A headache is one of the most common pain disorders reported to health care professionals in the United States. There are a wide variety of headache types, which can result in a significant loss of life enjoyment and work productivity. According to the International Headache Society, there are approximately 130 different types of headache. Fortunately, the serious causes of headache are rare, leaving common tension, migraine, sinus, and post whiplash headache as the major sources, accounting for more than 90%. These types of headache are not life threatening and can be treated successfully by your chiropractic doctor without the use of drugs.

How Your Chiropractor Can Help Your Headache
A chiropractor is qualified to diagnose your headache and determine if it can be treated or if you need to be referred to a specialist in the case of a more serious cause. Fortunately, most headaches do not have life-threatening causes and do not require referral. A detailed description of the symptoms of headaches and the methods used to diagnose them is beyond the scope of this discussion. However, any kind of pain in the body is a sign that something is wrong.

Chiropractors are trained extensively to diagnose ailments of the human body. In fact, chiropractors receive more training than medical doctors in this area and many other areas of human health (chiropractic training.) Once your chiropractor determines the cause of your headache, he/she will then treat the source. Remember, pain is a symptom. It is not the problem.

The Pain You Are Experiencing
Pain is the body's alarm system that tells us that we need to take a look at our health. Without this alarm system, we would not know when we are ill or injured. The body's alarm system (whether it is pain or any other symptom) can be compared to a fire alarm in your house. Let's say that you are sleeping in your bedroom at night and there is a fire in your basement. Your fire alarm begins to sound so you get up and turn off the fire alarm and go back to bed. It's obvious what happens next…the fire continues burning and the consequences are drastic. Obviously, no one would turn off the fire alarm and go back to bed with a fire burning in the house, but this is exactly what we are doing when we take pills to mask our pain.

Pain is the alarm… taking a pill turns off the alarm. The problem that is causing the pain is then ignored and continues to burn in our body. Sooner or later, the pills don't work anymore and our problem is much more serious and more difficult to deal with properly. Doesn't it make much more sense to take heed of the alarm and deal with the actual problem that is setting the alarm off?

You may think that taking a pill makes your headache go away. It is true that the pill stops you from feeling the pain, but if your headaches are returning and you are getting them more than once per month, it is evident that the cause of your headaches is not being addressed.

If you are taking medication for your headaches and they are continuously returning, the cause of your headache is not being addressed. You may want to do something different. Let your chiropractor get to the cause of your headache and help you live pain free without drugs. This document is for informational purposes only. Do not alter any treatment your are currently undertaking without qualified direction.

Want more information on headaches?

Let Tysons Corner Chiropractic help you determine the real cause of your health problems so you can start living a healthier life. You can call our Health Hotline number 703.288.1702 or email us now, and we will contact you.