How We Help with Headaches

Whether you’re suffering from chronic tension headaches, cluster headaches or migraine headaches these problems often times can be structurally related to a misalignment in the top of the spinal column.

Let’s talk a little bit about some of the anatomy involved in headaches. There are a couple small muscles that attach the base of the skull to the top of the neck, called the “rectus capitis posterior minor” muscles.  Their main job is to keep the top vertebra the “atlas” or the “C1”) in correct alignment.  But when we experience trauma from sitting in uncomfortable chairs, long plane rides trips to Costco, hauling luggage and carrying grandkids, the Atlas vertebra can misalign and this causes compensatory tension in these muscles to prevent the misalignment from getting worse.

We must understand that there is a connective tissue bridge  anchoring directly FROM the RCPM muscles into the dura mater.  The dura mater is the skin-like layer of protection for the brain, brainstem and the rest of the spinal cord.  When the Atlas vertebra is misaligned headaches can result because of the tension on the dura mater.

We understand people’s concerns about X-radiation.  However, we simply cannot guess when it comes to knowing the shapes of the verebrae in the upper neck.  3-Dimensional X-rays show us the degree and type of misalignment in your spine, which helps us find the potential cause of your headaches so we can help you get well faster.