Chiropractic Care And Headache Treatment
Headaches are unpleasant whether frequent, infrequent or life-stopping like migraines. Nobody wants them. Most people suffering from headache turn toward pain relief medications. Though medications are effective in suppressing the symptoms, the headache keeps running its marathon in your head. I would recommend you to take a look at what could be causing your headache and not just mask the symptoms with medications.
You do not get rid of a weed by cutting of its branches or pulling out a few leaves; you uproot it! It’s the same with all bodily aches and pains associated with diseases and other causes. You have to treat the problem as a whole and avoid hacking aimlessly at the symptoms. This is the area of wellness expertise where chiropractic care stands out from other remedies for pain relief and specifically for headaches.
The Causes of Headaches
Headache pain, while it is one of the most common ailments in adults, is not normal. Pain is a signal from the body that something is out of balance. Dr. Dee at Healing Hands Chiropractic, located in Murfreesboro, TN treats the whole body and mind as a complete system. When a patient comes to see them, whether it is for chronic headaches or an acute tension or sinus headache, the doctor will ask the patient questions about what is going on in their life, their diet, sleep patterns, stress levels and other questions to try to get at possible causes for the headache.
Headaches can be caused by a whole host of things, including:
- Neck strain
- Muscle tension
- Exhaustion
- Ineffective stress management
- Withdrawal from caffeine
- Allergies
- Eyestrain
- Low blood sugar
- Sinusitis
The Chiropractic Approach to Headache Treatment
Dr. Dee focuses on the spine, but she also takes the whole body system into consideration in order to facilitate the body’s natural healing processes. The body’s systems are so complex and interrelated that just because you are feeling the pain of a headache in your head, it doesn’t mean that is where the pain began.
After consulting with you and examining your body, the Dr. Dee will decide on a course of treatment for you. One of the interesting things about working with a Dr. Dee is that after you receive your treatments you may begin to notice other issues in your body begin to resolve themselves, and you may begin to feel even better.
Learning to Live Without Headaches
Hopefully you have learned that headaches are not normal, and that taking pain killers simply hides the pain rather than getting at the true origins of how your body is out of balance. Chiropractic care has holds the goal of removing all of the impediments to your body’s natural ability to heal itself.
You can support the efforts of your doctor by leading a healthy lifestyle where you eat a healthy diet, drink plenty of water and get enough rest.
Understanding your headache: Types and triggers
Depending on whether your headache is caused by underlying medical conditions, a headache may be classified as primary or secondary headache.
Primary headaches are usually migraines, tension-generated headaches, cervicogenic (characterized by pain on the side of the head) and cluster headaches. 90-95% of all headaches are of the Primary kind. These are triggered by lifestyle disorders like stress and muscle tension in the neck, upper back and scalp, insomnia, blood sugar levels, constant bad posture and lack of proper movement and exercise.
Secondary headaches are only 5-10% of all headaches experienced by people. They are caused by underlying medical conditions like pressure on the brain or skull caused by tumors or head injury and sometimes infection. These are warning signals about other complications.
Chiropractic intervention for treatment of headaches
Chiropractors believe that:
- There is a dynamic relationship between lifestyle, environment and health.
- The intimate relationship of the centrally-located spine and the nervous system and the capacities of the human body.
- The human body has the ability to recuperate given the help to correct imbalances created by external or internal causes.
When patients present to my office for the treatment of headaches, I consider their medical history; ask about their lifestyle, typical daily activities, and diet.
I perform spinal adjustments, specifically in the neck region in the case of cervicogenic headaches, to relieve stress and improve spinal function. I also treat the surrounding muscles that attach on the spinal joints to take pressure off of the joints. Tension headaches also respond well to chiropractic adjustments.
General advice for a headache-free life
- Keep yourself well hydrated – drink lots of water, avoid diuretic drinks like alcohol, tea and coffee.
- Moderate exercise is good for everyone; aerobics or walking.
- Take stretching and movement breaks between sedentary working hours.
- Sleep well and eat non-inflammatory food.
Headaches are not normal. You do not have to live with them. With simple lifestyle changes and chiropractic routine you can look forward to a headache-free future. As more and more patients who approach chiropractors have discovered, drug therapy is accompanied by side effects over time and treats pain only at the symptom level. The underlying cause remains hidden and triggers recurring headaches.
Today’s surveys and national studies show that patients undergoing chiropractic treatment experience sustained reduction in frequency of headaches than those patients on drugs for the same! To start experiencing headache relief, contact Healing Hands Chiropractic today!
