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Neck pain is the most common symptom of a migraine. In a surveycontaining 144 migraine patients, 3 out of 4 say they experienceneck pain with their migraines with 60% who experience neck painbefore the migraine begins.
According to The Journal of the American OsteopathicAssociation, pinched cervical nerves can cause cervicogenicheadaches or cervical headaches. These cervical nerves all comefrom the brain stem which is protected by your top two uppercervical bones known as the Atlas (C1) and the Axis (C2),respectively.
When either of these upper cervical bones become misaligned,they apply pressure on the brain stem and can cause significantchanges to your immune system, bodily functions, nerves, and cancause you pain or other neurological symptoms.
What is a Neck Pain Migraine?
Neck pain migraines include the muscles or nerves of the neck.This pain can also take place in the bones of the spine or discsthat cushion areas between the spinal bones. Those who have a neckpain migraine have discomfort in the neck area and feel as if themigraine is in the base of their neck or radiates from the neck tothe head.
While the neck pain is not seen to be the cause of your migraineand is rather a symptom of it, it could be warning you about aproblem in the upper cervical area that is causing the migraine tohappen.
Symptoms are used to warn the body something is going wrong.Instead of masking symptoms with medication or surgery, it is bestto listen to these symptoms and understand what is causing them.Once the cause of the symptom is found and the problematic area iscorrected, the symptom will dissipate and the healing process willbegin.
How are Upper Cervical Misalignments Connected toNeck Pain Migraines?
Misalignments may lead to neck pain migraines for the followingreasons: Pressure placed on the brain stem can cause nerves tobecome irritated, restrict cerebrospinal fluid and blood flow tothe brain, and cause pain.
There are 274 different ways your two upper cervical bones canbecome misaligned and when a misalignment occurs, the head maybecome off-balance and tilt. In order to correct this tilt and keepyour head and brain level, the spine begins to shift and adjustitself until your head is level again – creating a chain reactionof even more misalignments down the spine.
These shifts will cause changes in not only your bones but yourmuscles and soft tissue located in the spine as well. The muscles,nerves, and tissues in the shoulder, neck, and head area arecommonly affected soon after an upper cervical misalignment.
Your brain stem’s job is to ensure your brain to bodycommunication stays regulated or else, when the brain stem isdisrupted, it will lead to an abnormally functioning nervoussystem. Those who have neck pain migraines have a nervous systemthat is not working as it should and it overacts to stimuli.
Their unusual waves of brain activity lead to their headachesand/or migraines. It is also understood that almost all patientswho suffer from neck pain migraines have a problem with the nervoussystem.
When these misalignments are corrected and the brain stemreturns to normal function, the nervous system wiring begins toregulate and correct the cause of your neck pain migrainenaturally.
How is Upper Cervical Different from Other NeckPain Migraine Treatments?
The upper cervical focuses on the brain stem and the correctionsencourage the body to strengthen its natural healing abilities.Unlike generic chiropractic, the upper cervical is very precise andgentle with no popping or cracking of the spine involved.
Other treatments for neck pain involve going after the symptomsthat come along with your neck pain migraines. Medications are usedto help the inflammation of nerves, muscles, tendons, or jointsthat cause headaches. The medications used include aspirin oribuprofen (Motrin), acetaminophen (Tylenol), muscle relaxants toalleviate tightness in muscles and reduce spasms, orcorticosteroids (cortisone-like medication).
When it comes to medications it’s no surprise how many sideeffects could come about from using them. Medications your bodytakes are not natural to the body, so it will respond to themedicine in various ways causing these side effects.
In some cases, relying on medication can cause the body to nolonger create what it needs to deal with certain issues naturally.As for those who depend on medication often, they may develop amedication tolerance in which the medication they once used forrelief will no longer have any effect on them.
Medication tolerance will force the users to use a differentmedication or feel they need to increase the dosage when it is notneeded.
If the neck pain migraine is severe, surgery and/or injectionsare an option for patients who really need neck pain migrainerelief. The issue is surgery and injections have not worked foreveryone and could cause further damage to their body. Theinjections include numbing agents or a corticosteroid in or aroundthe nerves.
The problem with this is the cause is still not corrected andonly the symptom is taken care of. When a problem is leftuntreated, it could create more issues for your body over time.
Patients who have suffered from neck pain migraines and did notreceive positive results from their surgeries and injections werestill able to find relief from upper cervical adjustments.
This is because the cause of their neck pain migraine was leftunattended even after the surgeries and injections, and when thecause has finally corrected the symptoms and the cause of the neckpain migraine begin to dissipate.
This is great news for those who have been looking for a naturalalternative for neck pain migraine relief. Upper cervicaladjustments are also safe for any age and do not harm your bodywith various side effects as it simply utilizes the power your bodyalready possesses to repair itself.
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