How can Chiropractic help?

First off let’s define what a migraine is. The Mayo Clinic describes it as a “severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on one side of the head. It’s often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine attacks can last for hours to days, and the pain can be so severe that it interferes with your daily activities.” Now this sounds quite debilitation and it can be. Many individuals have found that they cannot focus on their work and even affecting their relationships whether it be with family or friends.

So how do we solve this?

There are essential questions to ask when someone is having a migraine in order to help us manage the cause or factors of the cause.
1) When do you notice the migraine starting?
Typically migraines that start first thing in the morning could be a result of position of sleep. How? Well when your sleeping on your stomach with your neck turned to one side that can place a significant amount of pressure on the vertebral artery and moderately reduce blood flow to the brain. The sustained position of this can trigger migraines.
2) Do you go through different temperature changes throughout the day and does the migraine correlate with that?
When this happens one reason could be that the temperature is changing the vasodilation and vasoconstriction of the arteries which are responsible for triggering a migraine. So pay close attention next time and learn from the environment you put your body in.
3) Are you under a lot of stress in life? work?
Mental stress is a big deal. If you have been experiencing consistent stress from work or from your family your body starts to send out more cortisone. This excretion of cortisone is the bodies mechanism to response to “stressful situations” such as when you run into a lion. With the presence of cortisone your blood sugar increases in order to help you have access to energy to run away from the stressor. However, in this case when stress is prolonged, we don’t get a good reaction, we start increasing inflammatory responses which can be detrimental to the body functions and thus make us more prone to having migraines.
Other than these 3 factors there are many other possible factors as well.

What can a chiropractor do for me?

When you seek a chiropractor regarding your migraine you’ll be given a full assessment and be asked the last 3 points mentioned. This helps us chiropractors educate the public, then provide corrective care which help improve blood flow as chiropractic has been shown to improve blood pressure and heart rate.

Other benefits can include relieving of pressure or stress on the joints that could be contributing to your migraine pain. Advice on your posture and various relaxation techniques will also be part of the care plan. So when in doubt about your migraine? ask your chiropractor.

Reference:

mayo clinic – migraine

Memphis Chiropractors may relieve migraines