Spinal ligament injuries are the number one cause of chronic pain and disability in the market today. Spinal ligament conditions cause low back and neck problems which causes chronic pain. Cervical conditions cause headaches. Whenever we are talking about a diagnosis of a condition we are talking about the symptom and then working our way back to the most common physical cause of that condition. If you have a problem with the engine in your car you better have a mechanic that knows how to find the cause of the mechanical failure and that can fix the problem so that your car will be optimally functioning again. The human body is the same. Many patients have been to doctors that don’t know anything about spinal ligament injuries, which are causing the pain that they are having. Those same doctors don’t know how to appropriately diagnose or how to properly treat them.
Migraine headaches effect 38 million men, women and children in the US and one billion people worldwide. Everyone either knows someone who suffers from migraines or who struggles with migraines themselves. Migraine headache is the sixth most disabling condition and the third most prevalent illness in the world today. Nearly one in four households in the US include someone with migraine headaches
In America every 10 seconds someone goes to the emergency room complaining of head pain. Approximately 1.2 million visits are for acute migraine attacks. Most sufferers experience an attack once or twice a month however, more than four million people have chronic daily migraines with at least 15 migraine days per month. More than 90% of sufferers are unable to work or function normally during their migraines. Most migraine attacks are accompanied by visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, numbness in the extremities and extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell. If there is a ligament injury it will cause excessive motion and would cause instability. The instability causes a motor sensory, a pain problem associate with that motion unit, which is the most common cause of headaches.
Patients do not feel confident that the doctors going to be able to do anything for them. As a matter of fact, a majority of people who suffer from migraines can’t find anybody to help them with the migraine. At DuPage Health and Physical Therapy, we can diagnose the most common cause of your condition easily, inexpensively and effectively.
Dr. Fay is looking for misalignment, or mal-motion of the vertebral motion unit, which causes nerve interference which is called spinal instability. If every chiropractor, physical therapist, medical doctor, orthopedist and neurosurgeon was taught how to assess the severity and location of ligament injuries standardly we wouldn’t have 38 million Americans having chronic migraines.
Standard assessment of ligament injuries would utilize stress radiology and accurate intersegmental motion testing. The most common treatment that is done for misalignment is a spinal adjustment which may be done by hand or with an instrument.
Adjustments do a couple of things. Adjustments reduce inflammation and they improve the mechanoreceptors communication with what is called the neuromuscular control unit. In a ligament there is little pressure receptors. Anytime there is a change in pressure the receptors immediately communicate across to the muscle system what needs to happen to stabilize the spine at that milli-instant which causes irritation. That irritation causes the symptom, which today we are talking about migraine and chronic headaches.
What Can DuPage Health and Physical Therapy Center Do for You?
Dr. Fay may do one or more of the following if you suffer from a primary headache:
· Perform spinal manipulation or chiropractic adjustments to improve spinal function and alleviate the stress on your system.
· Provide nutritional advice, recommending a change in diet and perhaps the addition of B complex vitamins.
· Offer advice on posture, ergonomics (work postures), exercises and relaxation techniques. This advice should help to relieve the recurring joint irritation and tension in the muscles of the neck and upper back
Here at DuPage Health and Physical Therapy Center SC, we have had extensive training to help you in many ways beyond just treatment for low-back pain. We know how tension in the spine relates to problems in other parts of the body, and we will take steps to relieve those problems.
If you or anyone you know is suffering from chronic headaches or migraines give us a call at (331) 401-5900.