What is a migraine?

 A migraine is an intense headache accompanied by symptoms including throbbing localized pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound. Patients experience migraines either on a one-off basis or chronically for many years before appropriate treatment is found. Migraines, while often chronic, are successfully managed with careful treatment and preventative medicine. Warning signs known as “aura” may occur before or with a headache. Auras are symptoms of the nervous system. They are usually visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or wavy, zigzag vision. Some preventative care is used daily and other treatments are used at the first signs of a migraine.

Are there different types of migraines?

There are different types of migraines. They are categorized by their associated symptom. Doctors recognize seven varieties of migraines. They include a migraine with or without an aura; with or without a headache; a basilar migraine (balance issues); hemiplegic migraine, which affects one side of the body much the same way a stroke would, and an ophthalmoplegic migraine, which affects the eye and eye movement. Some of these are very rare while others are much more common.

How can chiropractic care help me with migraine treatment?

Migraines are complex. Medicine does not fully understand why migraines occur. As such, there is no specific treatment that will stop or prevent a migraine 100 percent. That is one reason why it is important to understand what type of migraines from which you suffer. Finding a solution to your specific case might be as easy as making lifestyle choices. Migraines are caused by the expansion and contraction of blood vessels which cause a pressure change in the brain. Chiropractic care can help by helping patients figure out what type of migraines they have, and whether or not there are common triggers. Chiropractic care can also help people make positive lifestyle changes. In addition to lifestyle changes, our team helps improve the connection of nerves from the brain to the muscles through a higher form of chiropractic touch called Network. Getting the body to work more efficiently and helping people identify their triggers for migraines are two ways that chiropractic care can help stop or reduce migraines.