Migraine Headaches: A solution to the problem (Part 3 of 3)

Blog:

Today’s post will be my last one on migraine headaches (for now). I absolutely LOVE treating patients that suffer with migraines. It is an absolute joy to see their changes each week and watch them emerge from their dark bedrooms and enjoy life again! Each time someone tells me that they are feeling better and improving that fuels my fire and passion for continuing to provide these services to our patients. If you’ve followed me through these posts then I’m very happy that you’ve been helped by them. If you’ve gained value in reading them and they’ve helped you reduce and/or eliminate your headaches then please tell me so I know that they were effective in serving you.

I want to talk a little bit about blood tests today. I often times recommend my migraine patients get a blood test. Now first off, the word, “blood test” can be extremely misleading. Let me explain shortly. Your Primary Care Physician may have ordered a blood test in the past and it may have come back ‘clinically normal’, which is also extremely misleading. I’ll explain this also.

“Blood Test”

The phrase “blood test” can mean a lot of things. When I order blood tests, I order the lab to look at a LOT of things in the patient’s blood. I send patients with a request to get at the very least, a Complete Metabolic Panel (CMP 14), Lipid Panel, C-Reactive Protein, Vitamin-D levels, Complete Blood Count (CBC), Thyroid markers, and many others. I have patients bring in past blood work for me to look at and I often see very simple blood tests (maybe just a simple metabolic panel with cholesterol levels and a CBC). I’m a firm believer that if I send you to go get your blood drawn, then I want to look at a lot of different things. The issue at hand here is that most doctors (especially primary care physicians) don’t have the time to look at these results thoroughly AND, if they see discrepancies, they are responsible to address them. Thus, if they don’t request much, then they don’t have to work as hard.

“Clinically Normal”

The other thing that I see a LOT which really bothers me, is when a patient tells me that their recent blood work was ‘normal.’ This is where Functional Medicine comes into play. Blood tests have a ‘functional range’ and a ‘clinically normal range’. The labs set a ‘clinical range’ which is essentially a simple average placed on a bell curve and given two standard deviations away from the midpoint. The functional range is what Functional Medicine practitioners have determined as an ‘optimal’ range or a ‘healthy’ range.

Let’s put this into a simple example. Glucose is a basic component of most blood tests. Glucose is basically sugar that’s floating around in your blood – you should have some, but not a lot (your brain and body use Glucose as a fuel source). If it’s too much, then that could be indicative of diabetes, too low and that may be hypoglycemia. The “Clinically Normal” range for Glucose is from 65.00 – 99.00 mg/dL. However, the ‘healthy range’ or ‘functional range’ is from 80.00 – 95.00 mg/dL. You see, the range is much tighter.

What do you prefer?

Let’s be honest, when your primary care physician recommends you get blood work done, don’t you want to see a LOT of information on your blood? And, don’t you want them to compare your numbers to a healthy range??

As a practitioner who focuses on functional neurology and functional medicine, can you start to see the differences between a traditional medical model to treating migraines and the functional medicine way? If you’re tired of the migraines and you’re ready to take control of your health, then please contact us. If you’d like more information then be sure to watch our videos on migraines;

Thevanguardclinic.com/migraines

Additionally, we often times have live workshops (always FREE of course!) where we go into more detail about migraines. Call our office and ask for our workshop schedule to see if we’re hosting an event soon.

Thevanguardclinic.com

The Vanguard Clinic

2108 Schuetz Rd.

St. Louis, MO 63146

(314) 625 – 8454

Also, if you’d like to email me directly, please don’t hesitate to send over your questions! mglickert@thevanguardclinic.com

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Dr. Michael J Glickert (link to About Me on webpage)

Chiropractic Physician

The Vanguard Clinic

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van·guard noun - a group of people leading the way in new development or ideas

The Vanguard Clinic is an innovated health care facility with a focus on treating patients with chronic pain conditions such as thyroid disorders, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, irritable bowel diseases and many other conditions. We utilize a completely unique approach to restoring both hope and health to our patients.