How can chiropractic care help?

Chiropractic care, and specifically Chiropractic Biophysics Technique, is great for neck pain and headaches. By identifying the source of the problem, which is often abnormal posture and spinal misalignment, we can design a specific treatment plan for each patient. With individualized adjustments, stretches, exercises, and traction, you will see improvements in your posture and spinal misalignment. As a result, the stress on the muscles in your neck and the tension on your nervous system can be reduced. After reducing this muscular stress, patients often experience fewer and less intense headaches.

Headaches Research

Recently, a study of the population of the US provided some very interesting data to contemplate. An estimated 17% of the population suffer from the illness or condition commonly called "tension headache". I have often heard patients say,"oh I only have the usual headaches..., nothing serious, I just take Tylenol, Advil, Nuprin or Alleve...

This one condition costs the United States taxpayers billions of dollars per year in disability payments, medical fee reimbursements, and lost productivity. "Nothing serious" you say?

What of the effect of lost productivity in your life? Those missed opportunities with your family, friends and other loved ones can never be recaptured once missed. Headache pain robs many of the simple joys of life. In other cases, it stands in the way of you getting a promotion at work, or limiting your athletic ability. In all cases, those who attempt to "learn to live with it" end up only learning to suffer.

What is the cause of tension headache?

Basically, abnormal strain upon the supportive muscles of the head and neck. When the head is out of alignment with the force of gravity, the muscles must work much harder simply to hold the head up. Over time this abnormal stress creates changes in the muscles which diminish their efficiency, and also change their structure. When the stress of daily life builds up to the point of fatigue, and the muscles are stressed to their maximum level, they refer pain to the other muscles of the head, and this manifests as pain in the head either in the back or front of the head or below your skull near your neck.

When you look at a persons body from the side, the alignment should be as follows:

The ear should line up with the tip of the shoulder, which should in turn line up with the middle of the pelvis, and then the line should drop uninterrupted to just in front of that large bump on the side of your ankle (the lateral malleolus). This posture is the most efficient from the standpoint of energy expenditure. This position allows all the bones of your skeleton to share the load without any abnormal stress on any one area. This is the normal posture dictated by gravity.

Chiropractic has always focused upon the cause of conditions, not merely the treatment of the current symptoms. In cases of subluxation of the vertebral bones (misalignment from normal position creating abnormal stress and strain on the spine and supportive musculature) especially those in the neck, the solution to the problem is not to medicate the pain away, but more importantly to correct the abnormal posture of the body, to retrain the muscles and ligaments to hold the new (normal or as close to normal as possible) position, and to alter the patients lifestyle in such a way as to prevent the previously stressful positions and postural patterns from again dominating the patients life and allowing the posture to deteriorate and the symptoms (pain) to return. This is best accomplished by specific spinal adjustment, spinal exercises, and corrective extension compression traction. All of these techniques are the current state of the art and the most scientific approach to spinal correction available anywhere.

Some may say, well I don't have headaches... you still may be subluxated! Just as tooth decay takes years in most cases to develop to the point of causing pain, so does subluxation. The prolonged stress of abnormal posture on the spinal ligaments, discs and muscles not to mention the bones themselves is what destroys the spine long before its time. Consider this. Why wait to see if the devastating effects of spinal subluxations are going to ruin your life. Make a point of having your spine checked immediately to determine your real health status. Some wait until it is too late... don't become a statistic.