Subluxations Can Cause Pressure on the Brain Stem and Affect Blood Supply to the Head
Not a Tension Headache
The migraine is different from the more common tension headaches. Migraines usually involve the whole head, come on suddenly and only include nausea and vomiting if they are very severe.
The Cluster Headache
Cluster headache attacks come on abruptly, with intense throbbing pain arising high in one nostril and spreading behind the eye on that side of the face. The attacks tend to occur from one to several times daily in clusters lasting weeks or even months. Without apparent reason the cluster subsides as quickly as it began. Men between 20 and 40 are most affected by them.
Treatment
The treatment for a headache depends, of course, on what has presumably caused it. A headache arising from visual problems can often be cured by eyeglasses. An infection headache of the sinuses or ears is relieved when the infection subsides. But the most common headaches are usually treated with painkillers. This do not get the cause of the problem but addresses only the symptoms. Of course, to someone experiencing intense pain, symptom relief is no small thing. However, the hundred of millions of dollars spent each year on everything from aspirin and aspirin substitutes to codeine and prescription drugs may provide relief from headaches but don’t correct the cause or prevent recurrence.
Can Chiropractic Help Me?
For over a century chiropractic’s natural, drug-free approach to health has been a blessing to migraine and cluster headache sufferers. Chiropractors are the only healthcare professionals trained to analyze and correct subluxations which are tiny distortions in your spine and structural system that affect your nerves, joints, discs and internal organs, including your brain. This common condition can weaken your body, cause fatigue and pain, lower vitality and set the stage for sickness and disease.
By correcting subluxations your body can better restore itself to a greater level of health and wholeness—to better heal itself.
The Chiropractic Checkup
Using his hands, X-ray, scales and other instruments, your chiropractor will determine if you have subluxations in your body. If you have them then he will give you a chiropractic adjustment or correction to remove them which will improve your body function and promote your natural healing ability.
The Spine/Headache Relationship
Research reveals migraine sufferers have abnormal nerve firings in the brain and spinal cord. This may be why chiropractic helps so many migraine sufferers and it dovetails with prior findings that headaches can be caused by structural distortions. A study of 6/000 people who suffered from recurring headaches for two to 25 years showed that spine injury was the most important factor in the cause of the headache and should eb suspected in every case of recurring headache.
Chiropractic & Migraines
There are many studies showing the benefits of the drug-free, natural healing approach to chiropractic for migraine sufferers.
For example, in one study chiropractic care resulted in a reduction of 90% of migraine episodes with the length of each migraine reduced by 38%. In addition, medication use dropped 94% and other symptoms associated with migraine such as nausea, vomiting, photophobia and phonophobia (light and sound sensitivity) were reduced.
In a six-month study, half of 127 migraine sufferers were given chiropractic care while the other half were not. Twenty-two percent of the chiropractic group reported more than 90% reduction in migraines after two months and about 50% in the group reported significant decline in the severity of migraines.
