New Research: What’s the Connection with Colic, Migraines, and Parkinson’s Disease

A study released earlier this week showed that there is a link between migraine headaches and Parkinson’s disease. The study found that patients who experienced migraines with aura in their middle ages had nearely twice the risk of having Parkinson’s Disease later on in life. The study also found that these patients had a greater risk of having a movement disorder such as restless leg syndrome.

Also, let’s not forget that last year, a study showed that infants with colic were at a greater risk of experiencing migraines as they grew older.

So what in the world could these 3 conditions have anything to do with each other. They all appear to be unique and seperate disease processes, but do they have a common thread or a common cause?

Three conditions with three stages of life

When you look at these three conditions, you’ll notice that they have impact on completely different times of a human life span. You generally see infants having colic, teenagers to middle ages with migraines, and Parkinson’s Disease most commonly affects people later in life.

One of the most fun and interesting parts of my practice is that I get to see people across the entire life span. When you’re focused on something unique like Structural Correction of the upper cervical spine, it tends to attract patients that are beyond the neck and back complaints of traditional chiropractic.  Amongst these cases have been infants with colic, migraine headaches, and Parkinson’s disease, and many times these patients have responded beautifully.

So why can correcting someone’s neck have a positive impact on these separate and distinct conditions? Is there a specific manipulation for colic or Parkinson’s Disease that’s different than those for headaches?

One Cause

Could your problems be the result of ADC?

A big knock against chiropractic is that people think that chiropractors claim to cure every disease of man. This leads a lot of people to think that there’s a specific adjustment for certain conditions.

Got a headache? Get a headache adjustment. Got back pain? Get your back pain adjustment? Have a stomach ache? Get your stomach ache adjustment.

In my office, there is only one purpose for an adjustment. That is to restore the normal positioning of the head and neck so that the brain and nervous system is in the best position to work again. As I’ve discussed numerous times on this blog, trauma and disruption of the head and neck can and will cause problems throughout the body.

The more that we learn and understand the body, the better we are able to piece together why these conditions are related to head and neck problems. When neurovascular tissue is being disrupted by faulty neck alignment, then you have a recipe for problems in the brain.

For years we have thought that colic was a digestive system problem. So they treat fussy stomachs with digestion medications and wonder why things never got better. Now we’re seeing that gentle neck adjustments are suddenly making these kids stop wailing in pain, we may have a better answer.

Infants and toddlers may have suffered a difficult birth which led to damage of the ligaments and muscles of the head and neck. This damage leads to the same mechanisms for why poor neck alignment causes migraine headaches.

When you mess with the position of the head and neck, the veins and arteries that are responsible for normal circulation to the brain become dysfunctional. Suddenly, you have the environment spinal fluid and old enflamed blood to kick back into the brain and cause problems.

Then as you leave this problem to last years and years, some of these critical brain cells may be damaged enough to create the permanent changes you see with Parkinson’s disease.

Take Home Message

Neurovascular problems play a big role in a lot of different problems within the body. While not every neurovascular problem is related to a structural shift in the neck, a displacement of the atlas is a common problem that can be aggrevating and/or causing dysfunction in the body. No matter what age or condition, a Structural Check up can make the difference between someone suffering needlessly, or getting their life back.

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