Got Headaches? The Problem May Actually Be In Your Neck! - By: Dr. Kevin Smith

Each year tens of millions of Americans suffer with headaches (ranging from tension headaches to cluster headaches to migraines). The problem is so widespread it accounts for an extremely high percentage of visits to doctor’s offices, emergency rooms and walk-in clinics. The medical approach to treating these headaches is with some kind of a drug (Tylenol, Motrin, aspirin, and even powerful prescription strength drugs such as Imitrex, Topamax, Maxalt, Zomig, Amerge, etc.). $40 billion dollars are spent annually for pharmaceutical treatments for headaches. Regardless of the type of medication used, the common problem with using drugs for headaches is that they don’t actually fix the cause of the problem, they only temporarily mask the symptoms. They’re also toxic, expensive and can have side effects. To make matters worse, overuse of certain drugs can actually compound the intensity, frequency and duration of the headache – which is referred to as a “rebound headache”.

Current research has shown that there is a little known, yet extremely common cause of headache pain. And the area of involvement isn’t in the head at all, it’s in your neck! This condition is what scientists have referred to as “cervicogenic headache”. The prefix “cervico” comes from the word “cervical” – meaning (neck). And the suffix “genic” comes from the word “Genesis” – which means the beginning (as in the first book of the Bible). A “cervicogenic” headache is a headache which has it’s beginning (it’s cause) in the neck area of your body.

What causes cervicogenic headache? The most common cause is due to stress and tension on the spinal cord and spinal nerves in the neck. This stress and tension is caused by pressure exerted on these delicate neurological structures by abnormal posture (most notable, forward head posture) as well as misalignments in the spinal bones of the neck called the vertebrae. When a bone in the spine becomes misaligned, it presses on a nerve. This is similar to what happens when you have a pebble in your shoe, and the pebble is pressing on a nerve of pain in your foot. It irritates the nerve, sending pain signals up into the brain. Many of the pain-sensitive nerves that are in the head actually start in the neck region. So if you irritate these nerves, the pain will be expressed as a headache!

The solution to relieving cervicogenic headache is by removing the physical stress on the spinal cord and on the spinal nerves in the neck area. This is accomplished by correcting the vertebral misalignments (via a series of painless adjustments as done by a Doctor of Chiropractic). Additionally, the abnormal postures are resolved by a combination of adjustments and exercises designed to strengthen the muscles in the neck. The end result is a permanent resolution of headache pain.

About the Author

-- Dr. Kevin Smith Red Apple Wellness http://www.redapplewellness.net

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Dr--Kevin-Smith/61439

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