What is a normal headache?
This may sound silly, but I hear it all the time from patients. They will say that they don’t get more than the normal amount of headaches.
No headache or pain that is a daily occurrence is normal for the body. I think headaches are so insidious that we've become used to the fact that they happen and we accept it.
Headaches can also be from stress or dehydration and many other factors. What I found most of the time is that normal headaches are not from any of those things. A lot of “normal headaches”actually have a lot to do with your neck function. This type of headache is treatable and chiropractic can provide you with some excellent relief.
Breaking Down Different Types of Headaches
Headache #1: Tension headache or cervical headaches
These types of headaches tend to start from the neck. These are probably the most common type of headaches that people have and the good news is they respond well to chiropractic care.
The symptoms of these headaches start in the neck and tend to travel up into the head and wrap around. This type of headache tends to affect people with lots of stress or poor posture which will create tension in their necks which can cause headaches.
Headache #2: Migraines
Usually, these headaches are one-sided and sometimes the symptoms can switch from side to side. These types of headaches can be a lot more intense in their symptom presentation. Sometimes people experience what's called an aura before these headaches arrive. Auras can include all sorts of different symptoms including, blurred vision, nausea, and even tingling in the face or on one side of the body.
Since there are a lot of factors that can contribute to migraines they don't respond quite as well to chiropractic care. To get full resolution we often need to pair chiropractic care with diet or nutrition modification or even hormone testing via other providers. At the very least, most of the time, chiropractic care will greatly reduce the number of headaches migraine sufferers experience.
Headache #3: Cluster headaches
These headaches are really, really severe and also tend to be one-sided. This headache is described as a knife going through your head. They used to call them suicide headaches because they were so bad that people would want to just not live anymore.
Some symptoms of these headaches can be eye and nose drainage on the side of the head that is experiencing the headache. Those cases are more severe and I have not seen many of those cases. I have noticed that the less severe versions of these headaches do respond well to chiropractic care.
Just know that all headache types respond in some way to chiropractic care. The tension headache is the easiest to care for and the migraine is a bit harder to get under control. If you have any questions feel free to reach out.
Our Process for Treating Headaches via Chiropractic Care
Today we are going to go over how we address headaches and how we get people relief from headaches in our office. The number one thing we start with is just a very good and thorough health history. We talk about almost everything that has to do with your health and the symptoms that you're currently experiencing.
Then we move on to an exam where we assess your movement patterns in your cervical spine and upper back. We assess your range of motion, perform orthopedic tests, and a neurological exam just to make sure we know exactly what's going on with your neck and upper back area.
Then we also assess movement patterns to make sure that there's not something that needs to be corrected and of course, posture is another big factor. We always talk about different things like sleep posture and office ergonomics and how much time you spend looking down looking at your phone or other devices.
We don't just adjust you and tell you to come back and hope that gets it better. We also try to work to help you correct as many things as we can in your daily life so that you can have a full and more permanent resolution.
Obviously, the big thing we do that sets us apart from other professionals is we adjust the spine. The neck adjustments are safe, they're effective, and they really are the bread and butter of our profession. The idea is when you get the neck adjusted, it helps to restore motion into the joints.
We have therapies and muscle work techniques that we can do as well. Then we also offer home exercises so that you can help yourself outside the office. If we find any issues with ergonomics or sleep posture, we work with patients to correct that as well.
We take a holistic approach to how we treat every patient, especially headache patients.
At-Home Treatment Options for Your Headaches
We are going to talk about some of the non-chiropractic things you can do for yourself at home when it comes to headaches. Although the best and most long-lasting relief is to come into our office, there are a few simple things you can do at home.
#1: Sleep Patterns
Getting good, adequate rest every night is helpful when it comes to managing the symptoms of a headache. Good sleep posture is also good to pay attention to so that you aren’t creating extra tension in your neck.
#2: Work Ergonomics
Being in a good position while at work or just working on a laptop helps to decrease the possibility of tension in muscles that tend to create headache symptoms.
#3: Triggers
Try to understand and find your triggers. People that deal with migraines often have triggers to anything from light to food.
#4: Manage Stress
Stress creates a lot of tension in the body and sometimes can be a large contributing factor to the symptoms of a headache.
If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us. You can call or text the office at 507-345-1926 to set up an appointment.