This caught my eye in the health news today. Apparently the FDA just approved a new battery-powered headband to help with migraine headaches. An article on nydailynews.com states “Migraine sufferers now have a drug-free solution for their splitting headaches.” The product is called Cefaly and is meant to be worn 20 minutes or less each day. Apparently the approval is based on a study done in Belgium on 67 migraine patients, and those who used the product had “significantly fewer” migraines but did not have their migraines eliminated or have the migraines they did have any less severe. The Cefaly works by sending “a low electrical current to stimulate the cranial nerves associated with migraine pain.” It should now be available to be prescribed in the US to patients 18 and older.
Now I think it is great that there are more drug-free options for migraine sufferers. However, there have been many drug-free “solutions” for migraine sufferers in the past, some of which help and others that don’t. Chiropractic is an excellent example of a drug-free approach that actually helps migraine sufferers. Migraine headaches are still not well understood, but it is thought they have to do with the activity of nerves in the head or face and possibly with blood flow within the head. I have personally seen subluxations – improper movement and/or alignment of the bones of the spine that result in nerve stress – in the neck, especially upper neck, in migraine sufferers. I have also seen improvements in migraines when these subluxations are corrected through chiropractic care. This is not something that is commonly talked about in mainstream medical circles, but I have seen and know of many, many headache sufferers that have been helped through chiropractic care, including migraine sufferers.
When there is subluxation of the neck – especially the upper neck – the body is in a state of dysfunction. This dysfunction affects the nerves in the head and neck area and very possibly can change blood flow to the head and change the way pain signals are felt and processed. If you know someone who suffers from headaches, have them checked by a chiropractor to evaluate for spinal subluxation.
