If you have a headache, you're not alone. Nine out of 10 Americans suffer from headaches. Some are occasional, some frequent, some are dull and throbbing, and some cause debilitating pain and nausea. We all know based on our own miserable experiences or those that someone close to us has suffered, that when we're suffering from a headache, life cannot be lived to its fullest. Headaches negatively affect our lives and we want to live life without them... plain and simple.

What do you do when you suffer from a pounding headache? Do you grit your teeth and carry on? Do you lie down in a dark, quiet room? Do you pop a pill and hope the pain goes away? There is a better alternative. Chiropractic care has proven to treat the root of the problem, not just mask the symptoms. Research has been done that has proven the effectiveness that chiropractic care has when dealing with what is really causing the headaches to begin with.

In the Boline Study, a randomized controlled trial compared six weeks of chiropractic care for patients suffering with tension-type headaches with six weeks of medical treatment with amitriptyline, a medication often prescribed for the treatment of severe tension headache pain. Researchers found that chiropractic patients experienced fewer side effects (82 percent) and while both were effective during the treatment phase of the study, only the chiropractic patients continued to report fewer headaches when treatment ended.

Headaches do have many causes which include foods, environmental stimuli and behaviors such as insomnia, excessive exercise, blood sugar changes, etc. Many headaches, however, are warning signals caused by physical problems. Chiropractors treat the patient's spine and adjust spinal bones in order to keep the spine in perfect alignment. By doing so, the nervous system is allowed to work properly as it is not hindered by interference of a spinal bone that is misaligned. This explains why the patients that received chiropractic care in the study mentioned above were reported to suffer from fewer headaches after the study was completed. The symptoms were not being taken away temporarily but the source of the problem causing the headaches was dealt with and treated.

Pain experienced during a headache is nature's warning signal that something is wrong, like a fire alarm signaling trouble. Pulling the batteries from the alarm does not address the cause. The same holds true for headaches. A thorough chiropractic evaluation can determine whether a subluxation, a misalignment of spinal bones, is causing pressure to the nervous system, producing the headache.

Why would you not choose to take care of your health without the risk that medication's many side effects can cause? Why would you choose to take medications to mask the symptoms but not really find the cause of the problem? I'm certain that most would answer these questions the same way I would. You would want to get rid of the pain that headaches cause but not if it means risking your health in other ways in order to do so.

If you would like more information about chiropractic care and how it treats the root of the problem instead of just the symptoms, give us a call at Spoelstra Family Chiropractic at (208) 667-7434 or look us up on the Web at www.cdahealth.com.