Ask the Doctor: Suffering from Migraines?

The question for the week comes from Susan:

I have migraines a couple times a week, and I take migraine medication which seems to only dull the pain. Any other options available?

Migraine headaches are not pleasant to say the least. There are quite a few causes of migraines such as tension or stress-based, hormonal, and dietary causes. Symptoms of migraines include sensitivity to light and/or sound, nausea, vomiting and auras. Usually, people who suffer from chronic migraines can also be pretty debilitated while the headache is present.

It is really important to get a correct diagnosis that migraines are the cause of the headache. There are some other medical conditions that are important to rule out. 

As someone who has had migraines off and on for maybe 10 years, I do realize that migraines are, in a word, icky. It's important to know what your triggers for a migraine are. For some people, it may be dietary (chocolate, wine, and some types of cheese may be a culprit), hormonal, physiological, or a side effect from other types of medications. 

For me, I can feel my migraine coming on about a day prior.  Having been adjusted by a chiropractor since I was 16, I learned pretty quick that when one of the vertebra in my neck gets misaligned and if I don't get it corrected within a day or so, I'll get a migraine. It starts as a dull achy kind of pain in my neck on the left side and then my whole neck just gets irritated. Eventually, this leads to a migraine headache with nausea and all the other fun stuff that goes along with it.

In my experience, and I'm sure many other chiropractors would agree with me on this one, chiropractic is one of the safest methods to help resolve the typical migraine. I've had a lot of success in helping people that suffer from chronic migraines. For those people with migraines that start out like mine with a tension type headache, I also need some soft tissue work done to keep those muscles in my neck and shoulders happy and functioning the way they are supposed to. So, I see a chiropractor that is certified in Active Release Techniques (ART) like myself. I get adjusted about once every three or four weeks and that keeps me in pretty good shape.

As a chiropractor, it's no secret I'm going to be a proponent of chiropractic adjustments and ART to help treat migraines. Other types of body work such as massaging, rolfing, acupuncture and relaxation techniques can also be beneficial for a lot of people.

So, it is important to get migraine headaches properly assessed before proceeding. If you want to avoid medication, there are a few options out there to try and different things will work for different people, so don't give up.

Thanks for reading and if you have a question you'd like featured here next week, please email me directly at QureshiDC@gmail.com.

Have a great week!