HEADACHES



Most of us have or will experience a headache sometime in our life. Still a large group of the population experience frequent debilitating headaches which last hours to days. These headaches are often grouped as migraines but may actually be cerviogenic or sever tension headaches. Cerviogenic headaches are muskuloskeletal (dealing with the muscles, bones, and supporting soft tissues) in nature. They occur when a cervical vertebrae is subluxated and causes the nerves exiting the vertebrae to be pushed on and excited. Subluxated cervical vertebrae can also cause muscles to spasm in the base of the head and neck which slow or entrap blood flow which can cause headaches with very localized pain such as behind the eyes or just in the back of the head. Doctors of chiropractic treat the cause of these problems not just the symptoms having good success in reducing the frequency and duration of the condition.


Headaches can also be signs of more serious disorders and you should seek emergency care if your headache is very sudden and severe or follows a blow to the head. If your headache is accompanied by confusion, loss of consciousness, convulsions, fever, or sudden severe vomiting this is also an emergency.


The 1996 RAND Corp. study by Ian Coulter, The Appropriateness of Manipulation and Mobilization of the Cervical Spine, found that spinal manipulation had effects similiar to medications in relieving headaches, neck pain, and tension type headaches. While, Boline P. as authored in 1995 in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (vol 18, no .3:148-154) in his article Spinal Manipulation vs. Amitriptyline for th e Treatment of Chronic Tension-Type Headaches: A Randomized Clinical Tri al found that though pain reduction was similiar to the drug chiropract ic care offered decreased frequency and reduction in medication use whil e increasing functional health while the drug group remained constant in these areas.



Further research may be found in:
Journal of the American Medical Association Nov 11 1998 vol 280, no. 18:1576-79. Spinal manipulation in the treatment of episodic tension-type headache
Journal of Manipulative and physiological Therapeutics 1998 vol 21, no. 8:511-19. The efficacy of spinal manipulation, amitriptyline and the combination of both therapies for prophylaxis of migraine headache
Journal of Manipulative and physiological Therapeutics 1997 vol 20, no. 5:326-30. The effect of spinal manipulation in the treatment of cervicogenic headache.
Journal of Manipulative and physiological Therapeutics 1994 vol 17, no. 3:156-66. The tension headache, migraine headache continuum: a hypothesis.




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