To Your Health
February, 2007 (Vol. 01, Issue 02) |
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Chiropractic: The Drugless Solution
Over-the-counter and prescription painkillers attempt to mask or diminish symptoms only by way of the bloodstream, or circulatory system. But chiropractic digs deeper, to the cause of symptoms.
According to
Gray's Anatomy [the medical manual, not the popular television show], the nervous system is the "master system" in the body, controlling and coordinating all other systems - respiratory, immune and even circulatory.
If you're suffering from frequent headaches, bring this concern to your chiropractor's attention. It is your doctor's responsibility to locate and correct areas in the spine where one or more of the vertebrae may have experienced a loss of function, creating pressure on, or otherwise irritating, spinal nerves. This irritation interferes with the signals, or "communication," traveling over those nerves, which can compromise the health of every system in the body.
By positively affecting the nervous system and aiding nerve transmission, chiropractic care, in the form of specific spinal "adjustments" or "manipulations," improves the body's own ability to heal itself. Chiropractic adjustments help restore normal joint function in your spine, thus alleviating nerve pressure and loss of nerve flow.
What Kind Of Headache Do I Have?
With so many "types" of headaches with varying degrees of severity and frequency, affecting every area of the head, you may find yourself at a loss for words when describing your condition to the doctor. The image on the next page matches five of the most common headache types with their corresponding symptoms/causes.
What type of headaches do you suffer from? Here are five of the more common headache types, along with their characteristic symptoms/causes.
Research evidence suggests chiropractic is an effective, natural answer to headache pain. In fact, in a major 1995 study comparing several weeks of drug therapy to several weeks of chiropractic care, 82 percent of patients given drug therapy reported side effects including drowsiness, weight gain and dry mouth. Heart-related problems and glaucoma also were associated with the drug therapy. On the other hand, chiropractic patients reported no side effects. And after four weeks of treatment, patients who used drugs began having headaches again, while members of the chiropractic group continued to express headache relief, as well as higher levels of energy as compared to the drug therapy group.
"When the bones of the spine lose their normal position or motion, the sensitive nerves and blood vessels to the head become compromised. When these delicate tissues are stretched or irritated, they can produce certain types of headaches," explains Claudia Daude, DC, who maintains a chiropractic practice in Michigan and has a great deal of experience treating headache sufferers. "While aspirin or other medications may cover up the symptoms, they do not really correct the cause of the headache. This is why many people have found relief from headaches through regular chiropractic care."
