Natural Migraine Treatments – Chiropractic Care Can Provide Migraine Relief

A natural method of relieving migraines that is non-invasive and without the use of medication is the use of chiropractic care. This method is of particular benefit for patients who for some reason or another are not able to take prescribed medication.

Despite the advances in medical science over the last hundred years migraine headaches remain idiopathic, their cause remains unknown. There are several theories that attempt to explain migraines and their causes but the net result is no definitive cause has yet been found. Serotonin deficiency, genetic malformation and arterial swelling in the brain are some of them.

On the other hand a fairly common chiropractic theory is subluxations at the base of the head and neck are responsible in some way for the production of migraines. Subluxations are tense or knotted areas in the muscles attached to the small bones of the upper spinal column. When x-rayed doctors often miss the tension of the muscles as the bones appear to be in their correct places. A chiropractor can relax these subluxations by gently manipulating the spine.

There are two varieties of chiropractic care for those who suffer from migraines. Straight and mixed chiropractic. Straight chiropractic is only about manipulating the spine to relieve the subluxations. Mixed chiropractic on the other hand uses traditional manipulation with other complimentary techniques. Reducing neck strain and tension is the goal of mixed chiropractic care.

Chiropractic care has been compared with the use of medications in treatments of migraines and chronic tension-type headaches. Researchers at the Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Minnesota gave 218 headache patients either drug therapy or regular chiropractic care. 40 to 50% reduction in headache pain was reported by both groups but four weeks after all care was discontinued the group that received chiropractic care were the only ones still enjoying the reduction in pain the treatment originally initiated. Only a quarter of the drug therapy group were found to be still benefiting from their treatment at the follow up.