Headache Relief. Migraines, Tension, ‘Cervicogenic,’ TMJ and more…

Headaches

Many different types of headaches exist ranging from migraines to cluster headaches, trigeminal neuralgia head pain, tension headaches and more… any of which can be very severe.

Many headache sufferers have suffered for years or decades.

Reason For Concern If…

Recent headaches, those that just recently started happening, should definitely be checked out right away as they can indicate a serious problem.

Likewise if it’s blood pressure related, take care of the blood pressure problem. The headache is warning you about a potentially very serious event.

Other ‘red flags‘ include headaches with sudden onset stiff neck and fever or sensation changes on one side of the body among other symptoms mentioned in the video.

The majority of headaches are not life threatening.

Headaches are among the most common reasons people take pain relievers, both over the counter and prescription medications.

Often the medications aren’t effective for the headache sufferer.

Abnormal spinal function particularly in parts of the neck is a common cause of headaches and one that a chiropractor is uniquely qualified to help.

These dysfunctional areas are problems that are often related to abnormal movement patterns and postures.

They may be the result of traumas like car accidents or falls – or may be the result of chronic repetitive stresses from work, hobbies, or sports among other things.

The video calls these dysfunctional areas subluxations.

In the context of this video, it means dysfunctional joints that are associated with changes in movement, muscle tone, and neurological changes.

The term doesn’t really matter as it doesn’t necessarily identify a cause of the problem or even fully describe the problem itself.

The video also mentions some other non-injury and non-pain based problems that have been shown in some research to potentially be helped by chiropractic care.

There is much more to the story and there is also much more to chiropractic than only the chiropractic adjustment although the adjustment is a very important tool for helping people with various problems.

Studies show that chiropractic care can really help reduce the frequency of headaches.

Researchers Looked At The Effects Of 2 Months of Chiropractic Care On Migraine Headaches.

127 volunteers between 10 and 70 years of age that were diagnosed migraine and experienced at least 1 migraine/month.

The participants were put into a randomized clinical trial.

The treatment group had 2 months of chiropractic treatment of the spine with up to a maximum of 16 treatments.

The chiropractic treatment group had significant improvement in their migraines with reduced frequency, reduced duration, less disability, and reduced medication use when compared with the control group

The conclusion of the researchers…

“The results of this study support previous results showing that some people report significant improvement in migraines after chiropractic SMT. A high percentage (>80%) of participants reported stress as a major factor for their migraines. It appears probable that chiropractic care has an effect on the physical conditions related to stress and that in these people the effects of the migraine are reduced.”

A 2010 Study Of Chiropractic Treatment’s Effect On Cervicogenic Headaches.

Cervicogenic refers to headaches that are diagnosed as coming from the neck related to various structures including joints, muscles, and nerves.

Researchers looked at the effect of 2 months of care with either chiropractic treatment or massage.

The chiropractic group improved much more than the massage group in all measures including headache frequency, headache intensity, disability, and amount of pain medication taken.

The people treated more often (twice a week versus once a week) improved most.

The interesting thing about research is that it attempts to isolate one thing in the study to identify it’s effect.

The problem is that there are MANY things that a chiropractor can do to help the patient beyond adjusting the neck.

The other problem in studies is that the intervention is applied uniformly across the entire study.

This is a problem because every person is different and would get some individual differences in care depending upon their presentation and the chiropractor.

Even though these points are true, these 2 studies showed that many people with headaches can improve with chiropractic treatment and often remarkably so.

Chiropractic is much more than the spinal adjustment even though that is what is mentioned above.

The other important point is that we DO know much more about the nervous system, how to evaluate it, and the effects of different types of physical treatment.

It’s just far beyond the scope of this one short video… AND it also varies considerably based upon the individual chiropractor.

We have previously posted a lot of different articles and videos on our Texarkana blog about how chiropractic care can help headaches, including migraine headaches.

We have discussed many other sources of headaches including TMJ problems and TMJ treatment.

We have helped so many people that have headaches in the Texarkana area.

Often these people had been suffering for years, if not decades, before coming in to see Dr. Hagebusch and finally getting better.

If you have been suffering with migraines or other headaches and are ready to see if a different approach to treatment can help then contact us.

We’re here to help Texarkana live happier, healthier, pain free lives without headaches and other problems that are interfering with your life!

Come see us in our Texarkana office!

 

Headache Studies Referenced In The Video:

A randomized controlled trial of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2000 Feb;23(2):91-5. Tuchin PJ1, Pollard H, Bonello R.

Dose-Response and Efficacy of Spinal Manipulation for Chronic Cervicogenic Headache: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Spine J. 2010 Feb; 10(2): 117. Mitchell Haas, DC,a,* Adele Spegman, PhD, RN,b David Peterson, DC,a Mikel Aickin, PhD,c and Darcy Vavrek, NDa