Relief from Tension Headaches with Chiropractic Adjustments | Podcast Ep. 124

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. This week we are talking about tension headaches affects millions of people. Everybody has that forward head posture, hunched over a computer, long commutes, hyper kyphotic thoracic spine, you name it, we see it each and every day. So do primary care docs out in the community as well. And we are going to talk about spinal manipulation and the new research which showcases how that type of technique can impact the quality of life of people suffering with and or from tension headaches. Today we are talking about tension headaches. So the research article that we're gonna talk about is called Do Manual Therapy Titled should I say Do Manual Therapy Techniques have a Positive effect on Quality of Life in People with Tension Type Headache. A randomized controlled trial, this was released in February 2016 by the European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. This is also one that we featured just this month, April, for all members of the Evidence Based Chiropractor to build relationships with other community partners for them and their patients benefit. So be sure to check out the evidencebasedchiropractor.com and hop on if you're looking to bridge the gap and build relationships with other healthcare providers. This is the type of research that we dive into and utilize. So as I said at the top, really we see it every single day, right? Repetitive tasks, people, you know, with forward head posture, texting and all of that stuff throughout the day. A hyperkyphotic thoracic spine as a result of poor ergonomics at work. We see it all the time, every single day. And ultimately it's resulted in a real toxic combination. Long hours at the computer at work, longer commute, sitting in the car, texting and social media throughout the day. All, all of this contributes to upper cross syndrome, as we would call it, right? It's muscle imbalances, postural changes, and those can lead to chronic tension headaches. If we go a step further, really long term postural changes and muscle imbalances. When you look at a spine that's aged, right, when you look at a spine that's maybe 40, 50, 60, 70 years old, where do you think osteophyte formation comes from? Well, it certainly comes from the load. It's directed by the load placed upon the spine. So these things have great implications for people. Long term in the negative sense or when you're able to have better balance, muscle balance, when you're able to have better posture, when you're able to have a better head positioning that decreases the stress and load on the tissues and certainly can decrease the frequency of chronic tension headaches. So here's the thing with tension headaches. Tension headaches, they're the big dog. They account for over 90% of all headaches and over 20% of the population is affected. So that's a pretty big deal. This research article looked at a couple different things, a couple different treatment options. Again, it was an rct, that randomized clinical trial, which is the highest. It's what you wanna see. They looked at spinal manipulation, suboccipital spinal manipulation, and they looked at suboccipital inhibitory pressure. I kinda think of that as a pressure point. Right. A lot of us probably do it almost, almost as we're palpating. I know I do it personally if a patient is in a supine position and I'm gonna get my fingers right under the occiput there and their tens right on the subocc. And it seems to be what I'd call a pressure point or an acupressure point, but they're calling it suboccipital inhibitory pressure here. And what they found was very, very, very good. They found, quote, the researchers found, quote, a number of studies have shown that treatment with cervical manipulation is effective in reducing the frequency of pain and the duration and intensity of headaches. So it's a great starting block, right? The researchers are putting their foot on the ground and saying there's already been a number of studies have come out that have shown cervical spinal manipulation is very effective at reducing the frequency of pain. That's a good thing. At reducing the duration of the headaches, that's an even better thing. And the intensity of these headaches, that's even better. So really firing on all three cylinders there, showcasing previous research that has already shown cervical manipulation to be super, super effective. The research is also found with this study post treatment and at the one month follow up, the combined treatment group and they defined combined treatment as the suboccipital inhibitory pressure and the spinal manipulation combined. The combined treatment group showed improved vitality in the two treatment groups that involved manipulation showed improved mental health. That's exciting.

So certainly get into that quality of life issue. And finally, the researchers found all three treatments were effective at changing different dimensions of quality of life, but the combined treatment showed the most change.

So one of the items we highlighted in our evidence based chiropractor monthly research brief for our members was the SF12 health questionnaire and the overall results. And it speaks exactly to this. This Paper basically had a couple different groups. They had one group that received suboccipital inhibition, inhibitory pressure, they had one group that received suboccipital manipulation, and they had a combined treatment group, which was both of those and a control group, of course. So this literature, this research to me is timely and it's very relevant to what we see in practice, as I said at the top, but also what many other docs are seeing in practice, many other healthcare providers are seeing the same thing. When something affects 20% of the population, it's just common. I mean, everybody's seeing tension headaches. And the bottom line is when we break it down, medications, interventions like that just aren't a good way to go about taking care of it. Not only are there the side effects with the medic, the risks involved with the medications, the fact that it's covering up the symptoms and not doing anything to change, having a headache tomorrow, but may just lighten the one today, all of those things contribute to that not being the best treatment option out there. But research like this, continuing to showcase that spinal manipulation, that manual therapy, that pressure points, that working with the body can contribute to far better results than working against the body, just adds to that dearth, adds to that breadth and depth of research supporting what you and I do each and every day. And to me, that is extremely, extremely important as well. Research like this, showcasing and telling, hey, as one of the first quote we read, hey, this has already been proven. Spinal manipulation has already been proven to be effective at decreasing the frequency of pain. Already been proven to decrease the duration, already been proven to decrease that intensity. That's super important. And in my opinion, combining that, now a lot of the, and I know a lot of docs listening are gonna really love this. You know, the sports focused docs, the active rehab docs, Imagine when you combine, and we see it every day, but combining that cervical manipulation, combining it with postural strengthening, combining it with the ability to have better ergonomics in the workplace, decreasing that load, you can do wonders. And again, quality of life is what we're talking about. People come into our offices quite often a majority of the time statistically to reduce pain. But improving their quality of life goes hand in hand with that. If you're in pain, you're unable to do the things you love with the people you love. So when you can decrease the pain, that's one thing. But when you can be more productive at work, even better. When you can enjoy after work times, even better, as opposed to, I know all of us have probably seen it. That person in the office that's struggling and gets a headache by the end of every single day or three times a week, they're leaving the office with a headache. Well, that is not the way that it necessarily has to be. Quite often those are tension headaches. As we learn, 90% of all headaches are tension related. And most of the time tension headaches are brought about due to, as we spoke of earlier, poor ergonomics, muscle imbalances, stress, all of that fun stuff that you and I deal with on a daily basis, really at the highest level of anybody in healthcare. So this is a great piece of research to know about. It's a great piece of research to share with people in your community. I know sometimes, you know, with the low back there's so much overwhelming research with the low back, sometimes headache plays second fiddle or even third fiddle. So this is a great piece showcasing tension headaches, how chiropractic can improve quality of life, decrease pain and ultimately lead to a happier, healthier community. So that's it for this week. Don't hesitate to bring this paper up to anybody in your practice who's asking about friends with tension headaches and what they can do to find relief. I will link a PubMed citation in the show notes so you can check it out there. If you haven't left us ratings or feedback on itunes, I'd ask you to do that. It helps us reach more and more chiropractors each and every week. And if you want to bridge the gap and build relationships with other healthcare providers, check out what we got going on over at the evidence basedchiropractor.com Otherwise I will be back with you next week talking more research and until then I hope you have a great week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

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