If you suffer from migraine headaches, you may have tried different medications that didn't help much or made you feel worse. It can be difficult to treat migraines effectively, so you may need to try several treatment approaches. One treatment that might help is a chiropractic adjustment. With a low risk of unpleasant side effects, it could be worth exploring chiropractic care. Here are some things a chiropractor might do, for your migraines.
Examine Your Spine And Muscles
A chiropractor takes a thorough history and performs an examination, before beginning treatment. The examination might reveal problems with your spine or muscle tension that could trigger your migraines. Once these problems are identified, a treatment plan is devised. Stress and tension might be migraine triggers that chiropractic care can help you reduce, with various treatments.
Release Muscle Tension
Tight muscles in your back and neck can cause neck pain and headaches. The tension in your neck and muscles can build, due to stress at work or home. It could also be due to poor posture habits, such as hunching over a smartphone. Your chiropractor might perform deep tissue work that releases knots in your muscles and breaks up scar tissue. The result is relaxed neck, shoulder, and back muscles that could reduce the severity of your migraine and maybe even decrease the frequency or severity of future attacks.
Perform A Spinal Adjustment
Spinal misalignment can cause a number of problems. When your spine or disc compresses a nerve, you might feel pain in your arm or you could have headaches. When a chiropractor does a spinal adjustment, your spine is brought into better alignment, so the pressure is relieved on the irritated nerve. Your chiropractor might advise that you have a series of treatments over a few weeks, to see if they help your condition.
Make Lifestyle Recommendations
The frustrating thing about having migraines is that you may have to figure out your triggers through trial and error. There might be certain foods that trigger your headaches. Things like changing your diet, losing weight, managing stress, exercising more, or getting more sleep could make a difference in your migraine headaches. A chiropractor can help you through the elimination process, to pinpoint your triggers and improve your lifestyle to help you manage your condition.
You may need a combination of treatments to get relief from your migraines, so don't give up. You don't want to lose a few days every month, to headaches and nausea, if it's possible that chiropractic care could help.
