If you’ve been experiencing head aches, this is actually a helpful indicator that your body’s giving you about your health. In fact, usually, when we experience headaches, that’s a sign of stagnation and congestion within the liver and gallbladder! The liver and gallbladder are a very important axis in the body for detoxification. So as much as it might temporarily be unpleasant to experience, it’s a very necessary warning sign to take heed to. It has been said that about 90% of headaches are rooted in these causes– digestion (R). This is because there is a nerve called the phrenic nerve that connects your gallbladder to your head. Oftentimes, parasites can be responsible for congestion in this area — they tend to make themselves at home right in the bile duct, which needs to move freely in order to release toxins that might otherwise get stuck in the glymphatic system around the brain, causing pain due to stagnation and swelling. In fact, even when parasites aren’t clogging up the bile duct, they will lead to inflammation, shutting the parietal cells of the stomach off so that they no longer produce sufficient stomach acid. Subsequently, as the gallbladder and every other digestive organ depends on a specific acidity of 1.5- 3.0 pH in the stomach in order for proper downstream function. So, when the gallbladder is congested, leading to a headache, this can  more frequently than supposed be the cause.

But what can you do about the pain? One way you can check and see if the gallbladder is the cause for your headache is by applying pressure underneath the right rib cage– where your gallbladder is located. If this is the reason for your headache, doing so will likely break up your stagnation in the gallbladder and put the pain to a halt. You can watch this video by Dr. Berg for a better understanding of how to go about this.

Ways to support the gallbladder include enjoying things like beets, lecithin, and taurine, an amino acid that’s found in beets and even moreso in eggs. Fresh lemon juice can also help to support the gallbladder by aiding in thinning the bile. Malic acid, found in raw organic apple cider vinegar, apples, and apple juice, can also help thin the bile— so much so that it can even dissolve gall stones! Malic acid can be helpful for other stones within the body including those existing in the liver and kidneys. Malic acid is actually a binder for heavy metals, so this can have numerous benefits to the body and brain in addition to just dissolving bile stones and lubricating the liver and gallbladder.

Other potential solutions for a wider range of causes for headaches include herbs like meadowsweet, willow bark and feverfew. I like ginger any time I get a headache. I think the reason it really seems to take it away is because of how it increases circulation, has anti-inflammatory constituents like zingiberene, and especially its ability to enhance digestion. Another good solution for this is magnesium glycinate or magnesium taurate, as the magnesium can help to calm an over-excited nervous system while both the glycine and taurine components can help the liver detoxify and help to thin the bile, respectively, leading to enhanced detoxification and reduced stagnation. Fish oil is also a handy tool to have in your health toolbox as it contributes components to one’s natural anti-inflammatory mechanisms that the body already has within. These are called prostaglandins. This is important to know in order to take full advantage of and work with the body’s processes that were built in to us specifically for a purpose. Certain prostaglandins can help reduce pain via anti-inflammatory action while others are pro- inflammatory for purposes of sending in helper cells to fight infection when needed. Omega 3’s then, are a great thing to have on hand to feed these natural painkillers or anti-inflammatory prostaglandins in the body.

Unfortunately, NSAIDs, also known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, seem to interfere with these pathways. This matters because prostaglandins are much needed hormones, required by the body for many critical processes. The way they work is by shutting off the inflammatory pathway (which is needed for healing) but in doing so, shut off the body’s own natural anti-inflammatory pathway as well. This is kind of like cutting off one’s nose despite one’s proverbial face. Instead, we can more easily support the side we want to effect using nutrition. There are always solutions offered to us by nature if we are curious enough to look.