Dr. Dalton's Blog-Chiropractic and Headaches
Do you experience headaches? If so, do you ever wonder whether or not there’s something you can do to help shake them other than drinking more water and taking Tylenol? Headaches are extremely common among adults in the U.S. and chiropractic is a great solution. There are several types of headaches including tension headaches which feel like there is a painful band wrapping around your head that progressively gets worse throughout the day, cluster headaches which typically affect one side of the head and cause the eyes to water and nose to run, migraines which are a neurological form of headaches, and cervicogenic headaches which means the pain felt in the head originates from the neck or cervical spine. Cervicogenic headaches are caused by tightness and trigger points in the upper neck muscles that attach from the upper cervical spine segments and connect to the back of the skull known as the occiput.
In a study conducted by BioMed Central in 2017, they measured the effectiveness of chiropractic on headaches in general amongst 12 participants where half of the people received chiropractic care for 12 sessions over the course of three months and the other half did not. The half that received chiropractic care noted improvements in symptoms at every evaluation point of the study which were at the time of treatment, post treatment, 3 months follow up, 6 months follow up, and 12 months follow up visits. This means that people who had chronic headaches and received chiropractic care for 12 visits saw positive results and less symptoms of pain and discomfort regarding their headaches for a year. Imagine a year without headaches!
This a common presentation of a patient in our office, and very rarely have I treated someone experiencing a headache that didn’t have relief after the fact. It is not guaranteed, but some patients even report immediate relief of symptoms following a cervical adjustment. The compound effect of removing adhesions in the spinal joints and surrounding tissues as well as removing the interference in nervous system connections are what corrects the pathology that initiates headaches. Chiropractic is a proven safe and effective treatment option for headache and neck pain management and we’d love to help you shake those headaches here at CWC!
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Neck Pain Treatment
