Low back pain, neck pain and HEADACHES are the three most common complaints that present to most chiropractor’s offices. Headaches affect about 40% of the US population.
To keep this simple, we can put most headaches into two main categories: Migraine and Non-migraine. True migraines are far LESS common, mostly women, may be affected by hormone changes, may be unilateral (one side), often in the frontal regions, may be aggravated by bright lights and loud noises, may have visual symptoms such as floaters or blurry vision and sometimes have an aura meaning you have pre-headache symptoms…you know it’s coming. Often, OTC medications do little to help these headaches and sometimes prescription vasoconstrictor medications are needed such as Imitrex.
Non-migrainous headaches are by far the more common type and generally respond very well to gentle chiropractic care. When every day stresses cause tension and tightness in the upper cervical spine (upper neck) the vertebrae don’t move properly/smoothly (subluxated) and the joints become irritated and inflamed, which in turn irritates the exiting nerves. The upper nerves are responsible for sensation to the back half of your scalp therefore you get what we call occipital neuralgia headaches i.e. tension headaches. I frequently see patients that have almost daily headaches. Although these headaches are more likely to get temporary relief from OTC medications, long term use of OTC meds can actually make things worse in what we call rebound headaches.
Chiropractors are specifically trained to analyze the upper neck and then make gentle corrective adjustments to the dysfunctioning/subluxated segments. These headaches are often associated with some type of dull neck pain and/or upper mid back pain.
Migraines can be a bit more complicated but research now shows that some types of migraines are caused by the same mechanisms and a patient gets an occipital headache and something called a parasympathetic dominance. This occipital headache triggers a true migraine headache. A newer medical approach to treating these headaches involves BOTOX injections to the upper neck and head region. They understand that if you calm down the chronically tight muscle issues, you often get relief of these types of headaches. Botox injections are shots that use a toxin to prevent a muscle from moving for a limited time, a temporary paralysis. Chiropractic is a much safer approach than injecting BOTOX.
I have been safely and effectively been treating many types of headaches for over thirty-seven years now. If you are suffering from headaches, please call us for an immediate appointment. We may not cure your headaches but most of the time the frequency and duration of your headaches can be significantly decreased.