HEADACHES

Sooner or later nearly everyone gets a headache, but to about 20 percent of us they are chronic or recurrent. What causes headaches? Lots of things: strong smells, bright lights, muscle tension or stress, sinus trouble, or vision, dental and ear problems, fevers, cold drinks, infections, tumors, carbon monoxide, trauma, drug side-effects or withdrawal, and lumbar punctures, among others.

Surprisingly, a headache is not a "brainache." The brain, most of its membranes, and the skull feel no pain at all. That is why during brain surgery patients can be wide awake even talking to the doctors while their brains are being cut, probed, or otherwise tampered with (local anaesthetic is used to numb the scalp). But when the pain-sensitive parts--the arteries of the brain and skull, the dura mater that covers the brain, and the cranial nerves--are infected, pulled, inflamed, stretched, compressed, or irritated, headaches usually result.

A frequent and overlooked cause of headaches is the malfunction of the spinal bones in the neck and upper back. Aspirin and medications may cover up the symptoms, but do not correct the underlying structural cause.

The treatment for a headache depends, of course, on its cause. For example, a headache arising from visual problems can often be cured by eyeglasses; a headache caused by a sinus or ear infection will be relieved when the infection resolves. But the most common headaches, including migraine are usually treated with a pain killer or other drugs.

Although Chiropractic is not a headache therapy, for nearly a hundred years headache sufferers have turned to the drug free, natural methods used by their neighborhood Chiropractors. By eliminating spinal nerve stress, Chiropractic permits the entire body to restore itself to a greater level of health and wholeness--in effect, to heal itself. Chiropractic spinal care is essential for anyone who suffers from headaches.