Book Excerpt
EXCERPT FROM HEADACHE SOLUTIONS AT THE DIAMOND HEADACHE CLINIC
The Ex-Infantryman
We are including an excerpt from the book , Headache Solutions at the Diamond Headache Clinic . The book was written by Doctor Diamond in collaboration with Brad Torphy , MD . The book is available for purchase at Amazon .
It is a myth . It is not true that headache victims are somehow , in ways subtle or obvious , weaker than the rest of us . It is not true that they collapse under stress . It is simply that they are attacked by a particular kind of pain for reasons which they themselves cannot altogether recognize .
About 20 years ago , Gregory Wilson was a squarely built , chesty man of fifty who wore his authority with easy assurance . His black bushy hair was edged with gray . He talked in short staccato phrases . His father was one of the most famous men in journalism and he himself had built a formidable career in business : he was one of the top public relations men in one of the largest corporations in the United States . He was a hard-driving man who liked to busy himself outside of his job with other writing projects . He was as successful in them as he was in the rest of his career .
Some 16 years ago , he had been attacked by severe and recurring headaches . There is every indication that he had a migraine personality and he , for one , was convinced that they were migraine . He remained convinced of that , although I disagreed with him .
Although he was in a stress-filled job , he was not easy prey to stress of an exceptional kind .
He had been a combat infantryman during two tours in Vietnam , and he suffered no particular stress under the most violent conditions . He did not even suffer from lack of sleep .
Early in the 1990s , he took a year ’ s leave of absence from work to run for Congress . It did nothing but make him feel better . “ Despite a grueling 16-hour day , 7-days-a-week schedule of campaigning which taxed mind and body , I never had a single headache , upset stomach , or sleepless night ,” he said . “ The increased work load and responsibility made me peppier than ever before in my life .”
He was in his early thirties when the headaches first became burdensome . He checked with his company physician , underwent a detailed checkup , and found that he was a diabetic . That was a strange in terms of migraine action . Diabetics are likely to find that their migraine is reduced , not increased , with the onset of the disease . “ I believe your headaches are due to tension ,” the doctor reported to him . But once the belief was stated , the relief did not follow .
Over the years , he consulted a good many distinguished physicians in New York , Chicago , and elsewhere to seek help for his headaches , but none was forthcoming . One winter he was vacationing in Tucson , Arizona , where he went to an excellent physician for both headaches and diabetes . The doctor gave him a long technical article on headaches to read and he found my name mentioned . He found it again when he returned home and read a story on headaches by a science writer . He knew the writer involved , so he checked me out , and then arranged for an appointment .
We gave him the in-office physical . He ’ d just had a very extensive battery of hospital tests . Fearful of a brain tumor , he ’ d checked into one the finest hospitals in Chicago and come out with a report that he was free of tumor or other abnormalities in the brain and skull . But he still had his headaches .
Between the hospital reports and my in-office procedures , we were able to eliminate organic problems as a cause of his headaches . As for his diabetes , he was taking a bedtime dose of longacting insulin glargine ( Lantus ). He reported that his blood glucose was under control .
8 HeadWise ® | Volume 7 , Issue 1 • 2018