If you know someone who suffers with headaches (or if you deal with headaches) you know what a horrible thing they are. Did you know that the Center fro Disease Control estimates that 45 million Americans suffer with severe headaches? You are not alone!

This is a staggering number if you ask me! If you are one of these 45 million you know just how horrible it can be to suffer with headaches. The most common type of headache is the cervicogenic type headache. Cervicogenic means “to originate in the neck”. These headaches come from the bones, muscles and nerves of the neck itself.

In my practice in Bellevue Washington I have found that a major cause of cervicogenic headaches is misalignment or improper movement of the upper neck. If the bones in the upper part of the neck become misaligned this puts pressure and stress on the blood vessels, nerves, and joints of the neck. Taking a look at just the blood vessels, pressure can mean a decrease in blood flow to the brain. This is a bad thing! The one way that your body has to tell you that there is a problem is to give you headache.

It is a lot like the fire alarm in your house. When the fire alarm goes off in your house, there is probably a fire or smoke in your house. What do you do when you hear the alarm? You call the fire department and get out of the house, of course. It is the same thing in the body, w hen you have a head ache you have to remove the reason for the headache, which m any times is a misalignment of the bones of the neck from injury, poor posture, a traumatic birth, or even falls as a child!

Car accidents, poor posture, or computer jobs can all be causative factors in the misalignment of the upper neck. Pain is the indicator your body is giving you to tell you to fix the problem. The first thing you must do is find the exact cause of your headaches and remove it. At Back in Action Chiropractic we diagnose if you have neck misalignment’s, find where they are at, and then remove the misalignment’s, taking the pressure off of your vessels, nerves and joints. Many times this greatly reduces the symptoms of your headaches.

Dr. Weir is a local bellevue chiropractor. You can contact his office at 425-635-0495 .