Migraines are a painful, disabling condition that impacts over 36 million people in the United States alone. The World Health Organization ranks it in the top 10 most disabling diseases on the planet. Living with migraines means more than pain and discomfort. Some sufferers wait in fear of when the next attack will occur, which means that even during symptom-free times they must cope with anxiety and even alter their normal daily activities.
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For people who have never had to deal with a migraine episode, it may be easy to think that it's just a terrible headache that will go away with rest and a couple of aspirin. However, the truth is that migraines are a neurologically-based condition that causes a host of other symptoms aside from severe head pain. There are also many types of migraine, and each can come along with its own set of issues. To understand the condition better, here are some things that sufferers wished that those without them knew:
the head pain associated with a migraine is probably the best-known symptom, but sometimes it's the other symptoms that accompany a migraine attack that are the worst. Nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and light sensitivity can also take their toll during a migraine episode.
For some chronic migraine sufferers, an episode can drag on for days or even weeks. Daily activities still need to get done, which sometimes means pushing through the pain to go to work, drop the children off at school, or even attend a social function. Sometimes lying in a dark, quiet room is not a viable option and sometimes a distraction from the pain (like getting out of the house or watching TV) is welcomed.
Having friends or family members who can empathize with how debilitating a migraine can be is extremely helpful. Since it tends to run in families (about 90% have a family history of migraine), migraine sufferers often rely on parents, children, or siblings to help them through when the going gets tough. Emotional support should not be underestimated.
Across most healthcare professions, they consider migraines an incurable but manageable health condition. Much of migraine management turns into the isolation of individual symptoms (I.e. headache, nausea). This is most commonly done using a combination of the following:
Many migraine sufferers embark on a journey to try and identify potential triggers and discover the root cause of their condition. Finding an option that is both natural and provides results that are more than temporary is a common goal.
At the most basic level, your spine's job is to protect the spinal cord. Your spinal cord is the network of nerves that carry signals to and from your brain. These signals are sent and received every second of your life – it makes no difference whether you are asleep or awake, young or old. An interruption in these signals can compromise your body's ability to function normally.
The upper cervical area of the spine, the area where your head and neck meet, should be of particular importance for migraine sufferers. Sitting at the junction between the head and neck is the atlas vertebra. The atlas bears the weight of the head and has a unique shape to account for the freedom of movement when we turn our heads in all directions.
When the atlas misaligns, it can create pressure within the spinal cord and cause the messages going to and from the brain to be distorted. It can also interfere with blood flow and cerebrospinal fluid flow. Any of these factors can contribute to the myriad of migraine symptoms. This can also help to explain why migraines and neck pain often present together, or why neck pain can be a signal of a migraine about to occur.
Upper cervical chiropractic care focuses on this complicated area of the spine. Rather than take a generalized, one-size-fits-all approach, upper cervical chiropractic takes precise, detailed measurements for each patient. These analyses allow chiropractors to perform precise adjustments to each individual.
Upper cervical adjustments themselves are different too – they are extremely gentle and because of how precise they are, they tend to hold in place for longer periods of time. The longer the atlas can maintain its normal alignment, the more efficiently your body can heal. Realigning the atlas reduces tension on the spinal cord, allowing for normal brain-body communication to take place. Sometimes this is all that is necessary to reduce or completely eliminate migraines.
References:
https://americanmigrainefoundation.org
https://migraine.com/migraine-symptoms/
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TV show host Montel Williams describes how specific chiropractic care has helped his body.
The content and materials provided in this web site are for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to supplement or comprise a medical diagnosis or other professional opinion, or to be used in lieu of a consultation with a physician or competent health care professional for medical diagnosis and/or treatment. All content and materials including research papers, case studies and testimonials summarizing patients' responses to care are intended for educational purposes only and do not imply a guarantee of benefit. Individual results may vary, depending upon several factors including age of the patient, severity of the condition, severity of the spinal injury, and duration of time the condition has been present.
