Headaches & Migraines

Headaches vary widely in terms of severity, frequency and disability. They range from occasional rare episodes of minor discomfort, to daily, incapacitating headaches. The most common types of headache by far, are tension-type headache and the cervicogenic (originating from the neck region) headache. These, amongst others are mechanically orientated headaches and can be due to posture, breast feeding and stress. These can be successfully treated with chiropractic care.

Migraine headaches also affect many individuals and can be very severe and disabling. These too, can be treated with chiropractic care.

People who have suffered trauma in the neck region (including whiplash) who suffer from subsequent headache also benefit from chiropractic treatment.

Quite frequently people suffer from headaches for years and have numerous visits to General Practitioners and can have MRI and CT scans without any definitive diagnosis. As a last resort these patients come to see a chiropractor and often report great benefit after a course of treatment when all they had to do was come to a chiropractor in the first place!

In a study published in the Journal of manipulative physiological therapy, researchers looked at the efficacy of spinal manipulation in the treatment of cervicogenic headaches. Fifty three patients were placed into one of two groups which received either:

• Chiropractic spinal manipulation 2X/week for 3 weeks, or,

• Deep friction massage and low-level laser treatments in the upper back and neck region 2X/week for 3 weeks.

After the 6 weeks researchers found that those receiving the chiropractic spinal manipulation:

• Decreased their use of analgesics by 36%, compared with 0% in the no spinal manipulation group

• Decreased their number of hours they experienced headaches during the day by 69%, compared with 37% in the no-spinal manipulation group

• Decreased their headache intensity per episode by 36%, compared with 17% in the no-spinal manipulation group

Nilsson, DC, MD et al. JMPT 1997;20(5): 326-33O.

The study concluded that manipulation/adjustment appears to have a better effect than massage for cervicogenic headache. The study also concluded that chiropractic treatment has an effect equal to pharmaceutical therapies for tension type headaches.