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What Causes Headaches and Can Chiropractic Help?

Aug 04, 2020

Headaches can be a debilitating part of life if you chronically suffer from them. Most often when people experience regular headaches, the root cause remains unknown. Even after numerous tests, scans, medications, and extreme therapies, many report no change in the frequency or severity of their headaches. Fortunately chiropractic has an enormous success rate with managing headaches!


There are 3 main things that influence headaches:


Structural


Structural imbalance is the most common cause of headaches and is the easiest to correct in our office. This involves the alignment of the bones of the cervical spine (neck). When someone has misalignment to the bones of the neck, it creates painful tension in the muscles, reduced range of motion, and reduced blood flow. In response, the body releases inflammatory chemicals into the area. These chemicals aggravate the nerves of the spine and can be a huge factor in headaches. Over time, if the brain is not getting enough blood flow & oxygen it creates a hypoxic environment. This phenomenon is very common in people with headaches.


Chemical


Unfortunately our world is full of toxins that can disturb our bodies natural processes. These chemicals are found in our food, air, and water supply. These toxic compounds include pesticides, heavy metals, PFO's, aerosols, plastics, and many others. Over time these toxins accumulate in the fat cells in the body AND in the brain. A body full of these toxins will block proper function of the cells. When a cell is plugged up with toxic materials it can't detox itself! This can leave you with brain fog, fatigue, poor health, and headaches. A great way to detox the brain is with specific adjustments to the upper neck which allow the brain to flush out these toxins naturally. Another necessity in combating toxins is to eat organic foods, use non-toxic cleaning products and non-toxic personal hygiene products. What you eat and what you put on/in your body matters!


Hormonal


Hormones can play a huge role in headaches, especially with women. It is most common for women during their menstrual cycle and menopausal women to experience frequent headaches. So much of hormone imbalance comes from stress. This can be chemical stress (as discussed above) or emotional stress. Emotional stress refers to the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that acts to aid the body when in high stress environments (a big presentation for work for example). Cortisol can be useful in short bursts, but long term secretion of cortisol can wreak havoc on the body. Chronic high levels of cortisol in the blood stream is linked to headaches, weight gain, high blood pressure, skin changes, mood swings, and more. When any hormone is too dominant, it throws other hormones out of balance. Manage your stress levels and you can better manage all your hormones!




Overall headaches are very common, however they are NOT NORMAL. You don't need to suffer with headaches! In our office we have tremendous success in eliminating headaches permanently. You can get headache relief! It is important to dive into WHY you are suffering from headaches. At Thrive Family Chiropractic we help eliminate headaches by addressing the structural, chemical, and hormonal components of your health. Stop your suffering and give chiropractic a try.


Call us today to make an appointment!

562-386-1415















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