If there ever was a poster child for conditions we thought we knew all about, but now our understanding has changed, migraine would be a leading candidate. Originally regarded as primarily a headache, migraine has evolved from being regarded as a vascular (circulatory) disorder to a complex neurological disorder in the past 20 years. During that span of time the model of migraine has developed into now being thought of as a chronic disease, rather than being regarded as merely an isolated pain-based condition the way it once was. The history of migraine is a shining example of, "the more you know, the more you learn what you don't know".

Even 20 years ago though, migraine was always regarded as complex, involving a cascading affect of hormonal changes, and accompanying features such as nausea and light-inducing triggers that made it much
more complicated than the average head pain. The nutritional triggers such as red wine and chocolate further added to the complex tapestry of interconnected features, and combination headaches involving  migraine
features interacting with chronic tension sites became more commonly diagnosed. In fact, the old joke used to be, "I understand there's some confusion over your diagnosis." And the sufferer replies, "Migraine or yours?"

When I first began seeing migraine sufferers  20 plus years ago, the rationale for applying neuromuscular regulation was that it was primarily vascular or blood flow based, based on the model credited to Harold Wolff. Over the years I've witnessed many individuals learn how to bring their headaches under control by learning how to control their own circulation, with great success. The caveat always was, however, that once the headache had arrived it was too late to attempt to do anything to improve it. The idea behind learning to increase blood flow was to keep the headache from arriving at all.

Recently however, my appreciation for the level an individual could influence their own condition- like the diagnosis of migraine itself- became expanded. During the course of teaching an individual neuromuscular regulation skills as part of an in- patient chronic pain treatment program, I observed a pain patient arrive one day in the midst of a significant migraine headache. By the time we had completed our visit for the purpose of learning how to regulate her pain, she reported her headache had decreased by about 70%, which I had always been taught to believe wasn't realistically possible.

So I guess it just goes to show, what is possible to learn how to influence and improve, like the diagnosis of migraine itself, continues to be in the process of expanding. And when it comes to nervous system based conditions and how far they can be corrected through applied self-regulation, we don't yet have all the answers, but I hope you will take the time to consider alternatives to the standard approach.

To learn more about treating migraines with biofeedback, contact Peter Behel at (707) 579-7982 or peterbehel@earthlink.net

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