Most migraineurs have tried just about everything to get relief -- pills, shots, acupuncture, aromatherapy, diet changes, sleep aids -- anything that might help them get their migraines under control. An acute migraine attack can be absolutely crippling and send a victim to bed in a dark room for days.
Well, if you suffer from migraine headaches, the one form of relief you may not have tried yet is a few visits to the chiropractor. Here's why you should, though:
Chiropractic care takes a "whole body" approach to migraine.
When a chiropractor stretches, manipulates, and adjusts the joints, bones, and tissues of a patient's body, one of the primary goals is putting everything in perfect alignment. The human body has a habit of letting its parts get out of alignment because of poor posture, the effects of stress, injuries, and other causes.
When that happens, blood vessels don't function correctly and nerves get compressed. When those things stop working properly, it causes pain and limits the body's ability to heal itself. Even more important to migraineurs, blood vessel dysfunction is the physiological root of migraines -- so getting those blood vessels operating properly again can help relieve both chronic and acute attacks.
There's reliable evidence that chiropractic care helps migraines.
If you're like most long-term migraine sufferers, you're probably suspicious of anything that offers a cure at this point without major narcotics being involved. However, there's plenty of reliable evidence that chiropractic care really does work for migraine treatment -- much of it very recent.
For example, a 2011 study indicated that chiropractic spinal manipulative treatment has favorable results on chronic migraines. Another report published by researchers from Duke University indicated that cervical spine manipulations could immediately improve the symptoms of someone having an acute migraine attack. These are just some of the research that's gone into migraine treatment through chiropractic care -- and more are ongoing.
You won't be alone if you decide to try chiropractic care for migraines.
For example, a BioMed Central survey released in 2017 looked into 1869 chiropractors around the nation to find out what kind of results they've had with migraine patients. Many of these chiropractors had a high-migraine caseload -- meaning that a substantial part of their practice was centered around treating migraine victims.
In many cases, chiropractors are willing to work in conjunction with other medical providers to find an effective method to treat a patient's migraine symptoms. For example, you may be able to coordinate care between your neurologist and your chiropractor for better results.
If you haven't tried a chiropractor for migraine relief yet -- you have nothing to lose (except your headache)!
