Hi, everybody. Dr. Kinney here, your chiropractor for headaches in Belmar, NJ.
So one of the most common conditions that we treat here at Kinney Chiropractic is headaches.
We see lots and lots of people with headaches. 50% of the U.S. population has a headache at least once a year.
And something like 4% of the world’s population suffers chronic headaches, something like 15 days or more per month.
That’s a lot of debilitating pain that’s happening in the world.
Headache Symptoms | Chiropractic Belmar, NJ
So the main symptoms of a headache or any kind of head pain can wrap around the back of the head, the sides, can be unilaterally, bilaterally, maybe it’s in the face or behind the eyes, and they can be caused from many different reasons.
Many different things can cause a headache.
So the first is like an emotional cause. Maybe you have some sort of anxiety or depression, or you’re under an extreme amount of stress that can cause headaches.
Maybe it’s an environmental cause. So your system is very sensitive to like allergies, change of seasons, change in barometric pressure, different weather conditions.
That can cause you to have a headache.
Medical conditions. So for instance, if you have high blood pressure, that can cause a headache untreated, maybe you have vision or eye problems, maybe you’re dehydrated, and certainly lots of other medical conditions.
The side effects can be a headache.
Certain prescription medications that you may take can cause a headache. So you have to be very aware and read your side effects on the packaging of any prescription medications you take.
And then the most important, I would say the most common cause of headaches that we see, is physical stress or some kind of mechanical stress on the body.
So perhaps you have a history of an old accident or injuries.
Maybe you have poor biomechanics when you’re sitting at your desk or have poor posture.
And we find spinal dysfunction, if we surface that there is spinal dysfunction, chronic tension, nerve irritation, subluxations, if you go back to previous videos of mine, you’ll learn all about subluxations, which come from abnormal spinal joint function, this can all cause different types of headaches.
So many people can consider, will say, “Oh, these are just normal headaches. They’re normal to me in my life.”
Well, it might be common, but they’re certainly not normal. Any headache that you may have is not normal, especially if it’s in a kid.
A headache is a warning signal. It’s your body’s way of telling you that something’s wrong, that something has to be addressed and it shouldn’t be ignored, especially, if you were getting them persistently over the course of your life, you have to address it.
So if your headaches are coming from your spine, not moving correctly, or being out of alignment, like I mentioned, this is called the subluxation, they’re not gonna go away until that gets corrected.
You can cover up the symptoms all you want with different medications or massages, but if the locked joints are pinching on nerves, that’s going to persistently, chronically keep causing you to have headaches over and over.
That has to be addressed. And that’s what chiropractors do.
It’s so important to figure out the root cause of why you were having the headaches.
So is it coming from the neck joints? Is it coming from the muscles?
Perhaps it’s a problem with the discs or maybe is there something else going on?
So most recently, the most common cause of headaches that we see is in a phenomenon called tech neck.
So that would be the loss of a normal curve of your neck spine. So your neck spine should have a curve somewhere around 30 to 40 degrees.
Over time, prolonged use of electronic devices: computers, laptops, phones, iPads, you can start to lose that normal spine or that normal curve to the spine.
And this constant neck stress, constant muscle usage, constant abnormal joint function and pressure is absolutely going to cause headaches, but we need to figure it out.
Chiropractic Headache Assessment | Belmar, NJ
So the best way we know how to do that here at Kinney Chiropractic is this really seriously thorough history and consultation where we go through all your past history, all your past experiences to try to figure out if something in the past can contribute to the headaches now, or maybe it was an old injury or an accident.
We take all that information. We do a very detailed examination: chiropractic, orthopedic, posture exam.
And then we take very detailed digital, specialized digital x-rays.
We take what’s called motion X-rays. So we see what the spine looks like statically, but also when it’s moving, so we can find out where the problems arise.
Then we go over all these exam findings with you and point out specifically what areas of the spine are causing your headaches, explain how we’re gonna get them fixed.
So not only do our headache patients get out of pain pretty quickly when they’re under care, but we create a plan to make sure that the headaches don’t come back.
So if this is something that you’re interested and you wanna naturally, without drugs, address your headaches, then chiropractic is the way to do it.
And I hope I get to see ya here at Kinney Chiropractic real soon.
