Headaches - Reaching Epidemic Status
HeadachesStudies over the last few years have shown that over the last couple decades, chronic migraine headaches have increased dramatically among the U.S population. There has been close to a 60% increase in rates over the last few years. Most of this increase has occurred in adults younger than 45 years, and women are slightly more affected than men. Part of the problem has to do with extensive use of computers and the forward head posture that comes with that. Stress has also been shown to be a major contributor to migraines.
Studies have shown that migraine headaches have affected 80% of woman and 70% of men enough to warrant at least one doctor visit per year and hospitalizations at least one per year occur at a rate of 8% for women and 7% of men. In addition, functional capacity has been greatly reduced in 4% of men and 3% of woman, each of which reported chronic limitation due to migraines and associated symptoms.
With all the dollars spent on doctor visits, hospitalizations, medications and disability payments, migraine headaches are definitely having a major impact on today's society. The economic burden of the many days of work that are lost due to migraines is astronomical. Many sufferers never see a doctor but self medicate with over-the-counter medications like Advil and Aleve. The use of these drugs has increased exponentially over the past ten years. All of this "treatment" has had little effect on the occurrence of headaches, or shown a healthy way to any sort of lasting cure. Many of these medications have side effects that include headaches.
The use of chiropractic in the treatment of migraines headaches has been shown to be very effective. Studies show that chiropractic treatment compares favorably or more effective than medications, massage or just exercises alone. These studies also show that these benefits are increased in both the short term and long term.Tension and loss of motion in the neck has been shown to be the cause of many of these types of headaches and chiropractic addresses these components with gentle adjustments to the spine and postural exercises to improve the spinal function. Dietary changes may also be implemented as many foods aggravate or even trigger the migraines. Medications have been shown to, at best, mask the symptoms and most often to be ineffective and possibly cause even more problems with their side effects.
To get more information on this from Lexington Chiropractor Brett Skinner DC, go to his website Lexington Chiropractic.