Headache Relief in Maple Grove. How do you usually deal with debilitating headaches and migraines? Immediately go to the shelf for ibuprofen? Lie down and hope for it to pass? Try to power through and get through your day, knowing it's going to be hard for you to focus or do anything? More and more people in the Maple Grove area and throughout the United States are finding chiropractic care to be an effective way of achieving meaningful and lasting headache relief. If headaches are making it impossible for you to live your best life possible, call us today at (763) 568-7869 or contact us online.
Types of Headache Relief in Maple Grove
There are more than 150 types of headaches. They're typically broken down into two categories: primary headaches, which are not the cause of an underlying health condition but are rather the condition itself, and secondary headaches, which are caused by underlying conditions or other health issues like a tumor, trauma to the head, high blood pressure (hypertension), or an infection. Maple Grove chiropractors generally help find headache relief for primary headaches. There are four common types of primary headaches:
Migraine Headaches
Typically, but not always, migraines occur on one side of the head. Migraines affect approximately 12% of the population, 25% percent of whom experience a migraine with aura, or visual disturbances that are warning signs that a migraine is about to take place. Aura's usually last between 5 and 60 minutes and can include:
Blind spots
Seeing zig-zagging or flickering lights
Shimmering spots or stars
Partial loss of vision
Numbness or tingling
Muscle weakness
Difficulty speaking, language difficulty, or difficulty finding words
Once a migraine starts, symptoms include nausea and/or vomiting, sensitivity to light/sound, and throbbing pain. Pain can be mild to severe, and a migraine can last between 2 and 72 hours. While anyone who's suffered from migraines knows how debilitating they can be, they are typically not related to other health problems.
Migraine headaches can cause vertigo, which is not only painful and debilitating but increases risk of injury because of falling.
Tension Headaches
These are the most common type of headaches and are often associated with muscle tension in the neck. Also called "hatband" headaches because the pain occurs around the back of the head, forehead, and around the temples, most people will experience a tension headache in their lifetime. They typically onset with pressure-like symptoms that develop into a dull, nagging pain, and can last from 30 minutes, to hours, or even days. In addition to pressure and pain, other symptoms include tenderness of the face, head, neck, and shoulders, pressure behind the eyes, and sensitivity to light and sound. Tension headaches can be equally debilitating as migraines, and often can come from or lead to migraines.
Cluster Headaches
Cluster headaches are severe and often come in 30 minute to two-hour "clusters" over a period of 24 hours. Some people experience up to eight attacks per day. Symptoms include:
Intense burning or piercing pain behind one eye
Watering eyes
Swollen or droopy eyelid
A blocked or runny nose
Sensitivity to light/sound
Restlessness or agitation
Hemicrania Continua
Hemicrania continua is a type of headache condition that causes constant pain that varies in severity but always occurs on one side of the face. You can experience mild pain that is interrupted by periods of severe pain. Symptoms are similar to those of migraines, but can also cause nasal congestion, ptosis (a drooping eyelid), red eyes or tearing, and eye pain.
Other types of headaches are caused by specific events, such as an exertion headache after physical activity, or a caffeine headache from caffeine withdrawal. Other times headaches manifest themselves as symptoms of sinus or allergy issues. While people in Maple Grove most often seek chiropractic care for primary headache relief, seeing a chiropractor can be an essential part of overall health that reduces the likelihood and severity of secondary headaches as well.
What Causes Headaches? | Maple Grove Headache Relief
Genetics plays a huge role in migraines and other headaches, as an estimated 60% of people with migraines inherited the condition from a parent. Lifestyle factors like excessive exercise, inadequate sleep, posture, and a poor diet can contribute to the frequency and severity of headaches. Outside factors like certain lights, noises, smells, stress, a whiplash injury from an auto accident, and even the weather can also be common culprits.
In today's world, most Maple Grove residents live a more sedentary lifestyle than their ancestors. Many of us spend much of our day sitting at a desk, looking at a phone, watching TV, or otherwise fixed in one position. We're bombarded with screens and other electronic instruments that can act as stressors that cause headaches.
But what is happening in the body to that makes these factors cause headaches? A sedentary lifestyle, poor posture, and outside stressors cause increased tension in the joints and soft tissue of the neck, shoulders, and upper back, and can cause our spine to go out of alignment. This can cause tension in the C1 and C2 vertebrae, the top two joints of our spines at the base of the skull. This can cause cervicogenic headaches that affect the nerves that run through the base of your head, your temples, and behind your eyes, causing pain and leading you to seek out headache relief.
Total Spine MN's Approach to Headache Relief in Maple Grove
As headaches are mainly a disorder of the nervous system, chiropractic care can provide headache relief by helping your nervous system function more smoothly. Over-the-counter medications are the first thing many people in Maple Grove go to for headache relief, but in reality using too much medication to treat headaches can lead to medication overuse headaches.
More and more people are instead turning to chiropractic care for their headache relief. One study found that 87.2% of chiropractic patients reported headache conditions. Our Maple Grove chiropractic clinic can offer lasting and meaningful headache relief through the following steps:
Your first visit— When we first see you, we'll carefully examine the very top of your neck and perform an X-ray to rule out other possible causes of your headaches and check for potential complications.
Chiropractic adjustment — A spinal manipulation is the primary practice of any chiropractor in Maple Grove. If we find an adjustment is safe for you, our experienced chiropractor will use their hands and small instruments to apply a small, controlled, sudden force to joints in your back or spine to improve your spine's alignment, your body's physical function, and allay disruption in your nervous system caused by spinal misalignment.
Patient Education — Chiropractors are trained to find the causes of headaches in the spine and elsewhere. We'll help you with lifestyle tips to use in between your chiropractic adjustments, such as proper nutrition, proper posture, light, safe exercise you can do to correct imbalances, increase mobility, and strengthen certain muscles, and educate you on ergonomics.
There's a reason we call ourselves Total Spine Health & Injury Center. We have a variety of abilities and practices to get you feeling back to how you should and improve your overall health.
Maple Grove Headache Relief | Total Spine Health & Injury Center
Sometimes, it's hard to know how good you are really capable of feeling until you receive professional chiropractic treatment in Maple Grove. We offer comprehensive headache relief so that headaches do not have to be a part of your daily or weekly life. If you're seeking lasting headache relief in Maple Grove, or are interested in any of our other services, reach out to us today at (763) 568-7869 or contact us online.
