Headaches are awful! They affect every part of our life. Headaches make it difficult for us to focus on work or study, exercise and enjoy time with family. For some individuals, headaches can be so severe it makes it difficult to function in everyday life.
Headaches can be debilitating, yet they are very common. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly half of adults in the world have experienced a headache in the last year. Headaches are a very complex subject. Most people think all headaches are the same. In fact, this could not be further from the truth! There have been over 200 different types of headaches identified.
One of the most incapacitating types of headaches we see at Precision Chiropractic & Massage Center are migraine headaches. Migraines are a specific type of headache that is typically severe and accompanied by other symptoms such as changes in vision, vomiting, difficulty with balance and light sensitivity.
Migraine headaches have affected my family first hand. My wife frequently suffered from migraines. The pain would be unbearable, forcing her to miss work and spend time in bed resting with the lights off. Before receiving chiropractic care, she experienced these headaches with regular frequency. However, after receiving regular chiropractic adjustments, she went a period of years without experiencing one migraine.
The effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for those who suffer from headaches is not isolated to this specific event. In fact, many cases of chiropractic care successfully treating headaches has been documented in scholarly journals such as the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapies and the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine.
You are probably asking “How does chiropractic help with headaches?” At Precision Chiropractic, I focus on correcting structural shifts in the spine. A shift in structure refers to a movement of a vertebrae out of place in the spine. When a vertebra shifts out of place, it puts pressure and stress on adjacent nerves. When nerves are stressed, people begin to experience pain. This pain may be in a variety of different areas of the body, including the head.
When there is an issue with the alignment of the bones in the neck, increases in muscle tension are experienced as well. Most individuals that complain of headaches will complain of muscle tension in their upper shoulder and neck areas. This tension typically decreases after a chiropractic adjustment. In our office, we have the advantage of working with highly skilled massage therapists that can help to reduce muscle tension in the neck and shoulder areas. Our therapists have advanced training and understand the relationship between specific types of muscle tension and its effects on headaches.
We also offer a very specialized form of body work known as craniosacral therapy. Craniosacral therapy uses light touch to regulate the flow of fluid that surrounds your spinal cord and brain (known as cerebrospinal fluid). This therapy along with chiropractic care has shown to be very effective in treating many kinds of headaches.
If you would like to discuss your headache symptoms, do not hesitate to call my office for a complimentary consultation.
