Why You Should Visit a Chiropractor for Headaches

If you have migraines, visit a chiropractor for headaches.  Even if you have the occasional headache or they are not as severe as a migraine, chiropractic care can be helpful in treating the condition and allowing you to feel better again.  Since headaches can be debilitating, there is no need to live with this chronic discomfort.  

At our clinic, we believe in helping our patients to live a full life that is unrestricted by health problems.  While most people don’t consider a headache to be a major health issue – it actually is.  Ask anyone that suffers from a migraine if they can go about their daily activities while they have one.  The answer will most likely be, no.   This is unfortunate considering that on an annual basis, around 10 million Americans head to the emergency room with a headache. In fact, this is one of the ten most popular reasons that people visit a doctor in general. The rough estimates are that around 100 million people suffer from headaches on a regular basis, and 40 percent of them have migraines.  This leads to people missing school and work, unable to participate in life.  If you have these symptoms and feel like your headaches are interfering with the activities that you want to do, stop medicating the problem and instead, treat the problem.

When you visit a chiropractor for headaches, you can experience relief that will last.  To understand why, you must understand how the body works. The majority of people that suffer from headaches do not have a disease or other condition that is causing them.  Instead, they are caused by muscle tension that typically originates from the neck.  Since a chiropractor focuses on spinal manipulation therapy, chiropractic care can bring the back and neck into alignment and help to alleviate this tension.  As a result, headaches are typically eased.  In fact, the majority of patients that are under the care of a chiropractor, can actually prevent headaches from coming in the first place.  This is why many of our patients will schedule regular appointments when they feel well – they want to stay that way. 

There have been several studies that have evaluated the effectiveness of chiropractic care for treating headaches.  Duke University conducted a study in 2001 that found when headaches originate in the neck; there is an almost immediate improvement to the headache after a spinal manipulation.   They also found that spinal manipulation had fewer immediate and long-term side effects than what doctors were traditionally prescribing to deal with the discomfort of one.   A second study, conducted by the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, found that those who had ongoing chiropractic treatment over the course of four weeks, had fewer headaches and sustained the benefits even after they stopped having spinal manipulations.  They were compared to a group that was only given medication.  In other words, if you are looking for natural headache relief or sustained relief, you should visit a chiropractor for headaches instead of simply taking medication.  At our office, we will work with you to create a treatment plan that enables you to enjoy life, free from this discomfort.