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Chiropractic Treatment of Headaches
Could Chiropractic Care Help Your Headaches?
Headaches are a very common health complaint. Sometimes, headaches are mild. Other times they can be frequent and severe, disrupting your life at home and work. Fortunately, chiropractic care for headaches can provide effective, drug-free headache pain relief.
It’s important to take headaches seriously. You should see your doctor if your headache pattern changes or if your headaches are getting worse.
Seek emergency care if you have any of these signs and symptoms:
- An abrupt, severe headache, often like a thunderclap
- Headache with a fever, nausea or vomiting, stiff neck, mental confusion, seizures, numbness, or speaking difficulties, which may signal a number of serious conditions such as stroke, meningitis, encephalitis or brain tumor
- Headache after a head injury, even if it’s a minor fall or bump, especially if it gets worse.
- A sudden, severe headache unlike any other headache you’ve experienced
- Headache that gets progressively worse over days and changes in pattern
Overuse of Pain Relief Medication Can Actually Cause More Headaches
If you have frequent headaches, you should know that repeated use of pain relievers can cause another type of headache, overuse headaches. 1Medication-overuse headache (MOH) is a clinical diagnosis. It’s classified as a secondary disorder affecting patients who use pain-relieving medication (OTC or prescription) more than two to three days per week.
The bad news: the most effective treatment for MOH is to stop using pain-relieving medication.2
The good news: chiropractic care for headaches can help many different types of headaches. Current evidence suggests that chiropractic care, including manual therapy, can be effective in treating cervicogenic and tension headaches. Studies have also shown that chiropractic care can help decrease the intensity and frequency of migraines.3
Different Types of Headaches
Tension Headaches:
Chiropractic care is very effective at helping to manage tension headaches. Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. Sometimes, a dull, aching pain is a tension headache. You may feel tightness or pressure across your forehead or on the sides and back of your head. You may also feel tenderness on your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles.
Sometimes the pain of tension headaches can be so severe that it is difficult to distinguish it from a migraine. To make matters worse, it’s possible to suffer from both tension headaches and migraine headaches.
It’s rare to have migraine-like visual disturbances, nausea or vomiting with tension headaches. However, like migraines, you may experience an increased sensitivity to either light or sound with a tension headache.
One way to tell if it’s a migraine or a tension headache is that physical activity often makes migraine pain worse, while it doesn’t for tension headaches.
Tension headaches are often due to a combination of stress and back or neck strain. That’s why chiropractic care has been proven to help provide relief for these headaches.

Migraine Headaches:
Migraine headaches are serious. They are surprisingly common and a leading cause of disability.4 Studies show that chiropractic care can help relieve migraine pain by reducing muscle tension and correcting postural strain on soft tissues. Study authors suspect that spinal manipulations also activate descending pain inhibitory pathways responsible for pain modulation.5
There is no cure for migraine headaches. Unfortunately, many medications used to treat migraine have alarming and disabling side effects. As a result, more people who are suffering from migraine headaches are turning to alternative care options, such as chiropractic care. 6

Cluster Headaches:
Cluster headaches are a rare but devastating form of non-life-threatening headaches. These headaches occur in cycles, with each cycle lasting weeks to months. They are also called “suicide headaches” because of the extreme pain that they cause.
Cluster headaches result when the trigeminal nerve is pinched, compressed, or shifted improperly due to a spinal misalignment. This is why chiropractic care is ideally suited to treat cluster headaches.
During the cluster headache cycle, headaches can happen as frequently as every day and last for a few minutes to a few hours. After going through a cycle of cluster headaches, the sufferer will go into a period of remission. During this period of remission, no headaches will occur. A period of remission can last anywhere from several months to years.
Because of the cycles of intense pain, patients who suffer from cluster headaches can be emotionally raw by the time they seek treatment. These headaches are severe and have earned the nickname suicide headaches for a reason.
TMJ Headaches:
TMJ headaches are caused by temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. Less severe TMJ problems can cause annoying and sometimes painful clicking. Temporomandibular joint dysfunction can cause a painful headache with dull, aching pain in and around the ear. In some cases, the pain travels to the side of the scalp, back of the head, or down into the neck. Tenderness in the jaw area and neck is common in these kinds of headaches. TMJ dysfunction is often made worse by chewing, excessive talking or yawning.
Chiropractors can provide significant relief of the pain caused by TMJ dysfunction by manipulation. Unfortunately, most people are unaware that the jaw can be adjusted. Adjusting the jaw is a delicate procedure that requires a skilled hand using a very light technique or gentle chiropractic care. Because of the finesse involved, there usually isn’t the satisfying “clunk” that accompanies many other joint manipulations.
At Advanced Wellness Solutions, we’ve been seeing great results using acupuncture for relief of TMJ pain as well as for chronic pain relief.
Gentle Chiropractic Care for Headaches
Gentle chiropractic care replaces high-velocity adjustments with low-velocity, low-amplitude manipulations. It is performed with a gentle touch, targeting a specific area. Gentle chiropractic care is more comfortable and provides maximum benefit from minimal visits.
Chiropractic Treatment of TMJ Headaches
Chiropractic treatment of TMJ headaches is an effective drug-free method of treating the pain of TMJ.
Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction, a.k.a. myofascial pain disorder, is a surprisingly common complaint. At best, TMJ problems can cause annoying and sometimes painful clicking. At it’s worst, temporomandibular joint dysfunction can cause painful headaches.

How can I tell if it’s TMJ?
TMJ dysfunction often presents with a dull, aching pain in and around the ear. In some cases, the pain travels to the side of the scalp, back of the head, or down into the neck. Tenderness in the jaw area and neck is common
Chewing, excessive talking, or yawning frequently makes TMJ dysfunction worse.
What causes TMJ dysfunction?
TMJ dysfunction rarely has a single defining cause. Instead, it is usually the result of several contributing factors, including:
- Degenerative joint disease affecting the jaw can cause motion issues and pain.
- Stress and associated grinding of teeth can cause extreme jaw pain and headaches.
- A history of trauma involving the jaw can also play a role in TMJ dysfunction.
Often it is a combination of all of these factors that leads to TMJ dysfunction.
Chiropractic treatment of TMJ headaches
By manipulating the affected area, chiropractors can significantly reduce pain from TMJ dysfunction.
Unfortunately, most people are unaware that the jaw can be adjusted.
Adjusting the jaw is a delicate procedure that requires a skilled hand using a very light technique or gentle chiropractic care. Because of the finesse involved, there usually isn’t the satisfying “clunk” that accompanies many other joint manipulations.
A series of TMJ adjustments by a skilled chiropractor can be the determining factor in whether concurrent TMJ therapies are able to provide long-term relief.
Reducing muscle spasms is another important part of chiropractic treatment of TMJ dysfunction, which is key in helping to reduce the associated headaches almost immediately.
TMJ dysfunction pain often affects other nearby areas, and effective chiropractic treatment includes reducing the spasm in other affected areas, including the muscles of the neck, shoulders and face.
The muscle spasms associated with TMJ dysfunction must be directly addressed to achieve long-term relief of TMJ headaches and pain. Trigger point therapy, a momentarily uncomfortable but very effective method of muscle release, reduces and releases muscle spasms.
The Role of Stress Reduction
A third often overlooked but very important component in treating TMJ dysfunction and associated headaches is stress reduction.
Many TMJ headache sufferers clench and grind their teeth subconsciously as a reaction to stress. This relentless clenching and grinding can contribute to the development of TMJ pain and headaches.
You can mitigate teeth clenching and grinding with a mouthpiece, but to achieve long-term pain relief, it must be used with relaxation techniques for long-term success.
If you are experiencing TMJ symptoms or headaches and wish to discuss your treatment options, please call 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment today.
Chiropractic Treatment of Cluster Headaches
Chiropractic treatment of cluster headaches may alleviate cluster headaches by enhancing the alignment of the upper cervical spine or neck region, thereby reducing pressure on the trigeminal nerve. This adjustment can aid in restoring nervous system functionality, resulting in:
- Decreased tension in the muscles of the cervical spine
- Enhanced transmission of nerve signals between the brain and body
- Balanced systemic functions
Cluster headaches are also called “suicide headaches” because of the extreme pain that they cause. Cluster headaches are a rare but devastating form of non-life-threatening headaches. These headaches occur in cycles, with each cycle lasting weeks to months.
Chiropractic Treatment of Cluster Headaches
Cluster headaches result when the trigeminal nerve is often pinched, compressed, or shifted improperly due to a spinal misalignment. With that in mind, a chiropractor is ideally suited to help you treat your cluster headaches.
While attending USF, Dr. Danielle of Advanced Wellness Solutions was involved in a serious car accident. Her injuries caused trigeminal nerve pain, which is described as the most excruciating pain known to humanity. Fortunately, she saw a chiropractor (also a Palmer grad), who was able to successfully treat her injuries that caused her cluster headaches. As a result, she was able to complete her bachelor’s degree and go on to graduate from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Port Orange Florida.
During the cluster headache cycle, headaches can happen as frequently as every day and last for a few minutes to a few hours. After going through a cycle of cluster headaches, the sufferer will go into a period of remission. During this period of remission no headaches will occur. A period of remission can last anywhere from several months to years.
How do you know if your headache qualifies as a cluster headache?
The symptoms of a cluster headache are pain that is sudden, severe and on one side of the face. The pain often centers around one eye. This pain can be so intense that patients report feeling as if a hot poker has been stabbed into their eye.
The International Headache Society 1criteria is
“a minimum of 5 attacks in a predictable manner [about the same time every day] with severe unilateral periorbital pain peaking in 10-15 minutes and lasting up to 3 hours plus any of the following on the same side: ptosis, red eye, constricted pupil, tearing, nasal congestion and a runny nose. Attacks can occur several times per day for one to several weeks. Then recurrence may not occur for months.”
Other symptoms that often occur are:
- restlessness
- excessive tearing
- redness in your eye on the affected side
- stuffy or runny nasal passage in your nostril on the affected side of your face,
- sweaty
- pale skin (pallor) on your face,
- swelling around your eye on the affected side of your face,
- drooping eyelid (ptosis).
Seek emergency care if you have any of these signs and symptoms:
- Abrupt, severe headache, often like a thunderclap
- Headache with a fever, nausea or vomiting, stiff neck, mental confusion, seizures, numbness, or speaking difficulties, which may indicate a number of problems, including stroke, meningitis, encephalitis or brain tumor
- Headache after a head injury, even if it’s a minor fall or bump, especially if it gets worse.
- A sudden, severe headache unlike any other headache you’ve experienced
- Headache that gets progressively worse over days and changes in pattern
What causes cluster headaches?
Because of the cycles of intense pain, patients who suffer from cluster headaches can be emotionally raw by the time they seek treatment. This is why speaking with a qualified therapist or counselor is very important. These headaches are severe and have earned the nickname suicide headaches for a reason. In addition to individual therapy, there are also support groups available solely for suffers of cluster headaches.
The cause of cluster headaches is unknown. However an abnormality in the hypothalamus may be to blame due to the clockwork like nature of the attacks. Food and hormones do not appear to play a role but with the splitting headaches that can occur with alcohol consumption, cluster headache suffers tend to avoid alcohol.
Some factors that may affect or trigger cluster headaches:
- Smoking
- Barometric pressure changes
- Napping in the afternoon
- In males parasympathetic activation and sympathetic suppression
- Family history of cluster headaches
- How do you treat cluster headaches?
Treatments for cluster headaches are often palliative (treatments which relieve the pain and make you feel better) with treatment centering on the relieving the pain.
Standard medical intervention includes several pharmaceutical interventions such as oxygen, triptans and local anesthetics.
Chiropractic Treatment of Cluster Headaches
Alternative treatments such as chiropractic care and acupuncture are most effective at relieving the symptoms of cluster headaches but are minimally effective at completely resolving the cycles of cluster headaches.
Because of the intense pain, patients who suffer from cluster headaches are often emotionally and physically drained from the cycles by the time they seek treatment.
Chiropractic care can help to relieve tension in the cervical area due to stress and provide nutritional counseling. Nutritional intervention has been shown to be effective in reducing cluster headaches and cycles.
If you are experiencing cluster headaches and wish to discuss your treatments options, please call 855-509-5400 to schedule your appointment.
References:
“Home & News.” International Headache Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
“Cluster Headache.” Definition. Mayo Clinic, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.