Nine out of ten Americans suffer from headaches that range from the occasional stress-induced headache to debilitating migraines. What can you do if you suffer from headaches? Are painkillers the only solution out there? Or could it be that a chiropractor helps headaches the same way they can help stress with their spinal adjustments?
If you suffer from headaches, there’s no need to just grin and bear it and hope that it goes away sooner rather than later. A chiropractor helps headaches in a non-invasive way that can get to the root cause of your headaches, providing relief not just now, but potentially even in the future, depending on what triggered them. Here is what you need to know about how a chiropractor helps headaches.
What Causes Headaches?
There are many different types of headaches, the same way there are many different causes for headaches. A small percentage of headaches result as a warning symptom for more serious medical problems, while the majority of headaches are the problem in and of themselves. These are called primary headaches, since the headache is the primary concern, rather than an underlying physical problem that is manifesting itself in the form of headaches, amongst other symptoms.
Most primary headaches are tension, migraine, or cluster headaches, and a chiropractor helps headaches of these varieties by treating the neck. Primary headaches generally don’t result from diseases, but rather from tension in the body, such as muscular tension in the neck. Some other triggers of primary headaches include: specific foods, things such as caffeine withdrawals, environmental stimuli such as stress and lights and noises, and behaviors, such as insomnia or changes in your blood sugar or too much exercise.
How A Chiropractor Helps Headaches?
More and more, chiropractors see people who suffer from headaches as a result of their lifestyles. Many people work desk jobs or are otherwise sedentary the majority of the day. The more time you spend in a fixed position, the higher the likelihood of muscular tension in your neck, as well as your back and scalp, and the more irritated your joints are likely to be. A chiropractor helps headaches in a variety of ways that are designed to ease this tension and treat your headaches.
Some of the ways a chiropractor helps headaches include:
- Manual therapy
- Soft tissue therapy
- Rehabilitation
- Lifestyle changes
- Education about how lifestyle can affect headaches
- Electrical stimulation
- Acupuncture
- Ultrasound
- Referrals/co-management
Most often, a chiropractor helps headaches through performing chiropractic adjustments that alleviate the stress on your nervous system and improve the function of your spine. Usually, if you have headaches, it results from tension in your neck, which your chiropractor will perform an adjustment on in order to alleviate, although it can result from tension in your back, as well. Sometimes, vertebrae that are out of alignment can put stress of your nervous system, which results in headaches.
A chiropractor helps headaches in natural, non-invasive ways that can not only treat your current headache, but also prevent future headaches, especially if they resulted from spinal misalignments. Additionally, if your headaches are being triggered by lifestyle choices, such as certain foods, your chiropractor helps headaches through advising you on changes that you can make in order to fix these issues.
Plus, many headaches result from sedentary lifestyles, poor posture, and the like. A chiropractor helps headaches through giving you advice on your posture, exercises you can do to alleviate stress and tension on your body, and relaxation techniques. These can also help to prevent future headaches, if they resulted from issues such as these.
Preventing Future Headaches
As you can see, there are many ways a chiropractor helps headaches, since many headaches result from stress and tension. If you’re trying to prevent future headaches, a chiropractor can help with this too. The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has several suggestions for how you can prevent future headaches, such as:
- Taking a break to stretch and move every half hour or hour of work
- Low-impact exercise
- Avoiding clenching your teeth
- Staying hydrated
It’s no secret that lifestyle changes can do a lot to prevent future headaches, especially if yours is fairly sedentary. Some changes you can make include:
- Alleviating stress as much as possible
- Working on maintaining good posture
- Not spending too much time on your computer or phone
- Eating well
- Sleeping well
- Avoiding excessive noise or light
Once you are able to uncover the root cause of your headaches, it’s that much easier to prevent future headaches. Grant Chiropractic can help treat your headaches, as well as provide you with advice on how you can work to prevent future headaches. For more information on how a chiropractor helps headaches, or to schedule your first appointment, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!
