Headache related health disorders affect around 40% of the global population and are the 3rd highest cause of lost productivity. However, knowing you share your pain with so many other people is probably cold comfort when you’re in the middle of a migraine attack, or dealing with a cervicogenic headache!
Can a chiropractor help with your migraines and headaches?
Yes, chiropractors can help with certain types of headaches, and can often help manage the pain of migraines as well. If you’re keen to learn more about migraines and other types of headaches, and how a chiropractor can help, this post is for you.
Although all headaches present with some type of head pain (obviously), they are not ‘all the same’ when it comes to triggers and other symptoms. Some types are triggered by conditions chiropractors can certainly help with but others are not so straightforward.
Cervicogenic headaches, for example, are often improved by chiropractic care because they originate with mechanical issues in your neck – misaligned vertebrae, muscle tension, and so on. Similarly, tension headaches, when triggered by something like poor posture, may also benefit from chiropractic care.
Other types of headaches, like migraines and cluster headaches, can benefit from supportive therapies that address the underlying causes of triggers.
These are the most common type of headache. They often feel like a band of tension or pressure around your head with dull aching pain present across both sides. There may also be some tenderness in your scalp, neck, and shoulder muscles.
Tension headaches can be triggered by
They can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours or a few days depending on the trigger.
For instance, a tension headache triggered by poor posture will likely keep happening until your posture improves. In this case – seeing a chiropractor to improve this could help reduce the frequency, intensity, and duration of your headaches!
A chiropractor can also often help with lifestyle advice and supportive therapies, like massage and exercise for tension, stress, and muscle tension triggers.
Migraines cause a severe throbbing, pulsating pain, usually on one side of the head. They have distinct phases: early symptoms (prodrome), aura, attack, and after symptoms (postdrome). Additionally, migraines come with a range of neurological symptoms, although you won’t necessarily experience all of them:
These can leave you feeling quite ill and drained for several days before and after the actual migraine attack.
Migraines have a wide range of triggers, typically more so than other types of headaches. These include:
Chiropractors can often help with some of these through lifestyle advice and various supportive therapies. Migraines with accompanying neck pain may also benefit from gentle adjustments to neck vertebrae.
Cervicogenic headaches are commonly treated with chiropractic care. They are secondary headaches that originate, as explained earlier, with problems in the cervical, or neck, vertebrae.
Cervicogenic headache triggers include:
They are generally identified by:
As cervicogenic headaches usually ‘hang around’ until the underlying neck problems are addressed, a visit to your chiropractor is often a good way to ease the pain faster!
They can treat cervicogenic headaches by correcting misaligned cervical vertebrae to restore nerve function and recommending ways to improve posture or reduce neck strain.
Sinus headaches are triggered by sinus infections (sinusitis) and inflammation and will last as long as the sinus condition lasts.
If you get sinus headaches, you’ll likely experience deep, constant pain around the sinus area – across the cheekbones, forehead, or bridge of the nose. Sudden head movements can intensify the pain.
Research suggests that people who suffer from severe ongoing sinusitis (and sinus headaches) may have a misalignment in their upper neck (C1 / C2) vertebrae. Chiropractic care in these cases can help identify and address these misalignments, with a corresponding reduction in headache and neck pain.
Cluster headaches get their name from their ‘habit’ of occurring in clusters, or cyclical patterns. During a cluster period, sufferers will typically experience an intense run of them.
The headaches may happen several times a day, daily, or every other day. Then they disappear and it could then be months, or even years, before another attack occurs.
The individual headaches also tend to come and go very suddenly and may last anywhere from half an hour to several hours.
The specific triggers for cluster headaches are not clearly understood but could be related to sudden releases of certain hormones in the hypothalamus. Quite why this happens, or what triggers the sudden release of these hormones – if they are involved – is unclear.
Symptoms of cluster headaches include:
Cluster headaches and migraines are often confused because both are intensely painful, located on one side of the head, and seem to share some triggers.
However, on a pain scale, the sharp, intense, searing pain of a cluster headache often outranks a migraine’s (quite different) constant throbbing, pulsating pain!
They are also a relatively rare headache in comparison to migraines and other types of headaches and affect men more than women.
As we pointed out earlier, effective chiropractic care for migraines and headaches depends on the type of headache, and the triggers involved.
These will differ between patients – what triggers migraines in one patient won’t necessarily trigger them in another. That said, a chiropractor could help with migraines and various types of headaches in several ways.
Gentle spinal adjustments and soft tissue therapy like massage and myofascial release may help where headaches are triggered by muscle stress, tension, poor posture, or there is accompanying neck pain.
Similarly, patients with chronic sinus headaches and associated neck pain may benefit from adjustments to upper neck vertebrae.
As a holistic healthcare profession, chiropractors are well placed to offer sound advice about many contributing factors to various types of headaches, including migraines, with:
With a range of supportive therapies in their headache toolkit, chiropractors can help with migraines and headaches by recommending:
Chiropractic treatment offers a drug-free customised and holistic approach to managing both the causes and symptoms of some types of headaches and migraines, notably those that either originate in or are associated with musculoskeletal problems.
By targeting these at their source, and improving your overall health and well being, it’s often possible to reduce the frequency and severity of tension, cervicogenic, and sinus headaches, along with some migraine triggers and symptoms.
Depending on the type of headache or migraine triggers, chiropractic care can certainly be a viable option for migraine and headache sufferers.
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