Headaches Pain Most Everyone

Headaches affect; approximately 5 percent of the adult population within a one-year period. At any given time, between 5 percent and 10 percent of the U.S. population is seeking relief from intermittent headaches. It is important to note that headaches and head pain are symptoms, and not a disease in and of themselves.rnConventional medicine has always emphasized the pathological causes of head pain without considering a major contribution to most chronic headaches: the interaction between the muscles, nerves and joints.rnRecently, medical researchers injected the small joints in the upper neck to discover that they do, in fact, cause headaches. In other words, if the joints in the upper neck are not moving it can cause pain in the head. It works a lot like pain down the arm when there is a heart attack. You would not want to treat the arm but rather the heart. So is true with many headaches, treat the cause in the neck and not pain in the head. Headaches arising from the neck (known as cervicogenic headaches) are usually on one side of the head and are very frequent or of chronic duration. The worst part of the pain is above the eye, possibly behind the eye and going through the back of the head. It is usually associated with stiffness of the neck, tenderness and muscle spasms over the joints in the upper three vertebrae of the spine.rnThis sort of headache has been reported to acocount for 70 percent of all headaches seen by doctors. It is proposed that the major cause of neck headaches is a result of trauma to the small joints in the upper vertebrae, resulting in a blockage of the normal joint motion (joint fixation).rnThe other 30 percent of headaches are attributed to anxiety, stress, metabolic disorders, depression, and involvement of the blood vessels entering the head, scar formation, bleeding, disorders or tumors within the brain and involvement of the eyes. A skilled chiropractic physician is extremely effective in being able to differentially diagnose a cervicogenic headache through a careful examination. If the doctor of chiropractic finds a pathological cause, he will refer the patient to the appropriate medical specialist. Because the commonly experienced cervicogenic or neck-related headaches are of mechanical origin, they can respond favorably to chiropractic manipulation.rnAt the first visit to a chiropractic physician's office, the doctor takes a detailed history, performs a thorough spinal examination and will take X-rays if necessary. After all information is gathered, the doctor reviews the case with the patient and recommends the appropriate care. Referrals to other specialists are common.rnFor more information go to http://www.watertownwellness.com/headaches.htm