Nearly 50% of the population suffers with headaches and up to 20% of those headaches are what are called cervicogenic headaches. These are headaches that originate in the neck and many times associated with neck pain. Traumas like car accidents, bad postures including poor sleep position, sitting at a computer all day, holding your head tilted down texting on your phone can be the cause. The vertebra in the spine get misaligned putting pressure on the spinal cord and nerves but also alters blood flow to the brain. Here is another study shows that chiropractic provides natural relief of cervicogenic headaches.
The study in The Spine Journal studied the dose response and efficacy of chiropractic for relief of cervicogenic headaches. 80 patients with chronic cervicogenic headaches were analyzed using pain and disability scales, number of headaches over a 4 week period and medication usage.
Patients were split into groups receiving either 8 or 16 treatments over an 8 week period using either chiropractic treatment or light massage.
The chiropractic group improved with clinical significance in all scores compared to the patients that received massage. Those in the 16 treatment group showed even more advantage in receiving chiropractic than the massage group. Patients receiving chiropractic were also more likely to achieve a 50% improvement in pain scale. Other benefits of chiropractic showed a reduction in medication use by 33% and headache frequency reduced by 50%.
Chiropractic is so successful in providing natural relief of cervicogenic headaches because it works to correct the cause of the symptoms. Adjustments to the vertebra that are misaligned from the traumas and stress remove pressure to the nerves, spinal cord and arteries. Improving range of motion, flexibility and function of the spine is important if you suffer with headaches.
Chiropractic is a safe, natural and effective way to help provide you relief of your headaches. Our chiropractor has been providing natural headache relief in Freehold NJ for the last 18 years.
Watch what one of our patients shares about her migraines that were actually caused by trauma to her neck: