According to estimates, 90 percent of people in the United States experience frequent headaches. In most cases, these headaches are caused by stress and tension.
Over-the-counter pain medications do not always provide relief to tension headache sufferers. You might be looking for an alternative treatment to medications to eliminate your tension headaches once and for all. Chiropractic care might be just the treatment you need.
What Is Causing Your Tension Headaches?
There are several things in the environment that can be causing you to have tension headaches. It typically starts with tension or stress in your shoulders or neck.
Tension headaches are the result of tight muscles that come from a lack of exercise or strenuous physical activity. Your chances of developing tension headaches increase if you are constantly hunched over your desk, computer, or phone.
Sitting with bad posture not only creates tension in your muscles but also irritates the joints of your spine. This leads to chronic inflammation, which can trigger headaches.
How Can Chiropractic Care Relieve Tension Headaches?
Your chiropractor will expertly use routine chiropractic adjustments coupled with other treatment options to resolve your tension headaches. Over-the-counter medications are usually not strong enough to relieve tension headaches. You may need prescription medications to loosen up extremely tight muscles.
Massage therapy is therapeutic and can help relax your muscles. It can enhance blood circulation and reduce body tension.
Myofascial release is a technique that uses transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to loosen tight knots or trigger points. Electrodes are put on your skin’s surface. This is a non-invasive treatment.
Additionally, your chiropractor can recommend at-home therapies that you can do to get rid of tension before it builds up to the point that it triggers a headache. They may encourage you to make lifestyle changes, such as taking a break every hour during work, standing up, and stretching.
What Do Chiropractic Manual Adjustments Achieve?
A chiropractor will use manual adjustments to:
• Minimize irritation in the nerves that send pain signals to the brain
• Improve communication among different elements of your nervous system
• Normalize blood flow and improve the overall health
• Strengthen muscles that support your spine
Chiropractors are not just focused on addressing symptoms. Their goal is to help you fix the source of your headaches. Over-the-counter medications just put a bandage on the symptoms. Chiropractic care aligns your body, giving it the resilience needed to fight headaches before they start.
By addressing disconnections, blocks, misalignments, and dysfunctions of your nervous system, spinal manipulation can prevent some of the common triggers of headaches and migraines. Manipulations can strengthen the muscles around your spine that can lead to headaches when they are weak. Manipulation puts your body in optimal condition for releasing its own healing power.
What to Expect from Treatment
After each visit, you are going to see improvement in the intensity and frequency of your headaches. The results will change from person to person and the types of headaches you are experiencing.
If you have extreme sensitivity to migraines, you may require more treatment to see lasting results. Or you may feel completely “cured” from your tension headaches after just one session.
If you see instant results, avoid the temptation to think that you are done with chiropractic care. Following a full course of treatment is essential for creating long-term chiropractic results.
