“Oh, you have a headache? We can remove the cervical disc that is herniated to get rid of the headache.” Well, that’s one approach medicine offers and uses. (1,2) Johnson Chiropractic prefers a more non-surgical, conservative, gentle approach to relieving headache pain for Richmond headache pain patients. Chiropractic care may be a relieving option for headache pain sufferers.

There are different types of headaches. (And an international group of physicians of the Delphi Study has established that eleven tests are suggested as a minimum standard for the physical examination of musculoskeletal dysfunctions in patients with headache. (3) That’s comforting for physicians treating headache to know! Cervicogenic headache is the headache type that stems from the cervical spine and its structures. The cervical facet joints, muscles, tissues and discs may be influential factors. (4, 5) Researchers have even pinpointed a specific part of the cervical spine motion segments that degenerative disc disease affects and leads to headache: the dorsal part or posterior or back part of the segment. Vertebral joints that are out of line and osteophytes or bone spurs that grow into spaces they aren’t supposed to be in cause neurological irritations and compression of the vertebral artery. This leads to pain. Further, there are position dependent headaches which become more painful by extension and rotation of the cervical spine. (6) Degenerative disc disease causes cervical spine nerve root compression and might induce headaches. (7) Cervical facet arthropathy and occipital neuralgia lead to headache, too. (8) The cervical spine is involved in cervicogenic headache.  Richmond chiropractic care at Johnson Chiropractic is a non-invasive approach to relieve cervicogenic headache pain as opposed to medical options for Richmond cervicogenic headache pain relief.

What does medicine offer for headache pain relief? Surgery, facet joint injections (4,7), and drugs to combat headache symptoms and pain. One set of researchers warns that clinicians should be careful to remember that medical procedures that destroy structures in pursuit of relieving pain may well produce unwanted side-effects  and conditions like neuroma or causalgia “that may even be hard to control than the original complaint.” (9) Cervicogenic headache sufferers must be aware of this when choosing their care.  Richmond chiropractic care at Johnson Chiropractic offers chiropractic, non-surgical spinal manipulation in its approach to headache relief.

In addition to other recommended non-invasive approaches to headache relief like strengthening exercises (10), patient education, relaxation, mindfulness, yoga, etc. (11), chiropractic care for cervicogenic headache pain relief adds spinal manipulation. Chaibi reports that chiropractic is as effective as drugs for migraine headache relief. (12) The Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain and Its Associated Disorders by the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management (OPTIMa) Collaboration recommends manual therapy (manipulation with or without mobilization) for relief of cervicogenic headache. (13) Hanson et al are delving into a large scale study of just how many sessions of spinal manipulation therapy are effective for cervicogenic headache relief. (14) Chiropractic spinal manipulation is the cutting edge approach to cervicogenic headache relief today as evidenced by the research direction of headache relief. And chiropractic spinal manipulation in the form of Cox Technic as used at Johnson Chiropractic is the gentle, research-documented type that Richmond neck pain, arm pain, and headache patients love.

Is it time then to contact Johnson Chiropractic about your Richmond cervicogenic headache? It is. It’s certainly a good starting point or step before going through a surgery to remove a disc in an attempt to relieve headache. Johnson Chiropractic looks forward to setting a personalized Richmond chiropractic treatment plan with you.