Almost everyone has felt the deep throbbing of a headache at one point in their lives. For many people, they occur sparingly, and for some, they occur frequently. However, a few people suffer from headache pain so chronic that it affects their work, relationships, and the general quality of their lives.
Welcome to the latest blog post from Ayr Spinal Care, today we are talking about headaches and how we can help.
What Causes Headaches?
To understand whether it's important to see a chiropractor for headache pains, we must first understand what causes headaches.
Headaches are caused by loads of things. They can be caused by emotional stress, alcohol use, hunger, and even changes in sleeping patterns. It's also important to note that many headaches actually begin in the neck and then the pain can move to your temples, and then to the back of your head. Other parts that headache pains can be felt include around the scalp, the forehead, above the eyes and at the back of the skull.
There are several kinds of headaches, but the ones people most commonly experience are tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches, migraine headaches and cluster headaches.
Most people think that migraines are basically severe headaches, but they aren't. Migraines are actually just a special kind of headache with vascular or neurological components. In fact, some people may have a migraine without having a headache.
The Link Between Neck Stress and Strain and Headaches
It's easy to discount headaches as ailments with no direct physical cause. But that's not true at all. Chronic headaches usually occur after whiplash, accidents, repetitive bad posture amongst others. This mechanical stress and strain applied to the neck muscles, joints and nerves may lead to changes in the way these structures are aligned and move which can lead to disruption in the nervous system. This disruption creates pain that stems from the points which causes most types of headache and also can create changes in the levels of neurotransmitters inside the brain which ultimately cause Migraine headaches.
Why Should I See A Chiropractor For An Headache?
There are several reasons why seeing your chiropractor if you have a headache is a great idea. Firstly a Chiropractor can assess the function and condition of the neck and spine and provide an accurate diagnosis for your headaches using orthopaedic and neurological testing.
Once diagnosed your Chiropractor can address the cause and alleviate the symptoms using manual therapy, spinal adjusting, soft tissue work and rehabilitation exercises for the spine and neck to help with posture and core muscle stability.
Chiropractors can help alleviate your headaches by improving the alignment and function of the spine and encouraging the natural movement of the bones in your neck. After this, your nervous system will regain proper nervous system function and will start to control your neck muscles to work better.
The techniques employed by the chiropractor would correct the anomalies in the structure of the cervical region. It will also serve to restore the nervous system function. In addition to that, it'll help stop or prevent the nerve irritation that is usually the cause of headache pains.
Please feel free to call and speak to us today, or book an appointment here and we will be delighted to get you on track to feeling better