How Dr. Jeff Snyder Can Relieve Your Migraine Pain
Just one migraine is one too many. Unfortunately, over-the-counter pain medicine often isn’t strong enough to reduce the pain. Prescription pain meds may be more helpful, but these medications often cause unpleasant side effects. If you’re struggling to manage migraines, chiropractic treatment at Snyder Family Chiropractic could ease your pain and reduce the number of days you have migraines.
Treating Migraines with Chiropractic
Migraines attribute to 113 million missed work days each year, according to the American Headache Association. If you get migraines, that statistic probably isn’t surprising. After all, it’s difficult to work when your head throbs, you feel dizzy and nauseated.
Do you regularly spend hours hidden away in the darkness, praying your headache will finally stop? Chiropractic treatment could minimize your pain and allow your happiness once again. Although you may relate chiropractic care with joint and back pain relief, Dr. Snyder actually treats a variety of conditions, including migraines.
At Snyder Family Chiropractic we incorporate these therapies in your migraine treatment plan:
- Soft Tissue Mobilization. The doctor uses his hands or a small instrument to stretch and lengthen tissues, reduce inflammation and swelling, and ease tension in your head, neck, and upper back muscles.
- Trigger Point Therapy. These are common in individuals with migraines! Pressing on these rigid knots in the muscles can even trigger a migraine, according to a review article in the Journal of Headache and Pain. Placing pressure on trigger points relaxes muscle fibers and helps knots dissolve, and also improves blood flow. Increasing blood flow helps your body eliminate waste products that build up when muscles become tight. A systematic review in Frontiers in Neurology revealed that trigger point therapy may decrease the time, intensity, and frequency of migraines and tension headaches.
- Spinal Adjustments. Spinal adjusting corrects nerve interference, known as vertebral subluxations. These are misalignments of the vertebrae in your back or neck. An adjustment by hand or an instrument realigns the vertebrae, decreasing pain and inflammation and allowing for proper nerve function, which relieves irritation that can cause pain. Neck pain and stiffness are commonly found in people who have migraine headaches. In The Journal of Headache and Pain, the study revealed that 69% of migraine patients have neck pain while having a migraine. The researchers indicated that preventing and treating neck pain might help prevent future chronic migraines.
- Exercise Program. Improving your posture and strengthening the muscles in your neck and back might also help improve your migraine symptoms. Dr. Jeff Snyder will provide you with exercises that will keep the muscles loose and limber.
- Nutrition Advice. In some cases, certain foods can trigger migraines. If you suspect that your diet is a migraine trigger, we will provide nutritional advice that will help you improve your diet.
Would you like to find out if chiropractic care could help your migraines? Contact our office to schedule an appointment.
References:
MedlinePlus: Migraines
https://medlineplus.gov/migraine.html
https://thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-018-0913-8
American Headache Society: The Impact of Migraine in the Workplace
https://americanheadachesociety.org/news/impact-migraine-workplace/
Frontiers in Neurology: Effectiveness of Trigger Point Manual Treatment on the Frequency, Intensity and Duration of Attacks in Primary Headaches: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials, 4/28/2018
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00254/full
The Journal of Headache and Pain: Myofascial Trigger Points in Migraine and Tension-Type Headache, 9/10/2018
Canadian Chiropractic Association: 6 Ways Chiropractic Care Can Help Manage Headaches, 6/1/2022
https://chiropractic.ca/6-ways-chiropractic-care-can-help-manage-headaches/
The Journal of Headache and Pain: Neck Pain in Episodic Migraine: Premonitory Symptom or Part of the Attack, 9/2/2015
https://thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-015-0566-9