Chiropractic and headaches 2011-07-25

Chiropractic care and headaches:

Do you or someone you know suffer from headaches?  Headaches affect millions of people in the United States.  It is one of the biggest reasons for people to miss work or other social engagements.  For many people headaches are almost a daily event and will cost them not only a significant amount of money in treatment but also a significant amount of time in life.  Time that could be spent doing the things they enjoy.

There are  many treatments for headaches including over the counter medications (OTC’S), narcotics, spinal injections, acupuncture, massage and chiropractic care to name a few.

OTC”S is a fine remedy for a short term headache.  If not overdone they will work fact and are reliable.  The problem arises when they are consumed daily.  This may cause what is called a rebound headache.  With this type of headache, they individual takes the OTC (like Excedrin) and the headache decreases, but comes back so they take more and then it comes back stronger and this cycle repeats itself.  This can also happen with narcotics for headaches.  Both of these medications have serious side effects that should be discussed with your medical physician and the pharmacy where you purchase them.

Spinal injections are helpful when we know the headaches are caused from the joints in the neck and they have responded to manual therapy, although they continue to return. This is usually a treatment of last resort for individuals that are becoming disabled due to their headaches.

Acupuncture and massage are great treatments for headaches originating from the muscles of the spine or skull.  Both are non invasive and have very good results.

Significant research over the years has shown that a majority of headaches are what we term “cerivogenic” headaches.  This is a headache that is due to a problem with the spinal joints in the neck.  If one or more of the joints in the neck (cervical spine) are not working properly you may obtain a headache due to the referred pain from that joint.  Chiropractic care has been shown to help this due to the effect of the chiropractic adjustment on the spinal joints.

I have been in the practice of chiropractic for over 18 years and daily treat people with headaches with very good results.  Treatment is usually quick and easy and I will always give suggestions on how you can control your headaches with home care after I take care of the joints so they are working properly again.

This is a very brief discussion on headaches.  It would be my pleasure to sit down and discuss chiropractic care and it’s affect on headaches in more detail if you suffer from headaches.