Severe pain. Nausea. Extreme sensitivity to light, smell, temperature, and sound. Food and other smells are noxious and intolerable. This lasts for hours or even days. Only the most minor relief comes when the lights go out, the room goes quiet, and life stops. At that point, it’s a matter of agonizing time waiting for the suffering to end.
This is a migraine. This is the experience of almost 40 million people in the United States. Perhaps, this is YOUR experience.
Causes of Migraines
Migraines are not completely understood. We do know they are not just a run of the mill headache. It is thought that migraines are caused by abnormal brain and nervous system activity, which affects the brainstem and alters levels of serotonin to regulate pain signals. The results are debilitating.
While mainstream medicine provides some relief with over the counter and prescription medications, this comes with a price. All of these drugs have side effects, some of which can be more dangerous than the migraine itself. For instance, some migraine drugs cause drowsiness, nausea & vomiting, and gastrointestinal upset; others can cause paresthesia, liver dysfunction, and heart problems. Most people stop the drugs in the first year. Those that use them long term face other health issues, like hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke.
How Chiropractic Care Can Help
Due to everyday stresses like anxiety, physical work, and chemical pollutants in the body, the spine often becomes subluxated, which means the spine’s lost its proper alignment. Subluxations create interference, which hinders the functionality of the nervous system and affect the balance and wellness of the entire body. This can manifest in the body as any type of dysfunction, including migraine.
Subluxations located in the neck (or cervical spine) are believed to contribute to migraine headaches. Through corrective chiropractic care, chiropractors can reduce subluxations and correct spinal abnormalities that contribute to migraines. Long-term wellness care provides additional benefits by maintaining balance in the nervous system, which allows the body to manage stress, toxins, and traumas that contribute to migraines. People also enjoy freedom from prescription and over the counter medications and any related side effects.
Regular chiropractic adjustments have been shown to significantly decrease the frequency and intensity of migraines. Studies have shown chiropractic to be as effective as taking medication to prevent the onset of migraines. Additionally, one study showed that 22% of those who received chiropractic adjustments reported more than a 90% reduction of attacks, and 49% reported a significant reduction in the intensity of each migraine.
