A history that had been carried for nearly five decades.
A woman came to see me with daily, severe head pain — she described it as “hatchet-like” — that had persisted for almost 50 years, since a serious car accident in the 1970s. Over the decades, she had developed an unconscious habit of pulling at her hair, apparently trying to relieve pressure in her skull.
What I found
On examination, I found cranial restrictions that I considered significant given how long the history had gone on and the nature of the original injury.
What I did
I performed a cranial adjustment addressing the restrictions I’d found.
What changed
She reported approximately 50 percent improvement after her first adjustment, along with a reduction in the urge to pull at her hair.
This case doesn’t mean cranial adjusting cures headaches, or that a decades-old car accident explains most chronic headache cases — headaches have many possible causes, and some require prompt medical evaluation. What it illustrates is why I take a patient’s history of significant head trauma seriously, even when the injury happened a very long time ago and the connection to a current symptom isn’t obvious.
Related reading
Read about cranial adjusting and headaches, or see more real patient cases.