What is the difference between a migraine and a headache?
Often times, patients enter my office complaining of headaches and mistakenly call them migraines. There is a big difference between the two in the causes, symptoms and most importantly, the treatment. Here are the following guidelines to differentiate between the two:
- General headaches are usually gradualand are tolerable where migraines are more intense and severe in nature.
- Migraines usually are associated with nausea, visual disturbances, vomiting, dizziness, sensitivity to light, noise and/or movement.
- Headaches are often associated with tension in the shoulders, neck or upper back.
The treatment of migraines and headaches are very different. Many times, headaches can be treated by relieving the tension/stress in the joints. Chiropractic treatment has been shown very effective to treat chronic headaches by relieving pressure off nerves in the neck and back. Stress relieving techniques such as yoga, exercise and meditation has also shown to help with general headaches.
Many doctors believe that there is no cure to migraines but it can only be managed by certain drugs. In some cases this is true as migraines are more chemical and hormone induced however there have been several cases of migraine sufferers finding relief from acupuncture, managing their diet carefully and having their atlas vertebrae adjusted by a chiropractor. For more information click here http://www.haquechiropractic.com/dynamicdata/Cond-Headaches.aspx.
