Migraines are a frequent condition that chiropractors treat. Half of all Americans have headaches at least once a year, and migraines are the most prevalent form of headache our patients report. They are neurological conditions whose symptoms can be severely disabling.
An intense throbbing pain, generally solely on a single side of the head, is a classic migraine symptom. Side effects often include soreness behind the affected eye. They often cause other symptoms, such as numbness, tingling, and sensitivity to sound and light. Auras, visual disturbances that often accompany migraine attacks, affect around a quarter of those who suffer from these headaches. They can hinder patients’ ability to go about their daily lives since they can last anywhere between four to seventy-two hours.
It is essential to identify the underlying cause of migraines. Migraines caused by structural issues, like a disc injury or spinal subluxation, require a structural solution. No amount of painkillers can provide long-term migraine relief. Restoring spinal alignment is the solution to the problem. If you suffer from migraines, it’s essential to determine and address the underlying cause, which might be anything from a physical issue to a hormone imbalance to a triggering diet.
Schedule Your Appointment Today
How Our Migraine Care Plan Works
1. Get To The Root Cause Of The Problem
We’re not interested in temporary solutions, we want to address the underlying issue for long-term relief. We’ll take the time to listen to your story and conduct a thorough exam to get to the root cause of your migraines.
2. Receive A Plan Based On Your Goals And Our Findings
No two people experience the same issue in the same way. That’s why we use your health goals and our exam findings as the guideposts to design an action plan that is unique to you.
3. Live Your Best Life
Having control over your health will unleash your full potential. You’ll no longer be held back from doing what you need, want, and love to do. Without physical limitations or emotional worry, you can be the blessing to your friends and family.
Common Causes of Migraines in Wheaton, IL
Stress
Emotional and mental strain often triggers migraines. The pressures of daily existence are overwhelming. But if you get them, you have the extra stress of wondering when your next episode will hit. This repeating pattern is psychologically, physically, and emotionally draining. In the long run, this mental anguish might weaken your immune system and increase your susceptibility to illness. In light of this, you must take steps to recognize and control the sources of stress in your life. Meditation, physical activity, enough rest, and chiropractic care are just a few of the usual methods to deal with stress.
Diet and Dehydration
An individual’s diet may significantly impact their health and well-being. You will eventually reach your health potential if you maintain a healthy diet. On the other hand, eating improperly may wreck your health and cause various other problems. If you frequently suffer from migraines, you should investigate whether a particular food or beverage is the cause. Red wine, artificial sweeteners, cheese, cured meats, chocolate, and a wide range of other foods are just a few examples of the numerous foods that can cause headaches.
Medication Overuse
It’s concerning how many prescriptions people in the United States are using. We only account for around 5% of the global population as a nation, but we use over half of all prescription drugs. Drugs affect the body’s biology to achieve their intended results. Alterations in bodily functioning that come from this are called side effects. Migraines are a common adverse reaction to numerous drugs.
Hormones
A migraine headache strikes a woman three times as often as a man. Hormones and how they vary could be a significant factor in this difference. One such hormone is estrogen, whose fluctuations relate to migraine attacks. Migraines are common when estrogen levels are low and are made worse by a sudden reduction in estrogen.
Caffeine and Alcohol
There is still a lack of understanding as to why alcoholic beverages seem to bring on migraine attacks, and the underlying cause may vary from person to person. It’s possible, for instance, that alcohol is the root cause of migraines, either because of the chemicals it’s broken down into or because of the diuretic impact (increased need to pee) that can result from that.
Because caffeine may be both a preventative measure and a reactivating factor for them, it can be tricky for people who suffer from them to determine how much to consume. Many people relieve headaches by drinking coffee, which is also included in many over-the-counter medications since it prevents the chemical adenosine from attaching to brain receptors during an attack. However, contrary to popular belief, some migraine sufferers claim that coffee triggers painful headaches.
Light and Smell
Many migraine victims say that certain odors, especially novel or overpowering ones, bring on their attacks. Perfume, in particular, has been implicated as a culprit several times. During an attack, roughly half of those who suffer migraines say they cannot tolerate certain odors. Migraine sufferers are the only persons who experience this symptom, termed osmophobia.
Migraine sufferers frequently experience light sensitivity, known as photophobia, and is used as a diagnostic criterion. During an attack, dim light might be too much for 80 to 96 percent of migraine victims with photophobia. Migraine patients often have heightened sensitivity to light, even between attacks.
Changes in the Weather
Some people are more susceptible to migraines than others because of fluctuations in serotonin levels, which changes in the weather can trigger. A headache brought on by another factor might be made much worse by weather-related stimuli.
Migraine sufferers who believe the weather plays a role in their condition are entitled to feel frustrated. The weather is something you cannot alter. Migraine headaches can be debilitating, but you can make efforts to reduce their occurrence by identifying the weather changes that trigger them.
Irregular Sleep Schedule
We often ignore the quantity and quality of our sleep, which are crucial to our health. During deep sleep, the body, including the brain, repairs and renews tissues. Sleep is when the body repairs itself. A lack of regular sleep often brings on migraines. In fact, between 4 and 9 a.m. is the most common time for them to strike. Those who already have trouble sleeping are considerably more likely to suffer from them because of this.
How We Treat Migraines in Wheaton, IL
Different courses of treatment can help to relieve migraines. Each case is unique, and a professional chiropractor will assess the situation and determine the best course of action. There are different approaches and treatment types available, including the following:
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
To get started on the road to recovery, each new patient meets with a doctor for a comprehensive consultation and physical examination. They are interested in hearing your account of this issue – how frequently they occur and how they affect your life. We can better pinpoint your needs and provide informed recommendations for treatment after we have a firm grasp on how your ailment has impacted every aspect of your life.
The exam consists of neurologic, orthopedic, and functional mobility tests to assess your spinal cord and neurological system’s present state of health. Subluxation (an improperly moving or misaligned vertebrae) may be at the foundation of your condition, so we’ll also look at your spine. We’ll also check your posture because it may be a component of why your issue has persisted for so long.
Specific Chiropractic Care in Wheaton, IL
We prioritize chiropractic treatments as a primary method of treating migraines. The cervical vertebrae, or neck bones, are given extra care because of their proximity to the brain. At these vertebral levels, the nerves exit the spinal column and ascend to the brain and skull. Subluxation (a misalignment) of these vertebrae can aggravate the nerves that supply the brain, causing discomfort.
We restore vertebral alignment with chiropractic adjustments that relieve nerve pressure and facilitate recovery. Chronic issues sometimes need a series of chiropractic adjustments to resolve. It’s important to allow your body the period it needs to recover. The issue likely did not arise overnight. Therefore, we shouldn’t anticipate a miraculous fix to the problem in the same amount of time. Nevertheless, many people who suffer from them feel better quickly.
Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan
Fixing postural issues will help migraine sufferers recover faster. Most cases of head and neck discomfort may be traced back to poor posture, with the forward head position being the most prevalent culprit. The neck’s joints and muscles bear excessive strain when the head is forward from the shoulders, leading to various health issues.
Implementing custom exercises helps patients learn to properly balance their spinal muscles, which is essential for correct alignment and posture. It helps treat issues like migraines and prevent them in the future.
Massage Therapy and Soft Tissue Work
Chronic muscular tension is a major contributor to the development of migraines. Their pain can be exacerbated by tension in the head muscles, particularly the forehead, side, and back. Our clinic strongly emphasizes soft tissue work, and we have various techniques to achieve this goal.
Massage may be recommended to ease the stiffness in your neck and head. When it comes to headaches, our qualified massage therapists are pros in pinpointing adhesions and trigger points, which are often the root cause. No need to worry if massage isn’t your thing; our doctors are also well-versed in other soft tissue treatments like the Graston and Active Release Techniques. These eliminate adhesions that cause symptoms and return muscle function to normal.
Acupuncture
The goal of acupuncture treatment is to normalize your body’s flow of life force or chi. It also purports to dispel the painful bad energy plaguing you. From the standpoint of Western medicine, acupuncture activates multiple bodily systems. It stimulates a recuperative process.
The body is divided into different “zones” and “pressure points” for acupuncture. These acupuncture sites tend to be close to nerve endings. Needling causes the production of feel-good chemicals like endorphins by stimulating nearby nerves. Migraine and tension headaches are alleviated by activating the immunological and circulatory systems.
Nutritional Supplementation
Diet plays a critical role in migraine treatment. It’s crucial to figure out which foods trigger migraine attacks so you can stop eating them. Some popular migraine-inducing foods include red wine, cheese, and chocolate. Avoiding these triggering foods may significantly enhance the quality of your life.
Migraine headache relief supplements might be another option. Migraine sufferers often have insufficient vitamin B2, vitamin D, and magnesium levels. You can get them from whole foods or take a supplement. But remember, when picking a supplement, the source matters. Ask your doctor about which supplements might be best for you to take.
Cervical Spinal Decompression
Decompression therapy uses a gentle and controlled stretching force on the neck to open disc gaps and produce a pressure drop effect inside the disc. This can aid in drawing nutrients, fluid, or bulging disc parts back into the intervertebral disc where it belongs. With less strain on the neck’s nerve roots, this retraction may relieve neck, shoulder, arm, and hand discomfort, tingling, and numbness. In addition, it might make the whole of your neck more flexible and at ease.
Deep Tissue Laser
Our therapeutic protocol revolves around the use of a deep tissue Laser. It’s a painless, non-invasive, tried-and-true method for relieving headache discomfort without risk to your health. Many patients report feeling significantly better after only a few sessions. Pain is reduced, muscle strength is improved, and range of motion is expanded thanks to the cutting-edge FDA-approved lasers and other therapies employed in our program. In particular, the anti-inflammatory effects of these therapies aid in reducing swelling, restoring normal function, and accelerating the healing process.
Check Out Our Location Near You
2150 Manchester Rd. Ste. 100, Wheaton, IL 60187
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you visit a chiropractor in Wheaton, IL with migraines?
Yes! Chiropractic professionals are trained to spot spinal misalignments that frequently affect the upper neck region. This region of the spine has nerves that go throughout the brain; if those nerves are inflamed, pain may be felt throughout those nerve pathways. A safe, gentle treatment for them brought on by spinal imbalance is chiropractic.
Do migraines result from a misaligned neck?
Cervicogenic headaches originate in the neck and often result from spinal misalignment locally (when a single vertebral segment is misaligned and fixated) and globally (when the neck’s natural curve has been lost).
Do migraines harm the brain?
As one might expect, prolonged exposure to pain over weeks, months, or even years is bad for mental health. Constant suffering can alter your neural circuitry in intractable ways. However, even persistent headaches may be defeated with the correct health practices. Reduce your migraine frequency and severity with chiropractic care, healthy eating, enough water intake, and stress management.
Does massage help migraines?
Although medication is typically the first line of defense against and treatment for migraines, massage therapy has shown promise for certain patients. That’s great news for anyone who has experienced discomfort from taking medicine for headaches.
How quickly can I get rid of my migraine?
If your migraines are triggered by spinal misalignment, the simplest solution is to have a chiropractor realign your spine. As a result, there is often immediate alleviation available. If light sensitivity is a symptom of your migraines, getting some shut-eye might be extremely helpful in alleviating the pain.