Statistics say that nine out of ten people suffer from some sort of headaches, but if you ask the average person they’d probably say that it’s ten out of ten. Almost all of us get headaches at some point, and in many cases these headaches aren’t one-time phenomena. To get more specific, 95% of headaches are tension, cluster, or migraine headaches rather than a symptom of some more serious physical problems, and the vast majority of those are tension headaches.
While lots of people will take an over-the-counter pain pill and carry on with the day, this is not be the best solution. One reason for this is that these medicines only mask the pain rather than address the cause of the pain. Secondly, we as a society take too many pills as quick fixes, and our livers aren’t improving as a result. Chiropractic care can be a better answer.
What Causes Tension Headaches?
The most common cause of tension headaches is a subluxation, or a slight misalignment of the vertebrae, in the upper back and neck. This misalignment can be caused by trauma, injury, toxins, allergens, or even psychological or emotional sources, and can result in inflammation of the surrounding muscles or nerve endings. Being involved in a jolting experience such as a car accident can result in this type of misalignment, but so can simply sitting at a computer all day. Even normal everyday “bad habits” can cause this neck tension, such as poor posture, poor diet, and having “unfit” muscles just from being out of shape.
Because of these common causes, there are much better home care solutions than popping a pain reliever. Changing your diet for the better, stretching every day, exercising, and using hot or cold packs on the back of the neck can all offer relief, and usually relief that lasts much longer than a pill. In fact, the changing of diet and/or exercise habits can be a permanent solution.
Consider Chiropractic
If none of these simple fixes do the trick in reducing or eliminating your tension headaches (or even if they do help but you want or need more relief), Chiropractic care has been shown to be an extremely effective treatment for headaches. A 2001 report from Duke University found that “spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headache than a commonly prescribed medication”, according to the American Chiropractic Association‘s website.
Chiropractic is, essentially, the art of removing these subluxations, which are the most common cause of these headaches. It makes sense, therefore that Chiropractic treatment is one of the most effective treatments for common tension headaches, if not the most effective of all. The next time your head starts aching from what appears to be tension related, try one of these other remedies before running to the medicine cabinet. Better yet, don’t wait for the headache to start, call us today to schedule an examination to assess your spinal health.
