Headaches & Migraines. What Are Some Of The Causes & How Your Chiropractor May Be Able To Help

G'day guys, Dr. Michael from Charlton Chiropractic. Today, I want to talk about headaches. When I say headaches, I mean headaches, migraines, you name it, the lot. They might be at the base of the skull here, they might be around the front, they might be around the side. And really they just suck. I mean, I've had headaches before. Obviously, there's many causes of headaches. Most common is relating to your neck, and how the neck works, and how the neck is shaped and structured, and the effect on the nerves from that.
                               
My experience is that obviously we've got to consider other things like diet, and exercise, and lifestyle. But all that being equal, if you do the right things in that, and your alignments out, and you have a straight neck, that you're gonna have recurrent problems. You're more than likely, you're gonna stretch the spinal cord. In fact, Alf Breig, a neurosurgeon who did a textbook, Adverse Mechanical Tension in the Central Nervous System.
   
Hey, you don't need to know that, but when you lose the curve in the neck, you stretch the spinal cord five to seven centimetres. So that to me, if you're stretching that spinal cord, we've got the brain stem here, we've got the brain up here, kind of makes sense that you'd have headaches. Maybe that first alignment issue caused from a whiplash or from a sporting injury. Or maybe back as a kid, as a toddler, you slipped and fell, and what would seem not like a big issue at the time, has caused you to have some irritation in the neck.

Also, somewhat commonly, we have the birthing process, where there's forceps. There's 140 pounds or about 70 kilos of pressure put on around the skull. And nowadays, they're smarter now, they've realized it's not so great, and they use vacuum extraction. So they pull off the top of the head, and it's still quite extreme, but better. So, we've got to think, you've got that whole body being pulled by the upper neck, and it makes sense, and there's documented evidence of upper neck strain and injury from the birth, from this sort of stuff.

So, it sort of makes sense that if these aren't resolved at each point in time, that maybe when you're 30, maybe when you're 40 or 50, that you're going to have headaches, and you're going to have them recurrently. Your sleep's going to be bad, your energy's going to be bad, quality of life's isn't going to be great. But our job is to get you in better alignment as best we can. Now if you have some wear and tear and damage, then it's going to limit how much change we can have, but it shouldn't limit the ability for you to live a better quality of life. Then we've obviously going to maintain it just like you maintain your car going forward, so that you have the best quality of life possible and really enjoy the most energy, the better sleep, the better relationships with your friends and family. All of those things pair off. As men and women, we've got a headache, life just sucks. Life's too short to suck. You want to have a good life, right?

So if you have any troubles with headaches, please let me know. Or if you want to get checked and you want to say, "Hey, maybe's it's a good idea to see where my spine's at and see if I can be healthier than where I am now." And really get it at that point before you're having the headaches down here. But really understand that maybe a health should be worked on from a point of view of prevention, and dealing with issues before they become a big issue like a headaches that's an ongoing issue. So, I'll say, have a lovely day. Call us and schedule a checkup. Have a lovely day.