What causes Headaches ?
Headaches are one of the most debilitating common complaints presented to primary health care practitioners. An estimated 27% of all Females and 14% of all Males suffer from regular bouts of headache.
There are thousands of causes for headaches and some of them can be very serious. If you suffer from a recent onset of headaches it is very important that you see a primary health care practitioner to get a proper diagnosis.
Once you have ruled out that your headache may be from a more serious problem you now fit into the category of 90% of headache sufferers that suffer from a benign headache. This means that there is no known disease pathology that is causing your headache (such as meningitis or a tumor).
The definition benign headache was probably named by somebody that never had headaches as surely most benign headache suffers would agree that benign headaches are anything but benign.
Benign headaches can loosely be grouped into 4 categories
- Tension Headaches
- Migraine Headaches
- Cluster Headaches
- Sinus Headaches
Tension Headaches
The Tension headache, also known as the cerviogenic headache is the most common type of headache and also the type of headache that responds best to Chiropractic treatment.
A tension headache is characterised by dull pain that is more continuous than other types of headaches. Pain is often experienced at the front of the head and increases with long periods of working under stress. The tension headache is thought to have many causes but one of the most common causes is our modern lifestyle.
Sitting with the head forward for a long length of time causes the muscles right up behind the skull, also known as the sub-occipital muscles, to be overworked and go into spasm. If this condition occurs for too long, painful hypertonic trigger points develop and the tension headache is formed.
Some research suggests that very tight sub-occipital muscles may interfere with blood flow at the base of skull which severs the problem.
Chiropractic Treatment of Tension Headaches
Due to the fact that Chiropractic looks at the entire structure of the body, treatment has yielded good results in relieving tension headaches.
Through postural analysis Chiropractors can determine which segments in the vertebra are doing more than their fair share of the work in holding up the spine against the forces of gravity. For every inch that the head is carried forward, the stress on the neck muscles increases by approximately the weight of your head (about 5kg).
The chiropractor usually performs adjustments to the upper cervical spinal segments ( quite often c2/3). This is because many of the nerves that supply the skull actually come of the upper cervical spinal segments.
Trigger-point and muscle-release work on the tight neck muscles are also an important part of treating tension headaches. Sadly, these treatments are often overlooked. This is why treatments at Mulllumbimby Chiropractic also include many soft tissue techniques.
To learn more about headaches please go on to page 2 by clicking on the link below.
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