National Headache Awareness Week June 5-11, 2006

My partner came home from work Monday complaining of a headache and announced that it was Headache Awareness Week. There's a great mystery surrounding headaches, mostly because there are so many possible causes.

Some common causes cited by the medical community are: sinus infections, infected teeth, flu, tight neck and shoulder muscles, TMJ, caffeine withdrawal, hang-over, food allergies or additives, wine or other alcohol, lack of sleep, too much sleep, dehydration, eyestrain, toxic fumes, hunger, menstruation, pregnancy, constipation, rapid change in the weather, or more serious causes such as a head injury, brain tumor, meningitis, etc....I'm getting a headache just thinking about all the possible causes of headaches.

Most interestingly, I found a common trend while treating headaches as a licensed massage therapist during my nine years of practice. People in general get headaches at the same time. What do I mean by that? There were days that every single client would come in complaining of a headache. Not only that, most everyone else I talked to would complain of a headache as well. How is it that almost everyone I would come into contact on a given day would have a headache? There was a likelihood that most of the clients' headaches could have been from tight neck and shoulder muscles since that is the most likely reason to get a massage. But what about my friends, family or acquaintances? What was causing their headaches on the same day? I asked a lot of questions from all those headache-inflicted people and came to the conclusion that it must have been something in the stars in order to affect such a wide range of the populace. Maybe a particular alignment of the planets? Aries are prone to headaches, maybe it has something to do with that. I never quite figured it out because I usually had a headache on that day too and was in no mood to study it further. Maybe a professional astrologer would have that answer.

It wasn't until I retired from massage therapy that I found an even more interesting cause of headaches. I discovered that myself as well as some people close to me have headaches prior to earthquakes. We're called "earthquake sensitives" It doesn't matter where the earthquake happens; I've only noticed that it is usually a magnitude of at least 6.0 and that the headaches occur within three days prior to the event. So how is it that some people have symptoms prior to an earthquake?

There are some theories on how the body picks up on a pending earthquake:
1. There are electromagnetic energy field fluctuations generated in fault zones prior to an earthquake.
2. There is geomagnetic storm energy originating from solar storms which can interact with fault zones related to electromagnetic energy field fluctuations.
3. Geomagnetic storms can cause low frequency radio waves which can travel around the world with relatively little loss in signal strength. Air is a good conductor for them, water is better. This may be why those of us living in Florida have pre-earthquake headaches when we are miles from any earthquake activity. (You know, all that water surrounding us)

My own theory is that those of us that are sensitive feel the pain of the planet before an earthquake due to our increased connectedness to all living things. Much the same way that a mother can have sympathy pain for her injured child. Or the way a man has pregnancy symptoms or weight gain from his pregnant wife.

My first experience with this was when I was 24 and my father was terminally ill with cancer. It started as lung cancer and later spread to the bones in his shoulder before he died. When I would go to visit him I would get excruciating pain in my shoulder to the point where I would have to go and lie down on my mother's bed. It would last about a half hour and eventually go away. This happened almost every time I went to see him in the last few months of his life. I didn't know then what was happening, but years later I figured it out. It was my emotional attachment to my father that was causing me to feel his pain.

Therefore, is it so far fetched to believe we could have the same capabilities with other living things we care about? Besides headaches, earthquake sensitives have reported experiencing ear ringing or toning, dizziness, nausea, anxiety, insomnia, heart palpitations, visual disturbances, stomach pains, rashes, pain around the spine, vibrating feelings, buzzing, pins and needles sensations.

I myself get restless leg syndrome 3-4 days before a quake of 6.0 or higher and a headache. My partner gets a headache a couple days prior and insomnia the night before an earthquake. Now if we could only figure out the location of the quake we'd really have something to blog about. But then we'd have to get somebody to listen in order to save lives. That would be the real challenge in all this...asking people to act on faith alone.....

till next time...
Peace & Love