Migraine Treatment in West Des Moines, IA

Comprehensive Consultation and Exam

To get started on the road to recovery, each new patient meets with a doctor for a comprehensive consultation and physical examination. They are interested in hearing your account of this issue – how frequently they occur and how they affect your life. We can better pinpoint your needs and provide informed recommendations for treatment after we have a firm grasp on how your ailment has impacted every aspect of your life.

The exam consists of neurologic, orthopedic, and functional mobility tests to assess your spinal cord and neurological system’s present state of health. Subluxation (an improperly moving or misaligned vertebrae) may be at the foundation of your condition, so we’ll also look at your spine. We’ll also check your posture because it may be a component of why your issue has persisted for so long.

Specific Chiropractic Care in West Des Moines, IA

We prioritize chiropractic treatments as a primary method of treating migraines. The cervical vertebrae, or neck bones, are given extra care because of their proximity to the brain. At these vertebral levels, the nerves exit the spinal column and ascend to the brain and skull. Subluxation (a misalignment) of these vertebrae can aggravate the nerves that supply the brain, causing discomfort.

We restore vertebral alignment with chiropractic adjustments that relieve nerve pressure and facilitate recovery. Chronic issues sometimes need a series of chiropractic adjustments to resolve. It’s important to allow your body the period it needs to recover. The issue likely did not arise overnight. Therefore, we shouldn’t anticipate a miraculous fix to the problem in the same amount of time. Nevertheless, many people who suffer from them feel better quickly.

Massage Therapy and Soft Tissue Work

Chronic muscular tension is a major contributor to the development of migraines. Their pain can be exacerbated by tension in the head muscles, particularly the forehead, side, and back. Our clinic strongly emphasizes soft tissue work, and we have various techniques to achieve this goal.

Massage may be recommended to ease the stiffness in your neck and head. When it comes to headaches, our qualified massage therapists are pros in pinpointing adhesions and trigger points, which are often the root cause. No need to worry if massage isn’t your thing; our doctors are also well-versed in other soft tissue treatments like the Graston and Active Release Techniques. These eliminate adhesions that cause symptoms and return muscle function to normal.

Custom Therapeutic Exercise Plan

Fixing postural issues will help migraine sufferers recover faster. Most cases of head and neck discomfort may be traced back to poor posture, with the forward head position being the most prevalent culprit. The neck’s joints and muscles bear excessive strain when the head is forward from the shoulders, leading to various health issues.

Implementing custom exercises helps patients learn to properly balance their spinal muscles, which is essential for correct alignment and posture. It helps treat issues like migraines and prevent them in the future.

Cervical Spinal Decompression

Decompression therapy uses a gentle and controlled stretching force on the neck to open disc gaps and produce a pressure drop effect inside the disc. This can aid in drawing nutrients, fluid, or bulging disc parts back into the intervertebral disc where it belongs. With less strain on the neck’s nerve roots, this retraction may relieve neck, shoulder, arm, and hand discomfort, tingling, and numbness. In addition, it might make the whole of your neck more flexible and at ease.

Deep Tissue Laser

Our therapeutic protocol revolves around the use of a deep tissue Laser. It’s a painless, non-invasive, tried-and-true method for relieving headache discomfort without risk to your health. Many patients report feeling significantly better after only a few sessions. Pain is reduced, muscle strength is improved, and range of motion is expanded thanks to the cutting-edge FDA-approved lasers and other therapies employed in our program. In particular, the anti-inflammatory effects of these therapies aid in reducing swelling, restoring normal function, and accelerating the healing process.

Acupuncture

The goal of acupuncture treatment is to normalize your body’s flow of life force or chi. It also purports to dispel the painful bad energy plaguing you. From the standpoint of Western medicine, acupuncture activates multiple bodily systems. It stimulates a recuperative process.

The body is divided into different “zones” and “pressure points” for acupuncture. These acupuncture sites tend to be close to nerve endings. Needling causes the production of feel-good chemicals like endorphins by stimulating nearby nerves. Migraine and tension headaches are alleviated by activating the immunological and circulatory systems.

Nutritional Supplementation

Diet plays a critical role in migraine treatment. It’s crucial to figure out which foods trigger migraine attacks so you can stop eating them. Some popular migraine-inducing foods include red wine, cheese, and chocolate. Avoiding these triggering foods may significantly enhance the quality of your life.

Migraine headache relief supplements might be another option. Migraine sufferers often have insufficient vitamin B2, vitamin D, and magnesium levels. You can get them from whole foods or take a supplement. But remember, when picking a supplement, the source matters. Ask your doctor about which supplements might be best for you to take.

Stress

Emotional and mental strain often triggers migraines. The pressures of daily existence are overwhelming. But if you get them, you have the extra stress of wondering when your next episode will hit. This repeating pattern is psychologically, physically, and emotionally draining. In the long run, this mental anguish might weaken your immune system and increase your susceptibility to illness. In light of this, you must take steps to recognize and control the sources of stress in your life. Meditation, physical activity, enough rest, and chiropractic care are just a few of the usual methods to deal with stress.

Irregular Sleep Schedule

We often ignore the quantity and quality of our sleep, which are crucial to our health. During deep sleep, the body, including the brain, repairs and renews tissues. Sleep is when the body repairs itself. A lack of regular sleep often brings on migraines. In fact, between 4 and 9 a.m. is the most common time for them to strike. Those who already have trouble sleeping are considerably more likely to suffer from them because of this.

Hormones

A migraine headache strikes a woman three times as often as a man. Hormones and how they vary could be a significant factor in this difference. One such hormone is estrogen, whose fluctuations relate to migraine attacks. Migraines are common when estrogen levels are low and are made worse by a sudden reduction in estrogen.

Medication Overuse

It’s concerning how many prescriptions people in the United States are using. We only account for around 5% of the global population as a nation, but we use over half of all prescription drugs. Drugs affect the body’s biology to achieve their intended results. Alterations in bodily functioning that come from this are called side effects. Migraines are a common adverse reaction to numerous drugs.

Changes in the Weather

Some people are more susceptible to migraines than others because of fluctuations in serotonin levels, which changes in the weather can trigger. A headache brought on by another factor might be made much worse by weather-related stimuli.

Migraine sufferers who believe the weather plays a role in their condition are entitled to feel frustrated. The weather is something you cannot alter. Migraine headaches can be debilitating, but you can make efforts to reduce their occurrence by identifying the weather changes that trigger them.

Diet and Dehydration

An individual’s diet may significantly impact their health and well-being. You will eventually reach your health potential if you maintain a healthy diet. On the other hand, eating improperly may wreck your health and cause various other problems. If you frequently suffer from migraines, you should investigate whether a particular food or beverage is the cause. Red wine, artificial sweeteners, cheese, cured meats, chocolate, and a wide range of other foods are just a few examples of the numerous foods that can cause headaches.

Light and Smell

Many migraine victims say that certain odors, especially novel or overpowering ones, bring on their attacks. Perfume, in particular, has been implicated as a culprit several times. During an attack, roughly half of those who suffer migraines say they cannot tolerate certain odors. Migraine sufferers are the only persons who experience this symptom, termed osmophobia.

Migraine sufferers frequently experience light sensitivity, known as photophobia, and is used as a diagnostic criterion. During an attack, dim light might be too much for 80 to 96 percent of migraine victims with photophobia. Migraine patients often have heightened sensitivity to light, even between attacks.

Caffeine and Alcohol

There is still a lack of understanding as to why alcoholic beverages seem to bring on migraine attacks, and the underlying cause may vary from person to person. It’s possible, for instance, that alcohol is the root cause of migraines, either because of the chemicals it’s broken down into or because of the diuretic impact (increased need to pee) that can result from that.

Because caffeine may be both a preventative measure and a reactivating factor for them, it can be tricky for people who suffer from them to determine how much to consume. Many people relieve headaches by drinking coffee, which is also included in many over-the-counter medications since it prevents the chemical adenosine from attaching to brain receptors during an attack. However, contrary to popular belief, some migraine sufferers claim that coffee triggers painful headaches.