Headache & Migraine Relief in Rome, GA

You took an ibuprofen. It got better a bit. But your headache came right back.

This is exactly the pattern we see every week here in Rome. Patients come to see us frustrated. They have been dealing with pain rather than figuring out the root cause. And most headaches that come back aren't really random, they're signals. Your body is communicating that something is off, and pain relievers simply mute the message without addressing the issue.

So what's causing those recurring headaches? The reality is that in many cases the cause is in your neck. When your neck vertebrae become misaligned, this can cause compression to the nerves and reduced blood flow to your head. Your body can build up that tension over time, for days or weeks, before suddenly breaking through and developing that "migraine" or "tension headache".

These are some of the most common sources for chronic headaches that our patients face:

• Misalignments in the upper neck, from holding a desk work and computer posture or a phone posture
• Tight muscles in the neck and shoulder, referring pain up into the temple or behind the eye
• Injured joints in the neck from past falls or car accidents that never completely recovered
• Limited joints in the middle back, restricting the spine from moving the way it should

Often one, two, or three of those is why you have your headaches. And a lot of them don't even turn up on standard lab work or physicals. "Everything is normal. Here's an aspirin." your doctor tells you. You leave with your headaches exactly where they started.

Patients living in and around West Rome will sometimes share that they've been struggling with headaches and migraines for a year, or two, or five, before coming to see us. It's not surprising. It's not uncommon. It's actually pretty typical to keep taking medication and searching for headache relief in Rome for a long time before you decide to see the root cause.

Here's the thing though. If the problem in the spine is mechanical, there's no way that it's going to resolve itself by ignoring it or waiting for it to pass. The spine won't re-center itself. The muscles in the back won't be intense as long as the joint below is restricted. This is why, no matter how long you wait, your headaches keep coming back.

The 5 Different Kinds of Headaches We See

Not all headaches are the same. It sounds obvious, but you'd be shocked by the number of folks we see here in Rome thinking that "a headache is a headache."

There's a pattern to it. What kind of headache it is changes what we will need to do to fix it. Here are the most common kinds we treat on a weekly basis:

• Tension-type headaches, feeling like there's a tight band wrapped around the top of your head, usually due to stress or poor desk posture
• Cervicogenic headaches, pain originating in the neck, radiating to the back of your head
• Migraines, one-sided, pulsating pain typically accompanied with nausea, light sensitivity, or visual aura
• Cluster headaches, excruciating, sharp, stabbing pain located behind one eye in episodes
• Post-traumatic headaches (i.e. post-concussion or related to whiplash) caused after a traumatic motor vehicle accident or other injury

Cervicogenic headaches are a common type of headache we treat in Rome. It's almost always the same type of story. Someone has spent months hunched over a computer or phone; the upper joints in the neck get stuck, and then pain shoots up into the head. And most people are surprised to learn that their neck is the culprit. They're just aware that their head starts hurting every afternoon.

On the other hand, migraines are very different in nature. According to the American Migraine Foundation, 40 million people in the United States suffer from migraine [1]. Many of them take medicine and try one thing after another without results. But a lot of folks are not aware that issues with proper mobility or misalignment in the upper cervical spine can cause, or even increase, migraines. If you're looking for guidance on how to relieve migraine quickly and stop it, understanding your triggers and underlying mechanics is the critical first step. We have worked with patients in the West Rome community to reduce the frequency of their migraines by correcting the mechanics of their C1 and C2 joints.

And, people who are injured in auto accidents sometimes find themselves with headaches weeks or even months later after being hit from behind, like along Turner McCall Boulevard. The delayed nature of these headaches makes patients think they are not related to the accident.

So it really all starts with finding out what kind of headache it is. All other treatment is built upon that diagnosis, because it is the root cause.

Barometric Pressure and How Rome Location Plays a Role in Migraines

We hear it all the time from patients: "I can feel it is going to rain, because my head starts to pound." This is not a crazy thought. Well, it is in your head, but not the way you mean.

Weather fronts moving through will drop barometric pressure, which can cause sinus pressure to change or put pressure on the skull tissue. The body tries to adapt to the change and blood vessels may dilate, which can cause a migraine to start. In fact, according to the American Migraine Foundation, weather changes are one of the most commonly reported causes of migraines [2]. People living in Rome are probably more affected by this than they realize.

Rome's geography in northwest Georgia in the foothills can make migraine weather worse. The elevation change of the hills, river basins, and valleys can contribute to their own micro-weather patterns. For example, cold air can settle in the lower-lying areas around the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers during nighttime hours, then be swept away as warmer air moves in during afternoon hours. This continuous changing back and forth causes fluctuating barometric pressure patterns that may cause more headaches.

This is particularly true in the spring and fall. We see patients from around Berry College and neighborhoods near Shorter University who experience migraines during these seasonal transitions. The typical story: three or four bad days in a row, then nothing for weeks. Here are the things those pressure shifts do to your body:

• Expansion of sinuses pressing on nerves in the vicinity.
• Dilation of brain blood vessels at an unusual rate.
• Increase in tension across the upper neck and back.
• Change in the fluid pressure of joints in the cervical spine.

You can't change the weather but you can modify the way your body reacts to it. This is where chiropractic care plays a role in headache relief and migraine relief. If you are in the right posture for your neck and you don't have tight muscles in the neck, your body can accommodate the changes in the barometric pressure rather than go directly into a headache or a migraine. That can spell the difference between not feeling 100 per cent and having an entire afternoon and evening lying around on your sofa with the lights off. Don't know yet if the weather is what sets your headache off? Write down your headaches for two weeks and check them against a barometric pressure app on a smartphone or computer; you will probably get a good idea in two weeks.

Things You Can Expect at Your First Chiropractic Appointment

You walk in. We have a conversation. That's about where it begins!

Before we begin any treatment, we like to find out about you and your situation. How many days or weeks have you been having the headaches, and where do you feel the pain? Do you feel a pressure behind your eye, or is it a sensation of pressure in the whole of your head? We ask about your sleep patterns, stress levels, time you spend in front of the computer screen and the way you sit at your desk. All of these questions are important, perhaps more so than you realize, because often they can give the first hints as to what could be causing the headache.

Having completed the conversation, we perform our hands-on examination. Your range of motion in the neck is checked; muscle tension in your upper back is felt; and posture in general is assessed. More often than not, you'll discover some restrictions in your upper spine, which you may not have been aware of. Tension in your neck can send pain signals straight to your head! But this is not just random guessing. Everything we check and feel has a specific purpose.

In your assessment we will:

• Check your posture and alignment of the spine from a variety of perspectives.
• Palpate your neck and spine area and surrounding muscles.
• Check your neurological function to confirm that anything else that needs referral is referred to a specialist.
• Do range of motion tests in the neck and upper back.
• If you have brought imaging or other records with you, we'll look at those.

Should the neurological screening show up anything we feel you may need to be referred to a specialist, we'll let you know. Headaches don't warrant guesses. This is why we take the time to do all these things at the start.

It's all about doing it thoroughly. You're only likely to get relief from headache and migraine treatment if you know what the headache or migraine is about. While a tension headache and a cervicogenic migraine may appear to be similar from a distance, they require different treatment plans. We get this a lot from the folks near Berry College. "I've taken over the counter medications, I've turned off the lights, I've even put ice packs on my forehead." While these things may help numb you for an hour, we want to find out what is actually creating the problem. Our goal after the first visit is to leave you with an idea of what is going on and what our recommendation would be.

Preventing Your Headaches from Coming Back After Treatment

It's great feeling better, but relieving the pain for good is best. Many people who walk into our office in Rome, have had their headaches, migraine, or chronic pain for weeks or months. We do everything in our power to get them feeling well and we don't want to see their problems come right back. We don't just do your adjustments or get you feeling good for the week, and hope for the best. We look at your posture, your daily routine, your desk at work, your mattress at night, and a whole host of stressors. What is your body doing in response to these problems? We will do our best to identify the underlying cause of your issues and get you on a treatment path toward your goals.

There isn't one fix for long-term headache relief. However, a few things do make a big difference in most cases:

• Maintenance Chiropractic visits to maintain your spinal alignment before tension builds
• Home rehabilitation exercises to work and strengthen your spine
• Your posture at your desk, in your car, and at night while sleeping
• BrainTap or relaxation therapy to help your stress levels

We will provide you with a specific treatment plan. We are not going to just provide a handout, we will provide you with homework and we will follow up with you to see if you completed it. If the patient is doing everything on their checklist and you are still dealing with headaches, we will reevaluate your treatment plan and make the necessary changes. We see a lot in East Rome of people who work at a desk all day and their monitor is too far away from them or is too low on a stand. We fix the alignment, then we fix the desk setup. Problem solved, no more Friday headaches.

Massage therapy, including deep tissue massage and trigger point massage, plays a major role in prevention as well. We do a lot of work on tight muscles of the neck and upper back that create tension and pain. Tight muscles that don't receive regular stretching and deep tissue treatment lead to muscle spasms and joint issues. If the muscles stay tight, it leads to vertebrae popping and grinding, which causes headaches. It is easier for us to help you maintain your posture and keep your muscles healthy when your body isn't in constant inflammation. There isn't a magic bullet. We've been helping patients in Rome do exactly that for years, and the ones who stick with their plan are the ones who stop needing us for emergencies. They come in for maintenance instead. That's a much better place to be.

We will never promise you that you won't ever have to get your head fixed or treated again, but most of our patients who come to us in Rome come in because of emergencies that could have been avoided. That would be the better place to be!

We do our best to get you feeling better in just about any scenario, and it is our goal to help you find out what is the root cause and how we can fix it for the future. Connect with a Rome, GA chiropractor that can help you right away.