Tension headaches and migraines are a daily battle for many, impacting not only your quality of life, but preventing us from getting on with our day to day tasks.
Whether they are caused by frequent use of bright PC screens, stress, daily anxiety, poor diet or muscle tension, getting to the bottom of the cause and finding the right care and treatment to tackle it can make all the difference and enhance your lifestyle.
There are 25 different classification of headaches and chiropractic treatment is shown to alleviate all types. Chiropractors specialise in the diagnosis and treatment of many headaches so the benefits from visiting a Chiropractor in Worthing can be just what you need, identifying the underlying cause and getting it treated by an expert to resolve the headaches long term.
Understanding different types of headaches
Coping with your ongoing headaches means relying on pain relieving medication but identifying the type of headache you are suffering from is the first step in the right direction. Once you have established the underlying cause of your headache type during your first visit appointment with our chiropractor for headaches, you can receive necessary treatment and better manage these in the future. The most common types of headaches are as follows.
Tension headaches
Being the most common type of reoccurring headache, tension headaches are caused by numerous factors such as long periods of time spent looking at a screen or driving without rest, most commonly contributed to eye strain. This kind of ongoing activity is strenuous on the muscles at the back of the neck and increases susceptibility to tension headaches as the muscles at the base of the skull tighten. Tension headaches often consist of a dull ache all around the head and sometimes light sensitivity and visual disturbance.
Cluster headaches
Cluster headaches occur in a series and come and go throughout the day, often presenting many headaches for 2 weeks and disappearing for many weeks only to return again. Common symptoms include a burning sensation or ache behind the eyes, visual disturbance, bright light sensitivity, lack of concentration, difficult focusing, nausea and dry mouth. Symptoms vary from person to person but cluster headaches can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. They tend to occur at the same time each day during each headache episode or you can experience several headaches over 2 weeks, which disappear for many weeks only to return for several weeks again.
Migraines
Migraines can be attributed to genetic predisposition and they create an intense pain which can be triggered by factors such as dehydration, poor sleep and stress. The intense pulsing pain is often followed by a sensitivity to light and sound and can lead to further symptoms, sometimes lasting for days. Migraines prevent people from carrying out their day to day activities and can mean laying in a dark room until it subsides.
There are simple lifestyle changes which can be made to help prevent a headache or ease the initial headache symptoms. Staying hydrated and maintaining a consistent diet without skipping meals helps to give the body the fuel it needs and ensuring you are well rested with a good night’s sleep will provide the energy needed for the day. During a busy day of work, ensuring you take regular breaks to get away from the screen or reduce stress levels is another key way of keeping headaches at bay, limiting eye and neck strain on the body. Many sufferers notice that a particularly hectic period of work or sudden change to their routine can exacerbate their headaches, prompting another headache episode.
Visiting chiropractors for headaches
Where pain relieving medication, home remedies, rest and lifestyle changes are failing to help keep your headaches under control, visiting chiropractors for headaches is definitely an approach worth trying. Chiropractic treatments are proven to provide excellent results for ongoing headaches and migraines with instant relief from day one of your first adjustment to the neck and spine, with education and advice on supportive exercises that you can do at your desk.
Musculoskeletal treatment is an effective treatment which is used for managing headaches and migraines, tailored to each individual patient to find a diagnosis and the best treatment protocol for you. The aim of the treatment is to improve your spinal joint alignment, improve neural function and improve spinal joint mobility which releases muscle tension and tightness in your whole body to relieve your headache.
During your first visit for a consultation and medical examination, the chiropractors for headaches will also assess your lifestyle, diet, occupation to determine the cause of your headaches and migraines. The assessment consists of a variety of different checks and tests which may include a postural assessment, spinal mobility check, reflexes and orthopaedic assessment to deduce the underlying cause of your headaches. This process takes between 45 minutes and an hour and it will allow your chiropractor to determine the cause of your headaches to establish the best treatment protocols, tailored to your own needs.
Why live with painful headaches? For your first visit consultation and examination with one of our chiropractors for headaches, request an appointment today with the professional experienced team at Richmond Clinic or call the Richmond Clinic on 01903210175.