Palm Coast Chiropractic

Did You Know That Over 45 Million Americans Suffer From Some Type Of Heache.  Are You One Of Them?

 It’s a fact; over 45 million Americans suffer from some type of headache.
And there are over 200 different types of headaches. 

The most commonly reported headaches are:

Tension: accounts for nearly 90% of all headaches. Pain can radiate from the neck, back, eyes, or other muscle groups in the body.

Migraine: tends to be pulsating in character, affecting one side of the head, associated with nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and/or sound, is disabling in severity, and usually lasts between 3 hours and 3 days. Approximately 75% of adult patients are women, although migraine affects approximately equal numbers of prepubescent boys and girls.
Cluster: characterized by excruciating unilateral headaches of extreme intensity. The duration of the common attack ranges from as short as 15 minutes to three hours or more. The onset of an attack is rapid. The pain is boring in quality, and is located behind the eye or in the temple, sometimes radiating to the neck or shoulder. Analogies frequently used to describe the pain are a red-hot poker inserted into the eye, or a spike penetrating from the top of the head, behind one eye, radiating down to the neck. It affects only 0.1% of the population, and men are more commonly affected than women.

Did you also know that children can also suffer from headaches? In fact, it is common for headaches to start in adolescence.

• One study reported that 20% of adults who suffer headaches said their headaches started before age 10 while 50% report they started before age 20.
• 
  Another study reported that 56% of boys and 74% of girls between 12 and 17 indicated having experienced some form of headache.
  
  

The Awful Truth About Over-The-Counter Medications (OTCs) And Why You Should Avoid Using Them!

     Most people self-medicate with over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers, such as Motrin, Tylenol, Aleve or Advil (just to name a few).  But is this really the best approach to dealing with your headaches?
     This particular class of drugs (yes, they are drugs; you just don’t need a prescription for them) are “commonly” used to “treat” headaches; mostly because they boast no stomach irritation as aspirin can cause. 

But what you’re not told (unless you actually take the time to read the entire package insert before taking the stuff) is how NSAIDs can have permanent damaging effects on your kidneys, liver and gastrointestinal (GI) tract, including ulcers and bleeding, and in some cases, renal failure and death. 
     However, even with the problems of NSAID side effects being well documented, most people are still unaware of how serious the side effects truly are.

In an article published by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care it states:
“NSAIDs are a very well-understood class of medications with a large body of research. Most of the information provided in this article is not controversial and can be found in most textbooks and review articles.
Let’s start with the potential harm NSAIDs can cause. Most people know they can cause gastrointestinal complications such as ulcers and bleeding. The question is, how big of a problem is this? Very big, indeed.
·         Over 100,000 people are hospitalized each year with GI complications caused by NSAID use, and an estimated 16,500 patients die from NSAID-induced GI bleeding. This is far more people than die of AIDS (13,500). In fact, such GI bleeding is the 14th leading cause of death in this country, according to the CDC.
·         NSAIDs have other potential complications, too. Patients risk renal failure.
·         The COX-2 inhibitors also increase the risk of cardiovascular complications, as we learned when Vioxx was pulled from the market.
·         The iatrogenic cost factor of NSAID use is approximately 2. In other words, for every dollar spent on NSAIDs, one more dollar is spent treating NSAID-induced complications. Total U.S. spending to treat NSAID complications exceeds $2 billion per year”.
So much for that “does not irritate the stomach like aspirin” boon, wouldn’t you agree?
So why don’t the drug manufacturers tell you about all these horrible potentially serious (sometimes fatal) side effects during their commercials on TV? Because they don’t have to!  The FDA mandates that only prescription drug advertise-ments are required to list potentially harmful side effects.

And since OTCs are not prescription drugs, side effects only have to be listed within the product packaging. Personally, I’d like to be able to read it on the outside of the package, but have you notice how long the package insert is? It wouldn’t fit on the outside.  Well, I mean, it could if the box were really big and full of packing peanuts or bubble wrap. You get my point here, right.
     So by now you’re wondering what other options do you have for handling your headaches.  Well, here are a few other “treatments” recommended by the medical community:

1. Apply an ice pack to the painful area of your head. Try placing it on your forehead, temples or the back of your neck.
2. Take a warm bath or shower.
3. Take a nap.
4. Take a walk.
5. Ask someone to rub your neck and back, or treat yourself to a massage.
6. Apply gentle, steady rotating pressure to the painful area of your head with your finger and/or thumb. Maintain pressure for 7 to 15 seconds, then release. Repeat as needed. (Massage your head)
7. Rest, sit or lie quietly in a low-lit room. Close your eyes and try to release the tension in your back, neck and shoulders.

These may offer some minor temporary relief at best.
Believe me, there is a better way! And I can’t wait to share it with you!

So, Are You Ready To Stop Suffering From Headaches Without The Use Of Drugs or OTCs?

The Best (And Only) Way to Get Rid of Headaches, Once And For All, Is To Find Out What Is Causing Them. And Then Get Rid Of That Cause.

     Think about it. 
     Doesn’t it make more sense to find out what is causing your headache and get rid of the cause once and for all, so you actually don’t have to suffer from headaches any more, rather than just trying to cover up the pain and other symptoms once the headache hits?
     Masking (covering up) the headache symptoms by taking OTCs, by resting, or by massaging your hurting head, does absolutely nothing to lead you in the direction of not having headaches.
     At best it makes the headache your having a little more bearable.  And you do it all over again when the next headache hits you.
     Do you remember the previous article about NSAIDs? The more NSAIDs you take, the more you damage your GI tract and increase the chance of bleeding, hospitalization and even death!  Does that sound like a solution for headaches? 

  What makes more sense is getting to a professional who can discover what is causing that headache in the first place, and then has an effective treatment that will eliminate that cause, which will then decrease the frequency and intensity of your headaches, and may even lead to you not having any more headaches.

Chiropractic care has been clinically proven to do just that.  In fact, the chart to the right shows some startling statistics on just how effective chiropractic care has been in helping people with headaches (among a host of other health problems).  Check it out.   

Are you curious to discover why  a chiropractor is the only healthcare professional who can get to the cause of your problem. 

        Look at the chart to the right. It shows your body divided up into the cranial (or head) region, the cervical (or neck) region, the thoracic (or upper back) region, the lumbar (or lower back) region and the sacral (or buttock) region. So, for example, you have nerve interference in either the head or neck regions, that could be causing your tension or migraine headaches.
 So, it makes more sense to address what’s causing the headaches (the nerve interference) rather than just addressing the symptoms of the headaches (the throbbing head, the nausea), doesn’t it?
        Only a chiropractor is specifically educated and trained to find and treat nerve interferences, which are also known as subluxations.  And they begin by performing a thorough spinal evaluation.
        How long have you suffered with dealing only with the nasty symptoms of having headaches? Months? Years?
 More importantly, how much longer are you going to continue to suffer?  Especially now that you know there is a better, more effective way that gets to the underlying CAUSE of your headaches? 

How To Get Rid Of Your Headache Once And For All, without Dangerous Drugs and Harmful Surgery!

Patient Testimonials