How Your Chiropractor Can Relieve Your Migraine Pain Even one migraine is one too many. Unfortunately, over-the-counter painkillers often aren’t strong enough to dull the pain. Prescription pain medication may be more helpful, but these drugs can cause unpleasant side effects. If you’re struggling to manage your migraines, chiropractic treatment could ease your pain and reduce the number of days you experience migraine pain. Treating Migraines with Chiropractic Migraines cause 113 million lost work days every year, according to the American Headache Association. If you have migraines, that statistic probably doesn’t seem surprising. After all, it’s hard to do your job when your head throbs and you feel dizzy and nauseated. Do you regularly spend hours hidden away in a dark room, hoping your headache will finally end? Chiropractic care could ease your pain and allow you to enjoy life once again. Although you may associate chiropractic care with joint and back pain relief, chiropractors actually treat a variety of conditions, including migraines. Your chiropractor may include a few of these therapies in your migraine treatment plan: Massage. Massage loosens tight muscles in your head and neck that could worsen your symptoms. The therapy also reduces pain by prompting your body to produce hormones that ease pain naturally. Is stress one of your migraine triggers? The same hormones that reduce migraine pain during massage also help you feel calm and relaxed. Soft Tissue Mobilization. During soft tissue mobilization, your chiropractor uses his or her hands or a small instrument to stretch and lengthen tissues, reduce inflammation and swelling, and ease tension in your head, neck, and upper back muscles. Trigger Point Therapy. Painful trigger points are common in people who have migraines. Pressing on these hard knots in the muscles can even trigger a migraine, according to a review article in the Journal of Headache and Pain. Applying pressure to trigger points relaxes muscle fibers and helps knots dissolve, in addition to improving blood flow. Increasing blood flow helps your body get rid of waste products that build up when muscles become tight. According to a systematic review in Frontiers in Neurology, trigger point therapy may decrease the duration, intensity, and frequency of migraines and tension headaches, although additional research is needed. Spinal Manipulation. Spinal manipulation corrects subluxations. These are misalignments of the vertebrae in your back or neck. Quick thrusts with the hands or an activator realign the vertebrae, decreasing pain and inflammation. Spinal manipulation also decreases pressure on nerves and relieves irritation that can cause pain. Neck pain and stiffness are common in people who have migraines. According to a study published in The Journal of Headache and Pain, 69% of migraine patients have neck pain during a migraine. The researchers noted that preventing and treating neck pain might help prevent future chronic migraines. Exercise Program. Improving your posture and strengthening the muscles in your neck and back might also help improve your migraine symptoms. Your chiropractor will teach you a few exercises that will keep the muscles loose and limber. Nutrition Advice. In some cases, certain foods can trigger migraines. If you suspect that your diet is a migraine trigger, your chiropractor can provide nutritional advice that will help you improve your diet. Would you like to find out if chiropractic care could help your migraines? Contact our office to schedule an appointment. Sources: American Headache Society: The Impact of Migraine in the Workplace https://americanheadachesociety.org/news/impact-migraine-workplace/ Frontiers in Neurology: Effectiveness of Trigger Point Manual Treatment on the Frequency, Intensity and Duration of Attacks in Primary Headaches: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials, 4/28/2018 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2018.00254/full The Journal of Headache and Pain: Myofascial Trigger Points in Migraine and Tension-Type Headache, 9/10/2018 Canadian Chiropractic Association: 6 Ways Chiropractic Care Can Help Manage Headaches, 6/1/2022 https://chiropractic.ca/6-ways-chiropractic-care-can-help-manage-headaches/ The Journal of Headache and Pain: Neck Pain in Episodic Migraine: Premonitory Symptom or Part of the Attack, 9/2/2015 https://thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-015-0566-9 MedlinePlus: Migraines https://medlineplus.gov/migraine.html https://thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-018-0913-8

How Chiropractic Care Can Treat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Splints, medication, and surgery aren’t the only ways to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. Chiropractic treatment offers an effective solution if you’re struggling with pain, tingling, numbness, or weakness in your hand, wrist, and fingers.

Why Treating Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Is So Important

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by pressure on the median nerve. This nerve travels the length of your arm and sends signals from your brain to the muscles in your arm, hand, and fingers. These signals tell the muscles how to move when you need to grip a pen, lift a bag, or turn a doorknob.

The median nerve passes through the carpal tunnel, a pathway formed by the bones and tissues in your wrist. The already narrow tunnel can become even tighter due to injuries, fluid retention, chronic health conditions that affect the nerves, or inflammation of the tissues in or around the pathway. Although anyone can develop carpal tunnel syndrome, women are more likely to experience symptoms due to the smaller size of their bones. Your hobbies or occupation may also increase your risk. People who bend their wrists repeatedly when typing, driving, hammering, sewing, painting, or texting have a higher incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome.

If the condition isn’t treated promptly, numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain may worsen and nerve damage could occur. Carpal tunnel syndrome can eventually cause permanent weakness and loss of feeling in your fingers, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

What Your Chiropractor Can Do to Relieve Your Carpal Tunnel Symptoms

Chiropractors offer several treatments and strategies that may ease your symptoms, including:

• Wrist Manipulation (Adjustment) and Mobilization. Your chiropractor uses these hands-on techniques to realign the bones, tendons, and ligaments in your wrist and improve movement. The treatments improve blood flow to soft tissues and reduce pressure, swelling, and inflammation. In an anatomical study published in Clinical Biomechanics, mobilization treatment increased the size of the carpal tunnel and decreased pressure on the median nerve.
• Spinal Manipulation. Do you have a stiff or sore neck in addition to your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms? The source of your symptoms may be a misaligned cervical (neck) vertebra. The out-of-place vertebra might be pressing on a nerve in the neck that connects with the median nerve. A misaligned vertebra could cause pain and make it difficult to move your neck. In fact, restricted neck movement was a factor in mild to severe carpal tunnel syndrome in a research study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy. Chiropractors use spinal manipulation to correct alignment problems in your neck and relieve pressure on your nerves. The treatment involves quick, hands-on thrusts that improve the position of the vertebrae, relieve painful pressure on tissues and nerves, and improve blood flow.
• Ultrasound Therapy. Ultrasound waves heat the tissues deep inside your wrists during this helpful therapy. The treatment loosens tissues and relieves pain, inflammation and swelling.
• Massage Therapy. Tight tissues in your wrist, hand, arm, shoulder, or neck could be worsening your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. Massage eases muscle tension, decreases inflammation, and may relieve pain, numbness, and tingling.
• Taping or Bracing. Bracing or taping supports the wrist and prevents you from accidentally bending or stressing them.
• Exercise. During your visit, your chiropractor may teach you a few wrist exercises that stretch your muscles, decrease pressure on the median nerve, and help the tendons that connect muscles to the bones in your wrist glide through carpal tunnel easily. You may also learn a few exercises to improve the range of motion of your neck, strengthen your neck muscles, and improve your posture and head position. Holding your head too far forward can strain your neck and cause spinal misalignments that could press on nerves.

Are you ready to find out if chiropractic care can help your carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms? Contact our office to schedule your appointment.

Sources:

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, 3/2022

https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseases–conditions/carpal-tunnel-syndrome

Clinical Biomechanics: Dimensional Changes of the Tunnel and Median Nerve During Manual Mobilization of the Carpal Bones – Anatomical Study, 9/3/2018

https://www.clinbiomech.com/article/S0268-0033(18)30337-1/fulltext

Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy: Women With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Show Restricted Cervical Range of Motion, 5/2011

https://www.jospt.org/doi/pdf/10.2519/jospt.2011.3536

MedlinePlus: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

https://medlineplus.gov/carpaltunnelsyndrome.html