Coconut Creek Chiropractic Treatment for Headaches!

Many people suffer from headaches and migraines that can be debilitating. Our chiropractor, Dr. Barnard has known people that spend more hours in their rooms then they do functioning out in the world because their headaches have been so bad. Or maybe you don’t get that severe of a headache but you get them often enough that it affects your mood or productivity? The scary part is that some people deal with this almost their entire life. That is truly is no way to live.

What if I told you that there might be a natural way to get rid of your headaches without the unnecessary use of drugs or surgery? Wouldn’t you want to know more? Our Coconut Creek Chiropractor is discussing that very thing.

Types of headaches our chiropractor treats

First we need to discuss what a headache is. There are two types of headache categories. First is a primary headache, which makes up 90% of headaches and the second is secondary headaches. Secondary headaches are something that can be life threatening such as a brain bleed, infection etc. For the purpose of this article we will be focusing on primary headaches such as tension, cluster and migraine type headaches. But what causes the head to hurt? Conditions our chiropractor can treat.

Your brain does not have pain fibers so the brain itself is not what causes the pain. Instead the blood vessels, arteries, veins in and around the brain do have pain fibers. Typically these will be pain generators in the skull. You also have a lot of muscles that run up the back of your head and covers portions of the skull. These muscles have lots of pain fibers and can be pain generators or contributors to your headaches. Its important to understand this because the answer to your headaches may be complicated or fairly simple.

Causes of Headaches

Hydration levels

For the average person that suffers with chronic headaches, a solution may be right around the corner. What are some of the solutions? Drinking more water might be just one of the answers to decrease your headaches. In this country we don’t drink enough water and instead try to replace it with sugary drinks or drinks that act as diuretics. This means that it makes you lose water faster. So changing your water intake may be the easiest way to change your symptoms.

Muscle/Soft Tissue Tension

For those other cases where water isn’t the fix, it might be coming from the neck.
Our Chiropractic Team says, Tension type headaches or Cervicogenic headaches are types of headaches you get from your neck and muscles. These headaches are caused from poor posture/ergonomics and the cervical curve in your neck being lost. It’s important to note that your neck needs to have a proper curve in order to function properly. After you are done reading this check out my video section. Dr. Barnard made a video on the cervical curves and what happens when you lose it. (Cervical Degeneration) The muscles in your neck go into spasm and this puts pressure on your head. This gives you the classic headache over the top of your head or across your forehead.

Neck Misalignment and Chiropractic for Headaches

The other type of headache generators can be coming from the misalignment in your neck. These misalignments put pressure on the nerves, which can refer pain to your head causing the headaches. The most popular one to do this is your Atlas. C1, aka Atlas, can be the primary cause of a lot of conditions but I have found that it is usually the culprit when it comes to headaches. This bone can shift out of place putting pressure and causing dysfunction in your neck. The brain stem enters your spinal canal here and this misalignment can put pressure on the spinal cord causing issues. Its important to make sure that this isn’t the case because this can cause a whole host of problems further down the spinal cord and NOT JUST HEADACHES.

Other Causes of Headaches

Its important to note that there are many other reasons for headaches such as sinus infections or sinus headaches. Your TMJ can be another reason for headaches or neck pain. Many people grind their teeth or clench their jaw at night which can also be a contributory factor. Blood pressure can be another reason for headaches and the list goes on. That’s why its important to find out the cause.

Coconut Creek Chiropractic Solutions For Headaches

What’s the solution for chronic headaches? Coming in and getting a detailed consultation and examination done with some X-rays is your first step by your Coconut Creek Chiropractor. Finding out the root cause of your headaches is the primary goal. Headaches are just a symptom of a larger problem. Finding that problem takes exploration. Here at the office we do just that. Once we find out what the cause of the problem is we can then go about treating you and getting back on the road to a better and healthier life. The scary thing to think about is if you spend any amount of time in a room because of your headaches, that’s taking away from your life. You get one life so lets not let something that may be fixable ruin it. Let me help you!

Dr. Michael Barnard

What Our Coconut Creek Chiropractic Patients Are Saying!

To be or not to be, that is the question! Sciatica is a word that gets thrown around a lot as a self-diagnosis. It’s a common term used for low back pain that travels down into the leg. But do you truly have sciatica? What is sciatica? We are going to discuss the differences between sciatica and those other conditions that can cause symptoms like sciatica.

First, lets define sciatica. The sciatic nerve starts in low back where the nerves exit the spinal column through the sacrum. These nerves that exit the sacrum form whats called the sacral plexus. As the nerves run down towards the glute they form one giant nerve, which is your sciatic nerve. This nerve travels down the back of the leg to the knee where it splits into the tibial nerve and the common fibular nerve. Now it’s important to note that this nerve passes under and close to the piriformis muscle, which sits under the glute max muscle. We will talk about this later.

Sciatica vs. Radicular Symptoms

So what are symptoms of true sciatica vs. radicular symptoms? True sciatic symptoms occur when you have pain that runs down the low back, into the back of your leg and into your foot along the nerves. Pain typically passes the knee joint which is a hallmark of this condition. If you have symptoms that do not cross the knee then you may be suffering from another condition such as a radicular symptom.

Sciatica Causes

Some of the causes of sciatica are disc herniation and piriformis syndrome. A herniated disc is when the disc material in between the vertebra comes out and starts to put pressure on the nerve. This can cause severe pain and travels down the leg. You can have numbness, tingling, weakness, foot drop or a combination of these. Another cause of sciatica is the piriformis muscle that we spoke about earlier. If this muscle goes into spasm it can contract and put pressure on the sciatic nerve causing the sciatic like symptoms. These two are some of the most common reasons to experience sciatica.

Other Causes of Sciatic Like Symptoms

Many people experience pain running down into the glute and leg but this doesn’t mean you have Sciatica. Again if the pain doesn’t cross the knee joint then chances are you don’t have sciatica. SI dysfunction (sacral iliac dysfunction) can be a cause of your pain. SI joint makes up your pelvis and this joint can cause pain that runs down the leg. This pain doesn’t cross the knee joint but can feel similar to sciatica.

Another condition that can cause sciatic like symptoms is myofascial pain or trigger points. The muscles and fascia in your body holds a ton of nerve endings and if your muscles go into spasm or contain trigger points it can cause pain to run down the back of your leg just like sciatica. Again the pain does not cross the knee joint and this is a hallmark of sciatica.

What should you do?

Having a consultation and examination done by a chiropractor is one of your best options. As a chiropractor I deal with this every day in the office and know the best ways to treat it. If it’s due to joint dysfunction or myofascial pain we have the tools and knowledge to treat these conditions and get you back to the pain free lifestyle you had.

Dr. Michael Barnard

What Our Patients Are Saying!