Chiropractic Care for Headaches
By Madhusudhan Tammisetti
Clarity of thought allows you to process emotions, make decisions, and carry on with daily life. Frequent headaches or migraines may disturb your sleep and destroys this clarity of thought, which can create problems in your daily life.
Most headaches are caused due to increased stress and tension on the shoulders that result in a contraction in the surrounding neck muscles. Vertebrae "misalign" when neck muscles contract and create pressure on spinal nerves, resulting in pain. A person suffering from cervicogenic headache may feel pain at the base of the skull that spreads out to temples, eyeballs, and forehead.
Chiropractic Care
It is a combination of massage, active and passive exercises, and spinal adjustment, used for headache prevention and management. Chiropractic therapy may be used for tension headaches, migraines, and cervicogenic headaches. Each responds to chiropractic treatment differently.
For Tension Headaches
Tension headaches result from muscle tension caused due to tension in the neck, head, or shoulders for longer periods. Modified chiropractic therapy may help treat chronic tension headaches.
A chiropractic therapy option called low-load craniocervical mobilization uses gentle force to treat tension headaches. The force is used on the neck joints, allowing for the rhythmic motion of the cervical segments. This method involves stretching as part of the treatment.
For Migraines
Migraines are recurring headaches that oscillate from moderate to severe, and some of the symptoms include dizziness and nausea. The traditional approach for preventing migraines or acute migraine episodes involves the usage of medications. Some procedures may use invasive treatments such as injections to prevent migraines.
Some of the chiropractic care options for migraine include neuromuscular massage and multidisciplinary care intervention.
Applying massage by targeting the trigger points within the head, neck, shoulder, and back may ease migraine symptoms.
Multidisciplinary care intervention involves a combination of relaxation techniques, physical therapy exercises, dietary counseling, and stress management. It may reduce the frequency and duration of migraine pain.
For Cervicogenic Headaches
Cervicogenic headaches move from the back to the front of the head. One of the common traits is the pain caused on the same-side of the shoulder or arm. Cervicogenic headaches are believed to be caused due to an underlying neck problem triggered by an injury.
When treating cervicogenic headaches, the focus of spinal adjustment is on the cervical region. In spinal adjustment, a trained chiropractor uses a controlled force at a specific joint of the spine. When this force is applied, you may hear a popping sound.
If you're interested in alternative therapy for headaches, you can use the services of professional chiropractors at The Joint Chiropractic. A combination of therapies may ease the pain-causing headaches, and a little bit of patience and persistence may resolve the issue.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in San Jose, Calif.