Discs:
The COX protocol for the non-surgical care of herniated discs.
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Gentle Care:
Dr. Strasser emphasizes non-force and low impact chiropractic techniques as well as traditional chiropractic adjusting depending on your needs.
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Headaches & Migraine:
An Effective Natural, Drugless Program of Care.
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Cranial Therapy:
Combining Gentle Cranio-Sacral, Craniopathy and European Cranial techniques, Dr. Strasser provides a unique approach.
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Children's Care:
For over 20 years, Dr. Strasser has specialized in treating Children and Adolescents. Dr, Strasser discusses his gentle approach to care.
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"I've never seen a doctor show so much concern, nor go so far out of his way to care for a patient...I think your method of adjustment is much easier for kids to handle than the more traditional ways..."
Judy K.
Portland, Oregon
Portland Oregon Chiropractor
HEADACHES & MIGRAINE: A Drugless, Gentle, Integrated Approach for Adults, Children and Adolescents
Arn Strasser DC
My goal in treating headaches and migraine is to provide a drugless, natural alternative to traditional medical management. I work with migraine sufferers who are looking for a way out of the drugs needed to control the often debilitating effects of their headaches.
Triptans, the first drugs specifi cally developed for migraine, while often effective, have potentially signifi cant harmful side effects including heart attack and stroke in vulnerable patients. When used more than 3 times a week, Triptans are contraindicated because of their rebound effect, which causes the drug itself to initiate migraines. Once taken off Triptans, the migraine patient faces an array of other drug strategies with mixed results and their own side-effects.
Migraine is a complex neurological disorder, not a purely vascular (blood vessel) abnormality as was once thought. There is a strong genetic basis for migraine which results in a hypersensitive nervous system. When triggered by various stimuli, this sensitive nervous system sets off a chain of neurological and biochemical events , a "neurological storm", which effects the blood vessels of the brain. The result is the characteristic pounding, painful migraine headache.
Migraine is not an organic, progressive disease, but a disorder of function.
I view Migraine as a "threshold disorder". Migraineurs have the type of nervous system which always has the potential to react with a migraine headache, but which doesn't until their threshold for the headache is lowered enough to set it off.
Triggers and Threshold: What's the difference?
>Migraine patients know all about triggers and most patients I see are already controlling them. Most patients have identified common foods, such as red wine, or additives, such as aspartame (in diet Cola), or bright lights and other stimulation, that appear to trigger a headache. Triggers can be the one final insult that lowers the Migraine threshold enough to initiate a headache.
Threshold factors are more chronic and not as easy to control as triggers. Every patient has their own set of threshold factors. While the components of a threshold can change or shift, threshold is made up long-standing factors to which the nervous system has, in some way, reacted and responded to. They can be considered structural in the nervous system.
Diagnosing...and Treating... the Migraine patient
Common threshold factors are chronic or major life stress, chronic mechanical imbalances (usually associated with the spine or the cranium), chronic hormonal imbalances, chronic body chemistry imbalances (especially low blood sugar), chronic sleep disturbances, chronic smoking , chronic alcoholism and many others particular to each patient.
As you can see, the big word is chronic. Long-standing demands on the body means the nervous system reacts and adapts to these demands, and these adaptations become locked into the nervous system. I utilize a range of Chiropractic techniques, Cranial Therapy, and other natural approaches to help clear the nervous system so the patients threshold can be raised. Lifestyle and stress management raise the Migraine threshold and I have found certain specific botanical remedies helpful in some patients.
There is no quick-fix in the natural treatment of Migraine. Only an integrated approach which emphasizes treating the whole patient, and not just the disease, will determine a successful outcome.