images of the brain without the use of X-rays) to make sure your symptoms are not from pathological causes.
Bibliography
http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/headache-disorders
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19935987