Headaches and Chiropractic
Living Life Without Headaches
Headaches are very common, but not normal for the human body! A large study showed over 1/3 of people may experience tension-type headaches over a one year period. Of these over 8% lost time of work because of their headaches and over 40% reported decreased effectiveness at home, work or school.
Why do I get headaches?
Headaches happen when the blood vessels and / or nerves entering your skull are irritated. The onset of headaches can have many contributing factors such as stress, nutritional choices and sleep habits.
These factors can often contribute or aggravate Vertebral Subluxation - a condition that affects the movement of your spine and the surrounding nerves that travel into the skull.
Anatomy of a Headache
The nerves in your cervical spine (neck) are the common link for many types of headaches. Irritation of the nerves, muscles, ligaments and connective tissues have been shown to aggravate or cause headaches.
How Chiropractors help with Headaches
Your chiroparctor will perform a thorough health history and physical examination to determine if you have vertebral subluxations, as well as any other factors which may be contributing to your headaches. By correcting your subluxations using safe and gentle chiropractic adjustments, your chiropractor will restore proper function to your neck and relieve pressure on the nerves which enter the skull.
Migraine headaches, chronic tension type headaches and cervicogenic headaches have all been shown to responded favourably to chiropractic adjustments.
Can't I just take medication to help with my headaches?
Even though drugs may help temporarily relieve your symptoms, it is important to understand that they do not treat the root cause of headaches. Suppressing your symptoms with medications also may cause undesired side effects in the long run and can be harmful to organs like the liver and kidneys.
Headache prevention
The best treatment for headaches is to not get them in the first place! Your chiropractor can help you assess your lifestyle factors and provide specific advice to help you prevent headaches occurring in the future.
Getting checked regularly for Vertebral Subluxations is essential in reducing nervous system stress as part of your preventative approach to the most common types of headaches.
The Most Common Types of Headaches
Cervicogenic Headache - Any headache caused by structures in the neck
Tension-type Headaches - Constant pressure, like head is being squeezed in a vice
Migraine Headache - Severe headaches with a variety of nervous system symptoms
Cluster Headache - Reoccurring one-sided attacks of severe pain behind eye or temple
Rebound Headache - Pounding headaches from medication or caffeine withdrawal
Sinus Headache - Headache with pain and pressure around sinuses in face