In the United States today, more than 37 million people suffer from migraine headaches. Chronic migraine sufferers live with headaches more than half of the time or more. Misdiagnosed nearly as often as they are correctly diagnosed, migraine headaches account for a whopping $31 billion in lost productivity and absenteeism in the workplace. While 70% of migraine sufferers are women, men are not immune to migraines and some headaches are so severe that 24% of people report a trip to the ER for care.
Characterized by throbbing pain, usually on one side of the head, these types of headaches are often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light and/ or sound. The combination of severe pain and other symptoms often result in sufferers not being able to participate in normal daily activities. As individual as the person that is affected, migraines have many different triggers that vary by person. Diet, activity, environment, emotion, medication and hormones may all trigger a migraine headache. Since there is no definitive answers to what causes migraines, healthcare professionals are becoming more and more understanding of what happens when a migraine is under way.
Current medical theories suggest that migraines are triggered within the brain itself. According to the National Headache Foundation, “once an attack begins, the pain and other symptoms of migraine arise from an inflammatory process resulting from an interaction between the trigeminal nerve and blood vessels in the coverings of the brain. Serotonin (or 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT), a naturally occurring chemical in the brain, has been implicated in this inflammatory process.”
While prevention is the ultimate goal for migraine sufferers, it is important to know the options for care if and when an attack is underway. With traditional pharmaceutical treatments, there may be a whole host of side effects and the possibility that the medication just will not work. This has left many patients seeking treatment or care plans that are not reliant on drug therapies. Chiropractic and chiropractic neurology fit the bill. Highly trained in the intricacies of the brain-nervous system connection, chiropractic neurologists can effectively uncover which areas of a patient’s nervous system are causing the problem, and then can create the best treatment plan possible, uncovering the root of the pain, not merely masking the symptoms, and ultimately returning the patient to a state of optimum health and well-being. As each patient’s symptoms and experiences are unique, so are the treatment plans that your Chiropractic Neurologist will develop.
At Georgia Chiropractic Neurology Center, we are committed to our patients and to developing care plans that help to achieve the highest sense of well-being and relief from pain without the side effects that come with medications. Do you suffer from migraine or other pain and would like to know how we can help? Contact us today at 770.664.4288 for your consultation.