Hello Health, Moms Empowered
Hello Health, Moms Empowered
Root Cause Headache Care with Dr. Vrzal
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Dr. Scott Vrzal "Dr. V"
Dr. Scott Vrzal, driven by constant debilitating headaches in his youth, was cured by a Chiropractor. He pursued a career in the same discipline inspired by the change. Initially misdiagnosed and advised to consult a psychiatrist due to the pain, he embarked on a mission to understand headaches' root causes. With over 30 years of expertise, Dr. Vrzal refines pain patterns, advocates drug-free and holistic solutions, and shares his methods to a healthier lifestyle. His thriving practice reflects a personal commitment to health, performance, and relieving patients' pain.
Learn about:
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Mind-Body Connection: Decode Headaches with 7 Specific Patterns
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Unlocking Headache Secrets: Discover the Organs Behind the Pain
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From Stomach to Stress: Cracking the Code on Common Triggers
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Mapping Muscles to Glands for Pain Relief: Your Body's Code to Uncover Hidden Triggers
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Pain Breakthrough: Harmonizing Emotions and Trigger Points for Wellness
Email: DrV4Him@gmail.com
Special Audience Giveaway:
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Name - How To Handle Stress Better
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URL - headacheadvantage.com
Social Media:
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Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Dr.Scott.j.Vrzal/
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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dr.vrzal/
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LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-scott-vrzal-48b44018/
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Dr Vrzal - https://www.youtube.com/@DrVrzal
Book: The Headache Advantage
As Seen On:
Hi, this is Pamela Wirth with the Hello Health Moms Empowered podcast. Today I have Dr. V, and he is a uh groundbreaking root cause uh doctor when it comes to headaches as well as adrenals, as well as so many other things. So welcome, Doctor.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is a fun subject of mine. And in fact, I just developed a prenatal vitamin. So here we go.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, that's wonderful. So many of my friends are plagued by headaches. So tell us a little bit about how you got into this and and how you uh work with people that are really going through these chronic headache symptoms.
SPEAKER_01Right, sure. Like like most of us, it was personal experience, right? And my my personal suffering back in my teens, uh, I had headaches. Now I would call it headband headache. They would pound every time I did bench press. And, you know, if I try to work through it, it would just last longer and longer. And all the over-the-counter so-called solutions did not offer me any help. Uh went the medical model. You know, my my loving parents took me to a general practitioner, said, Oh, you might have an aneurysm. Absolutely don't work out. You know, and did the typical freakout thing. And they said, you know, after a CAT scan and die and all that yucky stuff, they they said, Well, you don't have an aneurysm, so go see a psychiatrist. So, you know, thanks, thanks for nothing. Uh ultimately I ended up having those headaches while I was working out, and and a chiropractic intern actually at the gym said, let's let's try this and gave me an adjustment and and it kind of changed my life. You know, my headaches went away at that point, and and and now understand that those were what I would call a large intestine headache or a headband type of a headache. Uh, so it was some colon or digestive issues that were causing that. Um so now, you know, in my headache advantage, the headache advantage book, I lay out, you know, those food triggers that would affect or typically cause, like wheat or dairy or corn that would potentially disrupt colon function and set the stage for that whole head headache. Uh and ultimately, as I as I got into healthcare and as a healthcare practitioner in this approach called applied kinesiology, that gave me the tools to identify, you know, through muscle organ correlations and pain patterns and things, uh, every time somebody came in with a headache, I'd I'd ask, you know, well, where's it located? Where's that that pain? And and the challenge for for many docs or people that aren't using this this approach is most virtually all headaches are are referred pain. So it's not, it's not, you know, a neurologic problem, which is a a relief, you know, that it's it's not your brain, it's not an aneurysm, right? But it's referred pain from the stomach, or it's referred pain from the gallbladder that is causing and setting the stage for that headache. And so that then empowers us because once we understand what the organ trigger is, then we can look at the food triggers. You know, gallbladder often is compromised by glyphosate or the pesticide in Roundup found in wheat, corn, and soy, that's going to cause a right side of headache. So when we understand these triggers, then it giv empowers us as health pursuers to know what to do and and where to look to get the resolution uh naturally.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that's fascinating. And I think so many people are told that it's hormonal. So, how do you know the difference between a hormonal headache and something that is potentially being triggered through one of the organs?
SPEAKER_01100%. Let's let's lean into that for this audience, right? Any ladies listening to this headache or to this podcast? So uh the hormonal headaches are what I call bitemporal. It's it's over both ears, relatively equal on both sides. That type of headache tends to have to do with estrogen metabolism. So that's going to be the monthly headache that comes around ovulation or comes around uh menstruation. Uh, so we want to look at how, in that case, typically helping the liver metabolize estrogen properly. And there's some key pathways in there, um, especially methylation. That one gets a lot of press lately. Uh, methylation is very B12 dependent. So if you have that bitemporal type of a headache, it comes on, you know, once or twice a month. Uh typically that's estrogen metabolism. So simple things like B12 will help drive that methylation pathway to break it down. Um, limiting sugar intake, sugar is always going to make it worse because of its leaching of those B vitamins. But folate is the uh the other vitamin that's going to help drive that methylation pathway. So simple solutions like that, or methionine, which is highest in beef, um beef, tuna, and eggs. So if you're strict vegan, you'll have to look at other sources potentially for that methionine, especially if they're an old blood type, they tend to be higher need of methionine. Um, but using those vitamins, again, folate, B12, potentially methionine to drive that pathway, then we can break down the estrogen and again get to the cause. The beautiful thing there is correcting that is going to stop the potential progression of things like cancer, because cancer, that methylation pathway activates the tumor suppressor gene. So when that's not functioning right, then we lose our ability to kill those cancer cells when they are being formed. So that's really kind of the big wow of like, hey, it's okay, it's a headache and it's it's an impediment to our uh joy in life, but it's really our body, and that's why the book is called The Headache Advantage, is because these headaches really tell us the priority, helps us understand, hey, you know, warning light on the dash, your engine's about to blow, you know, that head pain is telling us in that in the bi temporal headache, telling you estrogen's not metabolizing. Well, if we don't correct this, there could be some significant long-term consequences.
SPEAKER_00So that's that's wild. But how do how do you kind of go about mapping? How do you know or when people come to you and and want to work with you, kind of walk us through kind of the the process that you would take someone through when they're um suffering?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, and again, that's why I call it the headache advantage, because we want to take advantage of what the pain is, what the body's trying to tell us. So like most doctor visits, it it starts with a consultation. You know, well, they they fill out the paperwork and check off where where they hurt and and how it's affecting their life and so on. I use that information to then, you know, ask questions about where where is your pain. Uh every organ has every muscle has associated glands or organs with it. And so if they have physical pain in the glute medius, the muscle on the the top of the butt muscles there, if you will, that muscle is going to get weak, for example, and painful, like sciatic upper level or upper end of the sciatic pattern, uh, that muscle gets weak and painful when estrogen is not metabolizing well. So they could have pain in the glute and pain on the outside of the elbows and acupuncture point associated with hormones. So if they have that, that, and then they have the glute in the elbow, and then they have that bitemporal headache. I know first place we need to start is estrogen metabolism for that person. So then we'll look at supplements, we'll look at foods that are going to make it worse. You know, are they eating too much sugar? Are they eating too much corn? Um, you know, are they deficient in these vitamins to metabolize it? So it starts with the, you know, where does it hurt? What can we do about it? And what are the correlations between these areas of pain? Um, we do some some bent basic exam, you know, blood pressure and that normal stuff. Uh, and then the muscle testing, and you know, I used to do a lot of lab testing and I enjoy labs and look at them. Um, but realistically, through muscle testing and pain patterns, acupuncture, meridian uh organ uh associations, I can know within, you know, in a matter of minutes um evaluating and typically understand, hey, this food is the trigger or you know, this nutrient deficiency is is what's causing it. We can give an adjustment or you know, an emotional correction, if you will, and they'll feel better there. But acupuncture, chiropractic, that sort of stuff is great. And it's it's but unfortunately, sorry, if they're if you're people listening or a chiropractor, it's somewhat temporary unless we get to the nutritional, you know, or nutritional deficiency or the food triggers. That's where the lasting permanent changes come from.
SPEAKER_00And how how do you kind of monitor or test food or vitamin deficiencies? And does it done through through the muscle mapping or is it done through a different way?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I I do it all through muscle testing. Uh, there are labs that can do it. It's going to cost you know more and take take more time and so on. Um again, using that that glute medious muscle, the the muscle that's kind of just below the belt line there, that muscle will be weak and tender. It will literally be tender to the touch. Uh, if I um put the sugar, if you will, if that's the trigger, put that on the tongue, that muscle's going to hurt more. Uh incidentally, energy goes in the from the right side and exits from the left. And so I can actually use the hand, even I can put that sugar in the left hand. That's basically asking the body if if Pamela never ate sugar again, how much better is estrogen metabolism? That that muscle will literally dissolve, that the tenderness, the pain in that muscle will go away. Or if it's the elbow pain that hurts, you put the the sugar in this case in the left hand. If that's the cause, that'll tell us exactly how much of the symptom is caused by sugar. So it gives us an immediate input into how the body's functioning or dysfunctioning.
SPEAKER_00Fascinating. What about detox? Do you find that any of that is necessary? That maybe maybe, you know, kind of back to methylation, people might not be metabolizing correctly. Is there a way to kind of help pull some of those toxins out faster or differently? Or is it just more time to go through the methylation process to work through some of that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, fantastic question. And and I mean, methylation is a perfect example. Methylation is the primary pathway in the liver that gets rid of toxic metals. And unfortunately, we're always exposed to toxic metals. So, yes, it's it starts with limit the exposure, right? I mean, it's kind of like if you do a colonic and go to McDonald's on the way home. What what good did you do, right? Um, so get rid of the the offenders if you as best you can, try to clean up our environment, whether that means cleaning the air and you know, with purifiers or your water and foods, obviously, foods are are very corrupt, unfortunately, for the most part. We're hoping a lot of that changes with changes in the world about us. Um so we want to reduce the exposures, but then yeah, there's supplements, again, B12, folate, that sort of stuff, uh, to help drive those pathways. Um, I do a smoothie every day. Uh, incidentally, organic vegetables, the minerals, and that sort of stuff are going to help us detoxify uh minerals, mineral deficiency makes us more toxic metal sensitive. And so if we can limit the toxic metals and bolster our minerals so that there's not as much opportunity for those toxic metals to bind up, uh, then we can kind of instill some damage control, if you will. Um, so I do an organic, you know, put a bunch of organic vegetables and you know, filtered water and some protein and some good fats uh in a smoothie that I drink every day. Um, in that my protein, one of the sources of protein is a detox-oriented protein, uh, so that I make sure I have the nutrients to drive those detox pathways. Yes, there's uh, you know, the overnight kind of detox, you know, the Epsom salt cleanse and all that. And there's you know, we have all kinds of detox powders. Again, get to the source as best you can. You know, if if you're working in an oil refinery, you gotta you're gonna have to do push those detox pathways a whole lot more, you know, or if you're slathering, sorry, ladies, but perfumes or something, you know, have a lot of toxins in them, or a lot of the lotions. Unfortunately, a lot of the um anti-aging lotions have estrogen modulating uh chemicals in there. So it could be, I mean, I had a gal that had headaches for 25 years. It was because of the head, the same um perfume she wore every single day. We figured that out, and and she never had another headache for you know the following 10 years. So, I mean, that's that's how simple it can be uh when we use the tools and and you know, outside of being in my office, I empower people to log if you have to, you know, write down, hey, this is the perfume I use today, this is what I ate. Oops, I had a headache. And and you know, log is hopefully going to help bring the you know to the surface the things that you're doing in the in the life uh that that is bringing those up.
SPEAKER_00Do you have any favorite lotions that you recommend that are less problematic than others?
SPEAKER_01Or right. Yeah. Um the other side of that is unfortunately I'm I'm not a fan of coconut. I know Dr. Google says it's you know the holy grail. Um I do like um saturated fats. I use ghee for myself typically. Um I even rub that on my skin potentially uh periodically. The closer to you know God made, the better, I would say. Um I don't have any favorite brands uh off the cuff. I mean, I have ladies bring them in all the time to test and see which ones work for them and which ones don't. But in general, the the fewer petroleum-based products in there, the better. The the closer to you know plant or you know, organic-based is the better.
SPEAKER_00Um talk to us about the mind-body connection.
SPEAKER_01Yes, okay. Um, we the body stores emotions and the and the more minerally deficient we are, the more sensitive we would be to those emotions. Exercise helps us collect our thoughts and organize and and and desensitize, if you will, to some of that. Uh, and having the minerals will help us to be more rock-like so that those those toxic emotions can can reflect off instead of being stuffed away when we're eating sugar, when we're nutrient deficient, uh, then we're gonna be more prone to physically store and harbor those emotions, uh, and then they have physical consequences. That's a lot of the challenge with chronic illness. You know, if somebody's had this deficiency, this problem for 10, 20 years, and every time some aberrant event happens, it's gonna get stuffed away on top of it. And so we have to work harder to clear those emotional triggers over time. Um, every organ has associated emotions with that. You know, we were talking about um estrogen metabolism, that's muddled, uh, so that's the hormone, the endocrine system, that's muddled instability, frightfully overjoyed, paranoid, um, muscle emotions like that, they can get stuffed away in the ovaries, if you will. Um, if the ovary is already compromised, then you can be more prone to store those. We may need to release them. Um there's ways naturally to do that with you know using acupuncture points and and uh literally, I mean, if if you're getting adjusted or going to the acupuncturist and you know that, you know, ever since you know you found this dirt on your spouse or you know, you got laid off. If you know that you've had a headache ever since then, ponder that event as you get adjusted, ponder that event as you're getting your acupuncture, you're getting your massage. I mean, massage therapists see it often, right? As they're they're massaging, say that glutamed, and all of a sudden the person will start crying for whoa, what happened here, right? That's great. That's a release of those emotion. Tears are therapeutic. Let them rip.
SPEAKER_00That's fascinating. Um what about? I mean, is there, you know, and and and you kind of touched on this too, the the trigger points for for wellness with your emotions. I mean, you know, obviously you talk a little bit about the gluteus. Um is there any other part of the body that really, you know, is you're kind of thinking about where to keep those emotions kind of in balance or anything around organs and the pain and anything else that is kind of a secret sauce, if you will.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh for this audience, thyroid is a big, big subject. We probably just table that for the next podcast. But you know, ty thyroid, uh low low-functioning thyroid is going to be weepiness, you know, tears, that sort of thing. Uh physically it manifests as a suboccipal or what they call a tension headache. And so if the thyroid's underfunctioning, then that's going to dramatically affect fertility because it's regulation on hormones. So if the thyroid is on the low end of norm from a lab perspective, I would say anything less than on a TSH thyroid stimulating hormone that's less than two, the, you know, the medically accepted norm is 0.35, all the, you know, is still considered okay. But that's a that's an underfunctioning thyroid, and you can be more prone to the the emotional yo-yos and the tension headaches. So in that case, we'd want to bolster that, look at nutrients to to help it. The scaline muscles, as far as the the physical areas you'd asked about, the muscles in the front of the neck that's support that often get compromised in a whiplash type of a trauma, those are and they affect the sinuses, those get compromised physically when the thyroid's not functioning as well. Um, but the the blanket answer to your question, every single organ has or every single muscle has an associated gland or organ that then has specific emotions to that gland or organ.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you mentioned that you created a prenatal vitamin. Tell us a little bit about how that's different than some of the other ones that that people may be taking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um hot subject of mind, just because we had we had some infertility for, I mean, after our second, after our first child, we had a miscarriage in that, which you know forced me to d dive into it. And turned out my wife had a thyroid issue that I corrected. You know, two weeks later the the numbers were good, and the so then the midwife was sending all her fertility cases to us and to me. Um, so got into it. This the prenatal that I put together has a very active form of the folate. Uh, we need that folate because typically a lot of the neurologic development is the weeks before a person or gal even knows that she's pregnant. So we need really want to start that prenatal. I'd say typically a couple months before you're officially going to start trying so that we have those those pathways supported. Um, you know, prenatally, we want to potentially try to get some toxic metals out before fertility because toxic metals like um fluoride, unfortunately, and things like that can compromise the genetic uh potential of the child. Um, so we want to try to clean the system up prior to getting knocked up. Um, so in the supplement, again, it's folate, it has a lot of the more active forms of the B vitamins and things to make sure that the pregnancy goes well. I've used many over the years and just really excited about the way this one's testing and working for people.
SPEAKER_00Uh so and and I think that's a really important piece to touch on. Tell us from from your doctor's eyes, the difference between a methylfolate and a folic acid and why it's so important to take a methylfolate versus a folic acid. Okay. So many people, including myself, had been, you know, given these these high folic acid prenatal vitamins. Meanwhile, it turns out I have MTHFR. Um they found out that years later, and I really never should have been given a bunch of folic acid. I should have been given methylfolate.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, and and that, and so B12 comes in along with it to help drive and facilitate that uh methylation is the MTHFR uh gene is the most common uh deficiency, most common compromise in the genetic pool, if you will. Um interesting how when that whole folate, folic acid uh conundrum had kind of hit the press years ago initially, ultimately, give you the the cliff notes in the beginning. Um if many people have compromised in the methylation. And so if they're taking a folic acid supplement, which is going to be a lot of your over-the-counter B vitamins, they put the kind of the easy, cheap form of the folic acid in there, that's going to actually stress that pathway further and create damage and create problems. Whereas if you use the proper form of a methylated folate, then it's going to metabolize and facilitate and turn on that gene to function properly. They call that epigenetics, which means then from a fertility perspective, then we have a healthier, uh, more vibrant child. Um, so back so the the glitch there and the kind of thing I'm trying to get out to people as far as that MTHFR gene. Um a friend of mine, a colleague that does a lot of the gene testing had a child that showed up that had the what they call homozygose MTHFR gene, meaning uh in the gene world, that means that both mom and dad had a glitch in the MTHFR gene, and he had the opportunity to then test mom and dad. And neither mom nor dad had the MTHFR gene, which is that whole mind blow, you know, what's going on here that kind of corrupts the whole understanding. Um, so what he eventually figured out was retroviruses, the most popular currently was COVID, was a retrovirus. These retroviruses kind of inhibit or cause this gene compromise that way. So then to look deeper in or kind of pull back the veil, we want to look at what we can do to support the system against these retroviruses and whatever weaker gland or organ that allowed that that virus to flourish, whether it's lungs or thyroid or liver or you know, spleen, we want to support that gland or organ to then give the body the what it needs to kill that virus and get rid of that virus so that then the genes can function properly, then we don't trans transfer those genes down to the to the next generation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's absolutely fascinating. Uh anything else we have not touched on that you want to touch on? I feel like there's a million things, but in the top of mind that you really want to make sure we get out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, ultimately it's listen to the body. I mean, the the the pain is an indicator that something's not functioning right. And my my theme, my tagline is is you know, pain is intended to elicit change. So use that pain, be inspired by your pain. Instead of being taken down or you know, labeled or identified by the pain that you're having, unfortunately, you may have to doctor shop. You may have to go to several people or you know, listen to more podcasts like this to understand and figure out where what the source is. But it the answer is out there. So you learn from your pain, whatever that pain is, whether it's a headache, whether it's jaw pain or a you know muscle ache or fibromyalgia, which just means it's you need somebody skilled to understand what the patterns in of fibromyalgia are, whether it's a blood sugar problem or a thyroid problem. Learn from that pain, be inspired by it instead of taking down and compromised from it.
SPEAKER_00What if um if people want to work with you? Are are you are you solely in person? Do you also work with people remotely? Tell us a little bit about how people can find you.
SPEAKER_01Great, thank you. Yes, um, well, the last name is Verzil via Z Victor R-Z-A-L. You can spell that, you find me on social media, that put you know, places like that. Uh please pick up the book, and that's kind of the resource to get the information out there. Uh, personally, my office is in Southern California, Laguna Nigel. We have a few other doctors that do the same work as well. Um, and we do do remote visits. Um, COVID brought that all out. I used to just do it for family, and uh, some of the colleagues that I uh doctors that I coach uh were in areas that got shut down. And so I started teaching how to do virtual visits as well, which is fascinating that it's still as effective and we can make pain go away treating through Zoom. So, yes, it can be done. Um my office and looking at Gail.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you so much, Doctor. Really appreciate it. And I'll be sure to add um all of your contact information in the show notes as well.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. The headache advantage is great. Check that out. It's a good read. I'd I'd appreciate I'd covet your um what do you call them? Uh reviews. Reviews on the book. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity, Pamela.