Health Matters

This month's topic is dear to my heart as it was through a history of headaches from a whiplash injury that resulted in me retraining and becoming a Chiropractor. Headache is the second most frequent complaint reported from whiplash injuries. Various studies have found that 66% to 92% of whiplash patients presented with headaches. The pain can be on one or both sides of the head, back and/or front. It can be intermittent or constant, localised or generalised. They can present in a consistent pattern or be greatly variable.

Headaches may be of several types with the most common known as a 'tension' headache. These are generally associated with discomfort at the top of the neck and shoulders, back and front of the skull and are often felt behind the eyes. This type of headache is typically linked with a sedentary lifestyle, stress and poor posture. Migraines are a more complex, periodic headache which affects one side of the head either with or without aura. A patient can present with nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhoea and sensitivity to light and noise. Other headaches have a more neurological or vascular component including cluster headache, disc bulges in the neck, temporal arteritis, trigeminal neuralgia or tumour.

A Common Patient Experience: "I wish I had seen a Chiropractor sooner." This declaration comes unsolicited from a Nurse who, for 32 years, suffered from headaches every day and debilitating migraines two to six times a week, every week. "As soon as I began being treated by Dr I'Anson, I noticed a difference. After he had x-rayed me and within 8 Chiropractic treatments my headaches had gone. I am now on a once every 3-month treatment program together with a regular home exercise regime to minimise the risk of my headaches returning".

How Chiropractic Care Can Help Headache Sufferers: If after a thorough neurological and orthopaedic examination I identify a more sinister cause of headache I would subsequently refer the patient back to their GP for further testing. But for tension / post-traumatic headache, a majority of migraine headaches and in most disc presentations in the neck, gentle Chiropractic manipulation of the upper spine together with muscular re-education through specific exercise will get the patient functioning normally again.

In Summary: I cannot stress enough that people do not need to suffer from headaches which can be severely disabling and debilitating. In some cases, medication is the only answer but for most, it is not. Life does not have to be a headache! From my own personal experiences, I can vouch for that!

If you would like more information about headaches, or on any other health related topic, please call me in confidence at my new Practice, Creative Chiropractic in Lees Yard, HOLT on (01263) 715522 or email me at: michael@creativechiropractic.co.uk

MAJOR EXHIBITION TO CELEBRATE 20 YEARS OF BIRCHAM GALLERY

SIR PETER BLAKE - GRAPHIC WORKS, SAM HALL - CERAMICS, MARCH 15TH-APRIL 9TH 2008
Bircham Gallery was established in 1988 by Christopher and Deborah Harrison in a former butchers shop on the Sandringham Estate.

Near derelict when bought, a year was spent renovating the cottage and the gallery soon gained an enviable national reputation for the quality of its artists and craftspeople. After ten wonderful and successful years, Christopher and Deborah had no choice but to expand, and in 1998 the gallery moved to its present premises in Holt on the North Norfolk coast.

To celebrate Bircham Gallery's 20th birthday, we are delighted to be showing graphic works by Sir Peter Blake "the godfather of British Pop art", notoriously famous for that album cover… His work scans over five decades making him one of the leading exponents of the British Pop Art movement. He was made a Royal Academician in 1981; a CBE in 1983 and in 2002 Blake was awarded a knighthood for his services to art. Still a prolific artist, his work is represented in major collections all over the world.

Alongside Peter Blake we will be exhibiting thrown ceramics by Sam Hall who uses a distinct vocabulary of mark making on his pots using scored and random lines achieving a harmonic balance of drawing and form.

During this exhibition we will also be including work by Terry Frost RA and Sandra Blow RA.

If you require any further information or images please contact Gail Richardson on 01263 713312