One of the most commonly treated chief complaints in chiropractic offices are headaches. Headaches are basically a condition of pain in the head. Headaches may be located in the back of your head, on the sides, in the front of your head, behind your eyes and forehead and even in the upper part of your neck. The pain symptoms can range anywhere from a dull ache to a sharp piercing headache, or may be quite debilitating such as those associated with migraine headaches.

There are many causes of headaches including: tension or stress, migraine, eye strain, sinuses or allergies, a drop in blood sugar, increase in blood pressure, dehydration, certain food triggers and hormonal causes. Most headaches are benign and go away on their own. For some people headaches may be fairly common, but headaches are not normal. When you experience a headache it is your body's way of alerting you that something is wrong. Simply covering up the pain of a headache with aspirin, or ibuprofen is ignoring the problem, and if used repeatedly can be harmful to your body.

There is a better way to treat headaches, with chiropractic care. Chiropractic care is a drug free, non-invasive approach to treating headaches. There are many types of headaches; the most common is the "Tension Headache". Tension headaches generally are caused by prolonged contraction of the suboccipital muscles. These muscles are located in the area of your upper back to the base of your skull and vertebrae (bones). Many times there are misalignments in your spine that we call subluxations. These subluxations or misalignments can put pressure on the spinal nerves exiting your spinal column as well. The nerves, especially the nerves in the neck control all functioning and healing in your neck and head. If the vertebrae (bones) of your head and neck are not properly aligned there may be pressure on the nerves causing symptoms such as headaches. It is usually a combination of misalignments and poor posture that causes headaches to arise. Many of us sit for many hours during the day and this constant pressure and stretch on the muscles causes irritation that eventually leads to headaches. This prolonged stretch can cause "trigger points" to develop.

Why come to a chiropractor for a headache? If your vertebrae (bones) are out of position or if the muscles are contracted and "trigger points" have developed, an aspirin or ibuprofen will not fix the problem. They may help ease the headache, but the same problem comes back the next day or the next week because structurally your neck is still the same. We want to get to the cause of your headaches and treat that. We will work to change the alignment, through specific chiropractic adjustments, instruct you on better posture, diet, life style changes, and show you exercises that you can do at home to prevent further misalignments.

We have great success in treating patients with headaches, come and see for yourself!