It’s not really fair to say that chiropractic care can help with migraines because the real answer is… “It depends.”
There are different types of chiropractic care (just like there are different types of medical doctors) and only some of these have a track record of success when it comes to migraines.
What is upper cervical chiropractic care?
The type of chiropractic care that has the longest and most proven track record of success when it comes to helping people with migraines is upper cervical chiropractic care. These doctors focus all their attention on monitoring and improving the patient’s nervous system function by making precise adjustments to the patient’s upper neck when needed, not on every visit.
How upper cervical chiropractic care can help with migraines has everything to do with the nervous system and nerves and very little to do with the bones and the alignment of the neck or spine. And this makes sense because the medical profession discovered that migraines are caused by a problem in the central nervous system (the exact neurological pathways are still unknown) and not a blood vessel (vascular) problem as once believed.
What causes migraines?
The scientific explanation of what causes migraines is; A migraine is a complex primary brain disorder that involves a cascade of events that lead to recurrent inappropriate activations of the trigeminocervical pain system. In plane English, it means that something is wrong with the central nervous system… more specifically the brainstem. Scientists know that genetics, gender, and age play a role, but they’re not sure exactly how.
Someone that suffers from migraines needs a nervous system that is stable and balanced in function if they’re ever going to get long-term relief. There is a very strong neurological connection between the central nervous system (specifically the autonomic nervous system) and the upper neck which is the main reason upper cervical chiropractic care can help with migraines.
How The Specific can help!
It’s called proprioception, mechanoreception, and afferentation… the medical terms the relationship between the upper neck and the central nervous system. It means that our brains don’t have eyes that can look internally and therefore rely on information coming up from different parts of the body before it can make any decisions on how to control and coordinate the function of our entire body.
It just so happens that our brains are really concerned with what’s going on in our upper neck. So if the upper neck is stuck out of alignment it really screws up the information bound for brain and then the brain makes less than ideal decisions on how to control the rest of the body and someone susceptible to migraines will get more frequent migraines. An upper cervical chiropractor can precisely adjust the upper neck and measure the effect on the central nervous system and in the process, the nervous system becomes more stable and the patient’s migraines radically improve.
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