Aug. 26--Millions of Americans experience the pain of chronic headaches or migraine. Whether at the office, at home playing with the children or at dinner with friends, the pain ranges from annoying to debilitating.
While popping a pill may help for a while, the headache is often back in a couple of hours.
What many sufferers long for is not something to mask the pain, but something to prevent it in the first place.
If you're willing to look outside your physician's office, relief may be in store for you. Read on for three treatments that may finally take away the pain.
Acupuncture
While the thought of having several needles poked into the skin can be scary, doctor of naturopathy Loren Hunter in Decatur insists the pain is minimal and even nonexistent for many patients. Hunter holds a doctorate in acupuncture from the University of Hong Kong.
The age-old healing method, which in recent years has crossed over to Western medicine, works on headaches by loosening muscles and unpinching nerves in the back of the head.
Hunter uses a medical method of acupuncture. Slightly different from the Chinese version, Hunter's method usually requires only one to three visits per month for headaches, as opposed to three times that.
"The treatment makes the muscles go dormant," said Hunter, who inserts thin, sterile needles into the neck and shoulders of headache sufferers. "They'd be like Jell-O in 45 minutes."
With the nerves unpinched, blood can again circulate properly, relieving pain.
For patients who have had chronic migraines for years, the sensation of finally being pain-free changes their entire persona, he said.
"It's like a whole other human walks out of the room," he said.
Cost per session at Life Essentials is $60. While most appointments are scheduled ahead of time, patients suffering from a migraine or headache are always welcome to walk in so they can be treated right away, Hunter said.
Neuromuscular dentistry
Your dentist not only keeps your smile looking pretty, but one specializing in neuromuscular dentistry may also rid you of headaches if an incorrect bite is the culprit.
If your bite isn't aligned properly, the muscles in the head responsible for opening and closing the jaw stay tense for long periods of time, said dentist Randy Sandlin of the Decatur Center for Cosmetic Dentistry. The tenseness causes poor circulation, leading to pain.
"We're able to find the most balanced position for the jaw and head and then build an appliance for the patient," Sandlin said. "This has been around for over 30 years, but the equipment is expensive, so most dentists won't do it."
Sandlin uses electrical stimulation to relax the jaw and neck muscles into their natural resting position. Then, he crafts a mouthpiece that will place the teeth into that bite position. If wearing the mouthpiece stops the headaches, then he knows the bite was the patient's problem, he said.
While many patients stick with wearing the mouthpiece at night to stop headaches, a more permanent fix is to get braces or undergo a full mouth reconstruction so the bite is permanently corrected, Sandlin said. Getting the mouthpiece costs about $3,000 and requires several appointments.
While most insurance companies do not cover the cost, many chronic headache sufferers don't mind paying to finally be pain-free, Sandlin said. He estimates that half of all headaches are related to improper bites.
Chiropractic
Headache sufferers may also turn to chiropractors to stop their pain. Regular chiropractic adjustments (the popping and twisting you may have seen on TV), along with electro stimulation, help regain spinal mobility, said Dr. Laron Hardy of Hardy Chiropractic in Decatur.
While it may look scary, the adjustments rarely hurt, though they may cause a little tenderness in an area that is already in pain. The increased mobility rids the nerves of irritation and allows them to function at 100 percent.
Headaches often originate from problems in the first and second vertebrae in the neck, Hardy said. Over time, vertebrae become misaligned or even fuse together, causing headaches or a host of other problems. For some people, a trauma may have caused the problem, but for most, time just takes its toll.
New patients often require daily adjustments for the first few visits, which tapers off over the next few months. After the problem is remedied, Hardy recommends regular visits for preventive maintenance.
"We take our cars in for regular oil changes when the little sticker says even when it seems like it's running fine," he said. "But we don't have a little sticker for our bodies."
Many insurance companies cover at least part of the charges for chiropractic care.
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