Every migraine patient has details about their condition that are unique, whether it’s the intensity of their pain, aura experiences, or simply their own combination of more typical migraine symptoms. When there’s neck pain involved, it’s easy to wonder if it’s a cause or an effect of the migraine itself.
Relief is always at the front of your mind with migraine pain. If you haven’t tried chiropractic treatment yet for headaches, the team at Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation led by Dr. Zachary Dillow urges you to give it a try.
Migraines are perhaps the most mysterious kind of headache pain. The fundamental difference between migraines and more common headaches is the complex neurological involvement with a migraine, rather than problems stemming from muscles and blood vessels, as is the case with many conventional headaches.
Headaches that start with neck pain are called cervicogenic headaches, based on their origin in the cervical spine. A true cervicogenic headache stems from problems with the bones, discs, and nerves in and around the spine, usually causing pain on one side of the head.
It’s easy to see how patients may connect cervicogenic headaches with migraines when you consider that conventional headaches like these often act as migraine triggers.
Your migraines may also seem to start in the neck when there’s no cervicogenic headache involved. As many as 80% of migraine sufferers may have neck pain or stiffness as part of their prodrome migraine phase, according to the American Migraine Foundation.
Prodrome is the first of four phases that many migraine patients experience. This phase can appear hours or days before the headache portion of your migraine, a collection of signs and symptoms that warn of the upcoming migraine.
The primary goal of all chiropractic treatment is to restore natural balance to your body by relieving misalignments in your musculoskeletal system. Chiropractic adjustments improve local blood flow in treatment areas, as well as relieving nerve compression.
The benefits of adjustment can help to reduce the intensity and symptoms of headaches, like cervicogenic headaches, that may trigger migraine episodes.
These same chiropractic benefits also address the musculoskeletal system balance in ways that support improved neurological performance. You may experience fewer migraines and those that do occur could be shorter and less intense.
Our treatments reduce the effects of stress and tension in the neck and shoulders, which can also be migraine triggers.
Learn more about migraines, neck pain, and chiropractic care by visiting Active Care Chiropractic & Rehabilitation in Lafayette Hill, the Main Line, East Falls, Elkins Park, Manayunk and Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Contact the nearest office by phone or online today.
