Headache Relief With Chiropractic  A considerable portion of our population suffers from headaches.  Tension-type and cervicogenic headaches are the two of the most common headaches experienced.  Many suffer mild headaches once a month or less but 20-30% of the population suffer from headaches more than once a month.  A smaller percentage, about 3%, suffer from chronic tension-type headaches more than 50% of the time. Headaches can affect our lives by limiting our activities and imparing our function.  Some have to stay home from work, others have had their headaches negatively affect their relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. The most common approach for relief of headache pain is to use medication.  However, americans appear to be looking more and more for drug free approaches for their health and are concerned with the negative side effects of the drugs.  Chiropractic can be an effective choice for the relief of headache pain.  Chiropractors have treated headaches throughout the 112 plus year old profession.  Duke University did a literature review for several different treatment options for headaches and also found positive results for chiropractic in the treatment of headaches.   The researchers found that chiropractic adjustments of the cervical spine resulted in IMMEDIATE improvement in headache severity for cervicogenic headaches.  We know of no other approach that can have this fast an effect.  Cervicogenic headaches are headaches that originate in the neck (cervical area of the spine). They also found that when chiropractic was compared to using the prescription drug amitriptyline, a commonly prescribed headache drug, both approaches had nearly the same amount of improvement, 40% for chiropractic and 49% for amitriptyline, during treatment.  However, four weeks after the treatment was stopped, chiropractic sustained the improvement nearly twice as good as the amitriptyline group, 25% for amitriptyline versus 42% for chiropractic. Given the fact that chiropractic sustained the headache relief nearly twice as good as the drug therapy indicates that chiropractic was more effective at fixing the cause of the problem, rather than simply reducing the symptoms.  This also indicates that chiropractic would decrease the long term need for continued use of prescription drugs, one of the leading costs increases in our health care system today. Another interesting piece of information was also obtained in the comparison.  Chiropractic had a small fraction of the adverse side effects that were experienced when taking amitripyline.  82% of the individuals using amitriptyline experienced adverse side-effects while only 4% of the chiropractic group experienced side-effects.  This should be a serious consideration when one chooses their health care.  The side effects may be worse than the benefit the approach gives. Reference:  Evidence Report: Behavioral and Physical Treatments for Tension-type and Cervicogenic Headache, Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center, Durham NC, March 2001 How can chiropractic adjustments of the spine influence headaches?  Several mechanisms have been proposed.  The first two pairs of spinal nerves exit from the rear of the spine near the base of the skull.  These nerve roots supply the greater occipital nerve that travels up the back of the head.  Interestingly enough many headache sufferers also describes the path of their headaches as radiating up the back of their head from the base of their skull.  Chiropractic works to correct the distortion of the vertebral positioning that is causing the nerves to be irritated thereby relieving the irritation to the nerves and fixing the cause of the headache.  Distortion of the positioning of the spinal vertebra causing irritation to the nerve system is a chiropractic subluxation, correctable with the chiropractic adjustment. Another connection may come from a muscular attachment at the base of the skull from one of the neck muscles to the dural membrane that surrounds the brain.  The dural membrane is a tough fibrous membrane that encloses the cerebral spinal fluid around the brain and spinal cord.  Tension on the dural membrane from this muscular attachment as a result of chiropractic subluxations in the area may produce an irritation to the dura matter creating headache pain. Another mechanisms may come from restricted blood flow to the brain.  The vertebral artery travels up the neck through holes in the bones of the transverse processes of the cervical vertebra.  Distortions of the vertebra position (a chiropractic subluxation) can cause the path of the artery to become distorted and kinked and as a result restrict the flow of blood to the brain causing headaches.  An irritation to the nerves exiting the spinal cord as a result of a cervical subluxation may also cause the nerves leading to both the vertebral and carotid arteries to constrict and restrict blood flow to the brain causing headache pain. These are all reasonable explanations for the origin of headaches and their resolution with chiropractic care but further study needs to be done in this area to gain deeper understanding of the matter.