Question
Hello,
I'm a 45 year old male, in what I believe to be excellent physical health. I have always remained active and taken supplements. Mostly I'm a pushup/situp kind of fitness workout person. My bloodwork and such consistently shows to be fine. However...  For a bit more than a year and a half I have had this ongoing head pressure that just doesn't seem to let up.  Through the day it is mild, but then as the day wears on, it builds. Though I don't feel tired I find that I need to yawn a bit. My ears are always popping and on higher stress days I can actually feel my ears pop with my pulse. It is not comfortable at all. It seems to culminate more on the left side of my head, somewhat on my left inner ear. Pulling on my ear sometimes seems to help. My left jaw lately has been becoming sore from this pressure.  Through all this I have taken on relaxation and meditation, as it seems to have some positive effect. But is sure hasn't gone away.  I have mostly thought  it to be stress related, as I am a full time single dad with teenage twins, plus managing a home and also enjoying the challenges of being a Realtor in Southwest Florida -not easy and life and financial pressures certainly mount...
As sleep goes, I generally go to bed around 12, then arise at 7:45 or so. Usually I get better than 6 hours. For as long as I can remember I have had difficulty falling asleep, but once down, I'm usual out for the night; only to be challenged with getting up in the morning painfully tired. In the last couple of years though, my sleep has been, well not as good. I tried Ambien for a while. It knocked me down fine, but the head pressure thing seemed to be much worse with it. So I generally take .5 Xanax to help me fade out at night.  Without anything, I am tossing and turning through most the entire night.
My back seems to be in decent shape. Probably could use a little chiropractic alignment, but really doesn't cause me any pain. I do have a good bit of tightness on the muscle bands from the back/shoulder to the neck.
I would appreciate your assessment. So much of my productive and enjoyable family time is knocked out with my needing to just lay down and let go -if only just for a while.  I mostly keep a very positive mental spirit, but this is just flat out dehabilitating me.
Thanks!
Rob Seibert

Answer
Mr Seibert,
This sounds horrible.  I am sorry that you are going through this as this is no way to enjoy your life.  It sounds to me like you may have sustained an upper cervical injury at some point in your life that set this into motion.  Have you had any kind of head or neck injury in your life that could be causing this?  A fall, a slip, a sports injury, a car accident, some sort of injury?
Have you had any Cervical Spine X-Rays or MRI that you may be able to send me the pictures of?  If I can look at those then I could give you a much better opinion on what you would need to do to get well.
In Your Best Health,
Dr Robert Arnone
Upper Cervical Specific Doctor
"Brainstem Specialist"
Arnone Clinic
711 Old Ballas Road Suite 104
St Louis, MO 63141
(314)995-5719