Headache Relief with Chiropractic Care

One of the most common conditions that people seek chiropractic care for relief from is headaches. There are many different types of headaches and many causes of headaches, but we are going to talk about the two most common types that we see in our office.
One of the most common causes of headaches is dehydration. Many Americans don’t drink enough water and are in a chronically dehydrated state. Add the fact that many of us drink caffeine daily (which causes us to urinate more and thus, lose water) and the issue is only compounded. Dehydration makes our blood thicker and more difficult to pump through our blood vessels. This causes headaches by causing a decrease in the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the brain. Another effect of dehydration is an increase in cardiovascular strain as the heart now has to work much harder to push blood to the system and ensure that we are effectively delivering oxygen where it is needed.
To figure out how much water you should be drinking, take your weight in pounds, divide it by two, and that’s how many ounces you should try to drink every day. Yep…it’s a lot. Now you can see why drinking water is so important.
The second type of headache is called a tension headache. Tension headaches are when the muscles of the upper neck and skull go into spasm. This is most commonly caused by joint dysfunction in the upper neck. Our patients with headaches likely have joints in the upper neck that are not moving ideally. When patients seek care in our office, our job is to find which joints are responsible for causing the headaches and determine which treatment methods would be most effective. Our goals with headache patients are to:

1. Restore proper joint motion to the problematic area of the spine
2. Relieve nerve irritation and muscle spasm that are secondary to the joint dysfunction

With the care that we provide in our office, we have helped hundreds of patients with headaches find relief and decrease their dependence on headache medications or anti-inflammatories.
If you or someone you know is suffering with headaches, please do not hesitate to call our office at 316-685-4965. We provide effective, affordable chiropractic care to help eliminate your headaches and be more effective at home, work, and play.