Upper Cervical Care and Migraines
Introduction
Migraines can be crippling and incapacitating, especially if you experience them with any degree of frequency. They affect millions of adults, adolescents and children. They are three times more common in adult woman than in adult men. They are the cause of millions of lost days in schools and in the workplace and millions of dollars are spent each year on health care costs related to migraines. They take a serious toll on workplace productively and home lives, resulting in lost income, strained relationships and an inferior quality of life.
Unfortunately, most people with migraines run to a pill bottle at the first sign of a migraine. All that does, if anything, is reduce or relieve pain symptoms; over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications do nothing to remedy the cause of your migraines and they may, in fact, trigger repeated headaches.
Migraine Symptoms
Migraine headaches are characterized by intense pain that is felt on one side of the head. The pain can last for hours, even days, and the sufferer often retreats into a dark room where there is no stimulation of any kind in an attempt to gain some relief.
Some migraine sufferers experience an “aura” – a type of sensory warning signal that lets them know a migraine is starting. An aura can take the form of flashing, colored spots or lights that begin in the center of a person’s field of vision and radiate outward. Not every migraine sufferer experiences auras and those that do may not experience them prior to every migraine headache.
Common symptoms that accompany the intense pain of a migraine include:
- Nausea that may include vomiting
- Extreme sensitivity to light, sound and/or odors
- Sensation of being hot or cold, hot or cold hands/feet
- Abdominal pain
- Blurry vision
- Loss of appetite
- Dizziness
- Paleness
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
- Fever
In approximately 40%-60% of all migraines, warning signs precede the actual attack. These symptoms can last for hours or even days. Warning symptoms often include:
- Sleepiness
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Depression or euphoria
- Frequent yawning
- Sweet or salty food cravings
These warning signs prove helpful to both the migraine sufferer and their loved ones in alerting them that an attack is imminent.
Migraine Causes
No much is known about the causes of headaches in general; even less is known about the causes of migraine headaches, although heredity and environmental factors may be involved.
There seem to be a number of triggers that set migraine wheels in motion. Different triggers affect different people and some migraine sufferers experience headaches only when a number of different triggers are present in combination.
Common migraine triggers include:
- Certain foods (i.e., red wine, chocolate, aged cheese, caffeine, etc.)
- Stress
- Medications (migraines can be a side effect)
- Weather (changes in temperature)
- Environmental changes (i.e., barometric pressure, altitude, etc.)
- Changes in sleep cycles (i.e., too much or too little sleep)
- Fasting
- Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke
- Bright, flickering or fluorescent lights
- Exposure to certain household chemicals
- Intense physical activity, including sex
Migraines can also occur as the result of an overly sensitive central nervous system, past spinal trauma (fall, accident, injury, birth), hormonal irregularities/changes (many women experience pre-menstrual migraines) and poor posture.
Migraine Treatment (Conventional)
The overall goal of migraine treatment is to reduce the frequency, severity and duration of the sufferer’s headaches. Treatment generally consists of preventive strategies (proactive treatment to prevent the onset of migraine symptoms in the first place) or symptom abort strategies, medications that are taken after symptoms are already present. The strategy used usually depends on the frequency and severity of the headaches, the degree of disability caused by the headaches and whether other medical conditions are present.
The problem with medications (and there are hundreds of medications to treat migraines on the market) is that many have risky and dangerous side effects. Those who choose to take migraine medications need to educate themselves about possible side effects by taking a look at the literature that accompanies the medications.
Some of the less serious side effects include dizziness, nausea, tingling in arms and legs, fatigue, muscle cramps, constipation, blurred vision, abdominal pain and mood/appetite changes.
The more serious side effects can be far worse than the migraine symptoms that the medication is supposed to treat! These include inflammation of the liver, heart attack, stroke, seizures, thoughts of suicide, violent behavior, heart rhythm disturbances and death due to overdose.
And some medications used to treat migraines fall under the classification of opiates, which have the potential to become highly addictive.
Upper Cervical Care and Migraines
Upper Cervical doctors are specially trained to address trauma to the upper cervical spine, which can cause misalignment of the atlas (the top vertebra in the spine). Spinal misalignment may result in nerve interference that compromises the body's natural ability to function and heal properly. It can also affect blood flow in the blood vessels that travel to the head. Because nerve irritation and decreased blood flow have been linked to migraines, Upper Cervical care has proven to be effective in preventing migraines or at least reducing the severity of symptoms.
Trauma to the upper cervical spine can result from a fall, a car accident, a sports injury or even the birth process. An Upper Cervical doctor applies a safe, gentle correction to the atlas, also known as the C1 vertebra. The effect of this single adjustment removes irritation to the nerve centers that control muscle activity, often alleviating the symptoms and the cause of migraine headaches.
Through the use of very precise diagnostic tools, including X-rays and digital infrared imaging, an Upper Cervical doctor can determine the exact location of an atlas misalignment. Following the application of a very specific Upper Cervical adjustment, these same tools confirm that the proper correction has taken place.
After correcting the vertebrae in the upper neck, normal nerve function and regular blood flow return, allowing many patients to be finally free from migraine episodes or, at the very least, they often experience far fewer migraine headaches and/or less severe symptoms than they had prior to receiving Upper Cervical care.
