Headaches - You Don't Need to Suffer
A useful headache appointment starts with a description of the pattern: when attacks happen, what they feel like and what they interrupt. This guide from Source Chiropractic helps you prepare that information and compare options. Our headache and migraine guide explains the broader condition context.
When a headache needs emergency care
Call 911 or seek emergency care for a sudden, unusually severe headache, or a headache with new weakness, difficulty speaking, confusion or loss of vision. A severe headache with fever or a stiff neck, or a headache after a head injury, also needs urgent medical assessment. Do not wait for a chiropractic appointment. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes these warning patterns.
Bring a short headache diary
For recurring headaches without emergency symptoms, record the date, duration, location and severity of each episode. Include nausea, sensitivity to light or sound, visual changes, and anything that seemed to happen before it. List medicines taken, how often you take them, and whether they helped. A diary can help a clinician identify a headache pattern and evaluate treatment. NINDS headache information explains why history matters.
Add a practical measure: did the episode make you leave work, miss a meal or stop an activity? Bring earlier diagnoses and test results if you have them. A diary is a conversation aid, not a reason to postpone assessment of a new or changing headache.
Compare care for the diagnosed headache type
Migraine, tension-type headache and headache related to a neck disorder are different problems. Treatment should follow the diagnosis. Migraine care can include medicine for an attack and preventive treatment to reduce future attacks; medication is not simply a way to hide an untreated cause. Discuss frequent pain-medicine use with your prescriber because overuse can itself contribute to headaches. MedlinePlus migraine information describes medical treatment and medication-overuse headache.
Evidence for manual treatment depends on the headache type. NCCIH reports possible benefit for some cervicogenic headaches, with limitations in the research; evidence for migraine prevention is not conclusive. These findings do not establish a cure or a reason to stop prescribed treatment. NCCIH's headache evidence review describes those distinctions.
If neck manipulation is proposed, ask about alternatives and risks. Temporary discomfort or headache can occur. Neck manipulation has been associated with cervical artery tears that can cause stroke; whether manipulation causes them is debated, and the frequency is not accurately known. NCCIH's spinal manipulation guidance explains the uncertainty.
Questions to take into your visit
- Which headache diagnosis best fits my history, and what else needs to be ruled out?
- What are the options for an attack and for prevention?
- How will we judge whether a treatment helps my daily life?
- What changes should prompt medical reassessment?
To discuss an appointment at Source Chiropractic, use our new-patient information or contact the office. An assessment comes before deciding whether chiropractic care is appropriate.
Explore the head and jaw for connected condition guides and research.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Published sources behind the discussion. Read the findings alongside the limits; a study is not a diagnosis or a promise of a result.
A randomized controlled trial of exercise and manipulative therapy for cervicogenic headache
200 people with cervicogenic headache, assigned to manipulation, specific exercise, both, or a control group.
What it foundManipulative therapy and exercise each reduced headache frequency and intensity, with benefits reported at 12 months.
What it cannot tell usParticipants were not blinded, and the combined approach was not significantly superior. These findings concern cervicogenic headache, not migraine in general.
Publication details & citation
Jull et al. A randomized controlled trial of exercise and manipulative therapy for cervicogenic headache. Spine. 2002. DOI: 10.1097/00007632-200209010-00004.
Read the publication recordChiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine: a three-armed, single-blinded, placebo, randomized controlled trial
104 people with migraine, assigned spinal manipulation, sham treatment or usual pharmacological management.
What it foundMigraine days decreased in all groups, with no significant between-group difference in the primary outcome. The authors considered the observed manipulation effect probably a placebo response.
What it cannot tell usThe trial was small. Secondary outcomes do not overturn the primary result, and a treatment trial of this size cannot establish the frequency of rare serious harms.
Publication details & citation
Chaibi et al. Chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine: a three-armed, single-blinded, placebo, randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Neurology. 2017. DOI: 10.1111/ene.13166.
Read the publication record
Read our editorial policy for how sources and clinical review are identified.