Headaches

Can Chiropractic help with headaches?

Many of our patients  seek our help because they have experienced headaches. You probably know of someone who gets frequent headaches. When you experience pain within your body, wherever it is, including headaches, they can be debilitating and affect day to day life. Sometimes they affect our ability to function so much that we struggle to work, attend school or enjoy our hobbies. In adults they can cause other issues such as poor sleeping habits and mood changes. When experienced by children the effect they have on their mood and ability to function overtime affects their development and wellbeing. 

The three most common headaches are;

1. Tension – commonly presents as ‘band like’ tension around the head or pressure across the forehead and temples.
2. Cervicogenic – dull pain in one or more areas of the head, face and neck
3. Migraine – severe to debilitating pain often felt on one side of the head and may be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and/or sensitivity to light, smell and sound

Why do headaches hurt?

Primary headaches can be caused by a number of factors. They can be due to overactivity of pain receptors in and around your head from tight muscles in the neck and shoulder as well as tight joints within the neck. The pain in shoulders and neck muscles is felt by the brain as pain in the head. 

Headaches can be musculoneuroskeletal, which means they can be caused by nerves, muscles and joints (or a combination of). This is why manipulative therapy is a very effective natural approaches to managing the intensity and frequency of headaches and migraines (Bryans et al, 2011).

Find out more about the brain and pain- For both children and adults!

How do we treat headaches?

Here at The 360 Health Hub we treat the body as a whole.  We look at the physical reasons why headaches occur  with a heavy focus on posture and the overall position and shape of the body and all of its parts. What we have seen time and time again, is that the symptoms of tension and headache/migraines  are caused by problems somewhere else in the body, usually further down the chain (such as the low back, legs and feet)  and that the headaches are a byproduct of structural problems further afield.

By recognising the symptoms and working towards balancing and aligning the body Chiropractors can help alleviate headaches and their detrimental affects to your life.

References

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