Headaches

Suffer from Headaches?

You are not alone. Headaches are among the most common physical complaint prompting people to treat themselves or get professional assistance. One estimate holds that some 50 million people in the U.S. get severe, long lasting, recurring headaches. Most headaches are not signs of serious underlying conditions, but they can be very distracting, debilitating and account for significant amounts of time lost from work.

What Can Chiropractic Care Do for Your Headaches?

Chiropractic care has been shown to be as effective, if not more effective, than medications in reducing the frequency, duration and severity of headaches.

Chiropractic care is particularly effective in treating cervicogenic headaches. Even though cervicogenic and other tension-type headaches may not involve stress or muscle tension, the chiropractor's ability to adjust spinal abnormalities seems to lessen or remove the forces contributing to many individual's headache pain.

Chiropractic adjustments can help restore the mind/body communications. Headache pain often decreases when these adjustments improve the nervous system's control of the body.

What Causes Tension Headaches?

While tension headaches are the most frequently occurring type of headache, their cause is unknown. The most likely cause is contraction of the muscles that cover the skull because of physical or emotional stress placed on the body. When the muscles covering the skull are stressed, they may spasm and cause pain. Common sites for spasm may include the base of the skull where the trapezius muscle inserts, the temples where muscles that assist the jaw to move are located and the forehead.

Physical stress that may cause tension headaches include:

• Difficult and prolonged manual labor,
• Sitting at a desk or computer for long periods of time.

Sometimes migraines are accompanied by an "aura".  Even before the migraine begins, you will often notice strange symptoms such as:

• Dizziness,
• Ringing in your ears,
• Zigzag lines in your vision and;
• Light sensitivity.

Suspected Factors:

• Genetics,
• Being overweight,

Triggers Include:

• Certain foods and substances,
• Behaviors; and
• Environment.