MIGRAINE HEADACHES AND THEIR CAUSE.

By Dr. William Risley Sr.

Working with 600,000 patients over the last 30 years or so, the laboratory where hair analysis is performed has an incredibly extensive database. Most of the 600,000 tests have been done on patients that have diagnoses submitted by their attending physician. As you can imagine, headache in general and migraines specifically, have been common diagnostic submissions. Migraines are the "headaches from Hell" to those that have them severely, and yet we have found the cause and the correction for the vast majority of sufferers. Convincing a public that has been brainwashed to believe drugs are the curative magic to these headaches, has been a difficult job. Here is an interesting case history.

This 37 year old female is a registered dietitian at three hospitals, and incidentally, now that she has seen the light regarding nutrition, she considers nutrition in the average hospital to be a "joke." Studies have shown, as an aside, that 56% of all hospital patients suffer from malnutrition if they stay past 2 weeks. The problem is that no one does anything about it and the patient's recovery chances worsen. Our female migraine sufferer had a severe migraine every single day for the previous 12 years. Each day she took cafergot to make it through her work day, only to have a reoccurring headache the next day. Part of her history is that she had a copper intra-uterine device (IUD) inserted in her uterus 20 years ago. The device had become imbedded in the lining of her uterus and the whole uterus had to be surgically removed.

Some authorities feel that small amounts of copper that leach off of the IUD goes into the blood stream, and since copper raises estrogen in the body, the system is fooled into believing it is pregnant. Thus an actual pregnancy is prevented from occurring. Copper, unfortunately, is highly toxic in excess amounts. If you don't have enough copper you may die from heart failure. If you have too much you may wish you were dead since emotional upset and depression are also common symptoms that result from copper poisoning. Copper has that much of an effect on the system, and yet there is less than the equivalent of 1 penny in weight in the normal patient. For comparison's sake, we have 2 pounds of calcium.

Copper has been shown to affect some of the chemicals in the brain. When these specific chemicals (called biogenic amines) are overly stimulated they cause constriction of the blood vessels to the brain. The body causes a massive inflow of blood to counteract the lack of blood flowing through the tightened arteries, and a migraine headache results. The simple answer is to clean out the system of all of the unused copper. How simple that is depends upon patient cooperation and their own recuperative capabilities. Our lady with the headache history, took 28 months to completely clear her body of copper. She has not had a headache since.

Copper is critical for estrogen. Most copper must be eliminated through the gallbladder, and since women are the big users of estrogen, therein lies the reason why most migraine headache sufferers and most gall bladder disease patients are women.

Hair mineral analysis is the only method that we know of that can discover this excess copper and guide the doctor into the right choices to remove the excess from the patient's body. Our patient had 9 hair tests done over the recovery period, and her copper went from 1.5 mgs (very low) to 85 mgs (schizophrenic level) in the process of being cleaned out. During this period of copper "dumping" as we call it, she has very little memory of her life. She describes herself as being totally "spaced out". Her husband said that "he could hardly live with her."

To say that they are both pleased would be an understatement. She also no longer craves chocolate, which most copper toxic patients do. If you had not had your hair tested, please do so. If you are female, your chances are about 80% of coming up with toxic levels. Males are less likely, but it is still common. If you have migraines, obsessive compulsive disorder, dyslexia, clinical depression, ADD-H or any emotional concerns you are even more of a candidate. Even psoriasis and acne are associated with copper.