Headaches and migraines are among the most common disorders of the human nervous system worldwide. In the United States, over 15% of all adults complain about severe headaches or migraines, with prevalence among women more than twice as high as among men. The prevalence of headaches among U.S. adults is distinctly higher among younger people than among those aged 65 years and older.
It is predicted that the annual economic burden of headaches and migraines in the U.S was estimated to be $14 billion per year, which includes both direct costs as well as costs incurred to loss of productivity. The question we need to ask ourselves here is, are my headaches not only affecting my ability to live as intended, pain-free but also my ability to earn a living and provide for my family? If the answer is yes to either of those, then keep reading, as we will be discussing how we can fix and avoid them from happening.
If you suffer from headaches, we must start to try and identify the root causes of what may be causing them. Let’s start with lifestyle choices, and look at what we are drinking and eating on a daily basis. Research clearly states that lack of hydration can contribute to headaches. America is the number one fatigued nation in the world and a lack of H2O is a contributing factor to this. A simple equation we can try and adhere to is take your body weight in lbs, divide it by 2, consume that many ounces of water daily.
Next up is our diets. What we put into our body simply fuels our body. Essentially if we are fueling our bodies with foods high in inflammatory components, such as trans fats, free radicals, artificial flavors and additives it creates cell inflammation within our body. Research has been proven to show a clear link between these types of foods playing a role in causing headaches. We should start with trying to eliminate these types of foods, such as soda, processed foods etc… replace them with healthy alternatives and foods in anti-oxidants, which eat up these free radicals and help take away the inflammation. Foods such as dark leafy green vegetables, dark fruits such as berries all have high concentration of these anti-oxidants.
We are all a product of our environment, so where we can we must control that environment. The average American sits for an average of 6.5 hours a day, and teens sit for over 8. We are built to move, both on a bio-mechanical and physiological level. We simply are not built for sitting. Unfortunately, corporate America is built around the workforce sitting. If you sit for the average amount of time or longer, we must find ways to break up that sitting.
Start with applying to HR for a stand-up desk. By standing you are decreasing your chance of developing one of the metabolic diseases associated with sitting, such as obesity, diabetes and all the associated risks of those diseases such as high blood pressure, decreased life expectancy, etc.… Standing at work has been shown to increase your calorific output while working, which obviously will work toward negating sitting and the obesity incidence that comes with it.
Sitting also creates a massive amount of stress on the neuromusculoskeletal system. Over time the stress and repetition of sitting breaks down muscle, joints and nerves and leads to symptoms. If you sit for a living, we must be pro active and move and also work on counter act those compensatory factors. We should all spend time during the day taking postural breaks. When we sit, we are not moving, so the body’s ‘intrinsic’ muscles that work on detecting movement and stabilize us switch off and essentially become lazy. This then activates the ‘bigger’ muscles, which take over and over time leads to a compensatory issue called ‘upper cross syndrome’. This has been shown to contribute towards symptoms such as headaches and migraines. If you sit for a living, head on over to our you tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoaPrw5Vr9C7ugfAlgJvE6w and check out all of the awesome videos of exercises you can do during your working day to help counter act the repetitive stress sitting puts on our bodies.
Traditional methods of treating headaches involve some form of drug. In the short term these can help alleviate the symptoms, however long term they ignore what is really causing the issue. Many of our patients that ask us to help them get rid of their headaches are often sick and tired of taking the medication and are looking for an answer that addresses the root cause of the issue offering a long term solution, not involving the use of drugs or surgery.
Here at Advanced Health Chiropractic we have helped thousands of your Chicago land friends and neighbors with all forms of headache and migraines, which have allowed them to get out of pain and start living life as they should be able to, without limitation. At Advanced Health Chiropractic we pride ourselves on a detailed and thorough Initial consultation, including a detailed health history, orthopedic and neurological testing followed by some state of the art imaging, which allows us to pin point your issue, allowing for a clear diagnosis and a specific course of treatment addressing the root cause of your issue and a tailored plan to achieve all of your health and wellness goals.
We use a blend of chiropractic care, and physical therapy to achieve your goals, including state of the art spinal traction and soft tissue therapy, which allows us to offer objective long-term results. If you are suffering from headaches, migraines or any other form of pain and have tried other forms of treatment with other providers and are frustrated with trying to get the issue corrected we encourage you to give us a call so we can help you live life as its intended, pain-free. We look forward to meeting you here at the clinic and be the resource you have been searching for.
Best Regards,
Dr. Luke Stringer.
