Migraines are a debilitating condition that can impact daily life for those who suffer from them. They can be difficult to predict and manage, but some patterns can help you better grasp your situation. Your doctor will help you identify your triggers through the many possible signs and symptoms of migraines. We’ll be discussing these with you today, along with the value of seeking chiropractic care in Roswell, GA, for migraine relief and management.
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Migraines and Headaches: What's the Difference?
The difference between migraines and headaches is their severity and impact on an affected individual. Headaches can be either acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term). If you suffer from headaches every once in a while or just on weekends, you probably have an acute type of headache. Chronic pain will typically last for more than three months.
When it comes to migraines and other types of headaches, it's important to learn the difference to get proper help for your condition.
Can You Predict Migraine Attacks?
Migraines can be quite unpredictable. The key to predicting them is understanding what triggers your migraines and recognizing the symptoms when they begin.
Some people have only a few migraine symptoms, while others experience signs and symptoms that are more severe and may even include nausea and vomiting. Other signs of a potential migraine include:
- Changes in vision
- Sensitivity to light, sound, or smell
- Dizziness
- Exhaustion or weakness;
- Extreme mood swings
- Irritability or depression
- Neck stiffness
- Pain behind one eye
- Blurred vision or blind spots in one eye
- Uneasiness with surroundings
- Pressure on any part of your body
These signs may seem rather vague or too broad as they may also be due to many other conditions, but that is why having a medical specialist on your side while learning to understand and predict your migraines is an excellent idea.
What Your Doctor Can Do to Help You
Mainly, your doctor can give you a thorough and informed idea of your condition and help you identify your triggers to give the most appropriate care plan. But before your doctor can devise such a plan, they need to know what's causing your migraines. This means that you'll be asked to provide them with a detailed list of the signs and symptoms that lead up to your migraine attack. Gathering this information requires some patience on your part (and probably an afternoon off work), but it's worth it in the end.
The frequency and intensity of these symptoms are important because they help determine whether or not they're significant enough to warrant further investigation. For example, one woman may experience dizziness during her attacks; another might go completely blind for several minutes at a time. Both scenarios will require different approaches when it comes time for management planning.
Unavoidable Migraine Triggers
You may be wondering why these factors are called “triggers” as opposed to just being called “things that happen that might make me feel sick.” Well, that is because you can't avoid them all the time! You can try your best to keep stress and loud noises at bay, but life happens. The weather changes without warning, and you get sick in a way that makes you sensitive to smells or bright lights—it's all part of life and who you are as a person.
Everyone is going to have some unavoidable things happen in life that might trigger migraines. But if you're smart about how you handle those situations when they do happen—if you take steps beforehand so that when something happens again, you’ll take better control. Then, it becomes easier for you to manage your migraines overall.
Some of the unavoidable migraine triggers are:
- Weather
- Stress
- Bright lights
- Insomnia or bad quality of sleep
- Missing a meal or overeating
- Not getting enough sleep
- Overwhelming events
- Menstrual cycle changes
- Hunger and dehydration
For Better Migraine Management Try Chiropractic Care in Roswell, GA
You may be wondering how chiropractic care in Roswell, GA can help with migraine management. We'll explore this after we clarify how hospitals do it technically.
First, let's talk about what it means to "predict" migraines. With the use of an EEG (electroencephalogram), doctors and researchers are able to monitor brain wave activity and determine whether or not a person is about to have a migraine attack by observing changes in their electrical activity.
Researchers have determined that during an actual migraine attack, there's less alpha activity than normal. However, it's also important to note that there isn't any difference between those who get migraines and those who don't, prior to experiencing pain symptoms related to the disease.
This may be a more objective way to predict; however, not everyone has an EEG machine at home or can take EEG independently. Thus, most of the time, people depend on their symptoms and known triggers to predict and tell whether or not there will be an upcoming migraine episode.
That's where chiropractic care in Roswell, GA, comes in! Upper cervical chiropractic care can help predict migraines and reduce their frequency. So what does that mean? Well, if your doctor suspects you have misaligned vertebrae in your neck that's causing tension on the nerves that run through your skull and down into your head and face (the ones that cause most headaches), they might recommend an upper cervical adjustment.
This simple procedure can help free up those nerves so they don't trigger headaches or other symptoms like sinus pain or jaw problems.
Fish Family Chiropractic
Upper cervical chiropractors are specially trained in treating the upper cervical spine, which many people don’t realize is directly related to migraine headaches. These adjustments can reduce both frequency and severity of headache symptoms and improve a patient’s ability to predict an impending attack.
Want to improve your chances of reducing your migraine days? Visit Fish Family Chiropractic. Drs. Gary and Carolyn Fish will help you address and manage your migraine wiser and more effectively. You can set your appointment with them via email, online consultation form, or phone at (770) 518-7700.
To schedule a consultation with Dr. Fish, call our Roswell office at 770-518-7700. You can also click the button below.
