Headaches are common, but they’re not normal.
Headaches affect just about everyone at some point and they can present themselves in many different ways. Some people only experience pain in one part of their head or behind their eyes, some people experience a pounding sensation inside their whole head, and some people even experience nausea, while others do not. The pain itself may be dull or sharp and may last for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Fortunately, very few headaches have serious underlying causes, but those that do require urgent medical attention. Although headaches can be due to a wide variety of causes, the majority of recurrent headaches are of two types: tension headaches (also called cervicogenic headaches) and migraine headaches. There is a third, less common, type of headaches called a cluster headache that is a cousin to the migraine.
Drug Culture
Pain relievers of various types are the most common approach to headaches. In our practice we take a more natural approach. Our objective is to find and reduce the underlying cause of a headache.
Hidden Cause
A common cause of headaches is from spinal bones in the neck that aren’t supporting the head properly. You might not notice your reduced ability to turn your head. But these misalignments affect nerves, muscles and even the blood supply to your head. Our thorough examination detects misalignment patterns that could be causing your headaches. If misalignments are present, you’re likely to benefit from chiropractic care. Treatment Numerous research studies have shown that chiropractic adjustments are very effective for treating tension headaches, especially headaches that originate in the neck.
A report released in 2001 by researchers at the Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center in Durham, NC, found that “spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headache than commonly prescribed medications.” These findings support an earlier study published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics that found spinal manipulative therapy to be very effective for treating tension headaches. This study also found that those who stopped chiropractic treatment after four weeks continued to experience a sustained benefit in contrast to those patients who received pain medication.