Headache Treatment

Let's face it. Headaches are incredibly frustrating. They make it difficult to be productive and get through the day. Thankfully, First Chiropractic Shoreview in Minnesota treats several types of headaches. Imbalances in your neck and back can cause headaches to occur. Our chiropractic therapy can correct these imbalances and relieve these headaches. We specialize in treating tension headaches, migraines, and cluster headaches. Call us today to schedule an appointment.

Tension Headaches

Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. The pain usually spreads throughout the head so that sufferers feel like they're wearing a tight band. Doctors divide tension headaches into two types — episodic and chronic. The episodic variety lasts from half an hour to a week and recurs for up to two weeks each month. Chronic tension headaches may be continuous and last for hours. If you have the band-around-your-head feeling for more than 15 days a month, you may suffer from chronic tension headaches for at least three months in a row.

 

Tension headaches usually correlate with depression, anxiety, and emotional suffering. Alternatively, the cause could be physical, such as muscle strain due to a neck injury or abnormality in the cervical vertebrae. Some children develop tension headaches due to eye strain.

Treatment

Treatment focuses on preventing tension headaches and decreasing pain once they strike. You can take prescription-strength or over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers. For non-drug pain relief, try altering temperature. A heating pad or an ice pack might help. You can also try acupuncture or massage.

Some doctors prescribe preventive medicines, including antidepressants, muscle relaxants, and anticonvulsants. These help some sufferers but have side effects.

 

Given that tension headaches often go hand in hand with anxiety and stress, some sufferers try calming activities, such as yoga, meditation, or spending time in nature. Regular aerobic exercise can ease depression and possibly decrease headache pain.

Migraine Headaches

According to the Migraine Research Foundation, P- About 36 million Americans suffer from the debilitating headaches known as migraines. Women between the ages of 25 and 55 are the likeliest victims. Migraine headaches can last anywhere from a few hours to three days, drastically compromising individuals' work, social, and family lives and often landing them in emergency rooms. Other issues may accompany the migraine, such as nausea, visual disturbances, dizziness, tingling, and sensitivity to light, sound, smell, and touch.


Migraines often start on one side of the head but may spread to both sides. Typically, the worst pain is around the sides of the forehead. Many sufferers experience what's called an aura. This visual disturbance may manifest as a temporary blind spot, blurred vision, zigzag lines, or flashing lights. When a migraine occurs, sufferers likely feel irritable, depressed, and want to lie down in a dark and quiet room.

Treatment

Unfortunately, researchers haven't yet figured out how to cure migraines. Treatment focuses on two fronts: preventing migraines and decreasing pain once a headache is underway. If you suffer from migraines, keep a headache journal. Recording the events in the 24 hours preceding your migraine can help you identify triggers. If your headaches coincide with eating certain foods, prevention may require a change in diet. If stress triggers migraines, learning relaxation techniques could be helpful.

 

Many doctors prescribe medications for preventing migraines, including beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and even Botox. Sufferers can also take drugs that constrict blood vessels in the brain as soon as they feel a headache coming on. These approaches work for some people, but most medications have side effects. Alternative therapies for preventing migraine headaches include massage, herbs, nutritional supplements, and acupuncture. Sufferers and researchers have experimented with many vitamins, herbs, and minerals.

 

According to the Mayo Clinic, some evidence suggests that the herbs butterbur and feverfew may prevent migraine headaches or decrease their severity. Coenzyme Q10 and high doses of vitamin B2 might also help prevent or reduce the frequency of migraines. Don't experiment with these supplements if you're pregnant.

Cluster Headaches

While no headache is pleasant, cluster headaches can be particularly uncomfortable. Sufferers liken the sensation to a hot poker being stuck in their eyes and may even feel like their eyes are being shoved out of their sockets. Cluster headaches get their name because they occur in a cyclical pattern. The cluster of headaches may last for weeks or months, with remission periods in between. They are also called "suicide headaches" because they can drive sufferers to despair.

 

Cluster headaches attack quickly, often painfully awakening people in the middle of the night. Usually, the pain focuses around one eye but can radiate to the face, neck, head, or shoulders. Symptoms include drooping eyelids, facial swelling, excessive tearing, and a runny nose, usually on one side of the face. The pain and discomfort make sufferers irritable. Often, they pace back and forth. Lying down tends to increase the pain.

Treatment

Several medications help people with cluster headaches. A doctor can inject the sufferer with drugs called triptans, which ease both cluster headaches and migraines, or with a synthetic hormone called octreotide. Local anesthetics can numb parts of the face. Inhaling pure oxygen often dramatically decreases the grip of cluster headaches within 15 minutes. The doctor may prescribe a preventive treatment, such as regularly taking calcium channel blockers, lithium carbonate, or corticosteroids, which suppress inflammation.


However, these medications all have side effects. Taking 10 milligrams of melatonin nightly is a relatively safe intervention that helps some sufferers. In rare cases, surgeons try to damage nerve pathways around the eyes. Newer treatments involve implanting electrodes in sufferers' heads to block pain signals. Because cluster headaches are so intense, the afflicted may feel desperate. Talking to a therapist or joining a support group may provide coping mechanisms.

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