Correcting Migraine Pain: The Pro-Holistic Care Approach
In the United States of America, 12% of the population, or around 40 million people, suffer from migraine headaches; this is according to the National Institute of Health. When we combine migraines with all of the different types of headaches, these statistics shoot up to 40% of the American population. This gigantic number makes headaches one of the most common health problems among adults in the United States.
For our patients in Pro-Holistic Care in Chicago, a migraine isn’t just a headache; it is a debilitating medical event that involves their heads, stealing days from their lives, disrupting family time, and making even the simplest work impossible.
Before meeting us at Pro-Holistic Care, most patients suffering from migraines utilize medications, including over-the-counter and prescription medications, to treat the headache pain, in other words, the symptoms, but of course, with some side effects, which sometimes are serious, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, at the same time, not treating the root cause.
At Pro-Holistic Care, we believe in finding the “Why” and correcting the “How” of the problem to minimize or eliminate the need for medication and its possible side effects.
Headaches vs Migraines: How to tell the difference
At Pro-Holistic Care, it is very important to understand the difference between migraine headaches and other types of headaches; this step leads us to the most appropriate treatment to correct this condition.
There are various types of headaches; these three are the most common ones, and their symptoms are:
- Tension Headaches: With symptoms described as a tight band around the head, often dull aching.
- Cluster Headaches: This type of headache is described as severe pain, often around one eye, and can occur in cyclical patterns.
- Migraines: Characterized by intense, throbbing pain, often on one side of the head; this pain is combined with sensitivity to light and sound, nausea, and sometimes “auras” or visual disturbances.
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Includes Consultation, Evaluation, X-rays if needed & Doctor’s report of findings
How Our Care Plan Works
1. Finally Be
Listened To
You know your body best, and we want to hear your story in detail. When you sit down with our doctors, we’ll take the time to listen, ask the right questions, and fully understand your health concerns so we can guide your care with confidence.
2. Understand Exactly What Your Problem Is
Our doctors perform a comprehensive evaluation of your health, which may include a physical exam, strength and stability testing, bloodwork, or x-rays. Whatever is needed, we’ll uncover the root cause and design a personalized plan to move you forward.
3. Get Back To A Happy, Healthy, Fun Life
Every patient receives a customized care plan designed to fit their unique needs. By combining the therapies best suited for you, we promote faster, more effective healing while providing a clear roadmap to correction and lasting success in your health.
How We Treat Migraines In Lincoln Square, IL
The Pro-Holistic Solution:
At the moment, we establish a roadmap to eliminate or control the root cause of your migraines, using a combination of Chiropractic care, Rehabilitation exercises, acupuncture, and lifestyle and nutritional changes.
Our goal isn’t just to help you feel better today; it is to help you live a life where migraines are things of the past.
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
Our Approach: Understanding Your Unique Story
At Pro-Holistic Care in Chicago, IL, we start by sitting down with you and purposely listening to your health story. We must understand your medical history in its entirety, your life’s habits, eating patterns, and treatments you have received in the past to either minimize or correct the cause of the migraines. We need to understand Old Traumas, from injuries that happened years ago, like car accidents, falls, or sports injuries, which often leave structural imbalances. It is crucial to understand your stress levels. Physical and emotional stressors can trigger the nervous system into a fight-or-flight state. Understanding your stress level can help us plan defense mechanisms to relax your body mentally and physically. Lastly, we need to understand your Environment. We will analyze your work and home ergonomics to see how daily life impacts your neurological health. This is done by understanding how you work and where you work, so we can identify the best changes that will help us minimize or eliminate your migraines.
How do we determine the true cause of your migraines?
At Pro-Holistic Care, we don’t guess; we evaluate and test. Our evaluation is designed to pinpoint the source of the nerve irritation, the physical stress, and the circulatory issues.
Physical Palpation and Motion Study: By properly evaluating the motion of your spinal bones, especially the bones or vertebrae in your neck, you can determine if they are irritated by this lack of joint motion. This lack of motion is called a restriction or misalignment. These can compress delicate nerves, creating inflammation and pain that can trigger migraines. We also perform orthopedic testing to determine which muscles, ligaments, and tendons are affected when these bones do not move correctly.
Neck X-Rays: After the physical evaluation, we will determine which neck X-rays are necessary. This allows you to see the structural alignment of your spine and determine if the Arc of life or the natural curve of the neck has been compromised. When this curvature is affected, the joints in the neck won’t move properly, which can affect circulation and irritate the neck’s nerves, all of which are involved in migraine pain.
The Metabolic Connection: During the evaluation, we might identify or suspect internal triggers; at this point, we might recommend a full nutritional blood evaluation and a food sensitivity test. By identifying systemic inflammation or organ stress, we can eliminate the metabolic fuel that feeds your migraines.
1. Chiropractic Care and Adjustments
The power of adjustments: At Pro-Holisti Care, we are always looking for the latest research on chiropractic adjustments to help our patients. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Neurology and highlighted by PubMed found that chiropractic spinal manipulation significantly reduces the number of migraine days and improves pain intensity.
Source: Spinal Manipulations for Migraine: An Updated Systematic Review
Efficacy: Clinical trials, including those supported by the Palmer College of Chiropractic, show that patients receiving chiropractic care report and experience immediate positive responses in intensity and frequency above neck pain and migraine headaches.
Source: Integrating Chiropractic Care Into the Treatment of Migraine – PMC
2. Posture and The Neck Connection
Musculoskeletal Triggers: Various studies point to a link between posture and the nurse’s irritation that travels to the Head. Various research from the National Headache Institute confirms a clear link between poor posture, specifically head posture, and symptoms. As we mentioned before, correcting the neck’s arc through exercise and ergonomics can reduce headaches.
Source: Can Bad Posture Cause Headaches?
3. Metabolic and Food Sensitivity Testing
The IgG Connection: For the last 17 years, we have been conducting blood food sensitivity tests, and we have helped patients with their symptoms by rotating or eliminating foods that show positive in this test. A 2024 study published in PMC (National Institutes of Health) found that migraine sufferers with positive food-specific IgG antibodies (food sensitivities) had significantly worse headache severity and gastrointestinal symptoms. Eliminating these reactive foods through testing was shown to be a “beneficial tool” for migraine control.
Source: The Impact of Food-Specific IgG Antibodies on Migraine – PMC
4. Acupuncture
At our Clinic, we have incredible success using specific acupuncture points to help her relieve headaches, neck pain, and migraines. The ACUMIGRAN Study found that 12 sessions of acupuncture were as effective as (and in some cases superior to) pharmacological drugs for preventing episodic migraines, with significantly fewer side effects and higher patient compliance.
Source: A Randomized Clinical Trial on Acupuncture Versus Best Medical Therapy – Frontiers
5. Proven Supplements (Magnesium, B2, CoQ10)
Nutritional Support: Large-scale reviews indicate that up to 50% of migraine sufferers are deficient in Magnesium. Clinical evidence supports the combination of Magnesium, Riboflavin (B2), and Coenzyme Q10 as a potent non-pharmacological option to improve quality of life and reduce pain intensity.
Source: Scientific Evidence for Magnesium & CoQ10 in Migraine Prevention
The Role of Posture
Having good posture is essential for a healthy, strong spine. In our modern world, poor neck posture is usually caused by the use of phones and computers, in other words, technology. Tech neck, or postural changes caused by chronic cellphone use while looking down, is one of the primary drivers of migraines and other types of headaches. When your head shifts forward, the weight on your neck increases exponentially. This strain irritates the nerves that travel into the skull and restricts blood flow to the brain, all of which trigger migraine headaches. Correcting posture isn’t just about looking better; it’s about opening the pathway for your nervous system to function correctly.
Three at-Home Posture Exercises:
Chin Tucks: This type of exercise is incredibly effective for relaxing and strengthening the muscles in your neck. Sit tall and pull your chin straight back, as if you’re trying to create a double chin. This exercise will help you reset the upper neck muscles. Hold for 5 seconds, repeat 10 times.
Brugger’s Relief position: This exercise helps create a sense of relaxation that can be very helpful at the beginning of a migraine. Sit at the edge of a chair, feet wide, palms facing up and out, and squeeze your shoulder blades back and down. Breathe deeply for 30 seconds.
Wall Angels: This type of exercise is very powerful for relaxing upper body and neck muscles at the same time, while strengthening them for better posture. Stand against a wall with your head, shoulders, and glutes touching the wall. Move your arms up and down like a snow angel, keeping elbows and wrists in contact with the wall.
Nutrition and Supplements
What you put in your body can either relax your nervous system or set the system on fire. Not only can a good diet make you healthier, but it can also help you prevent migraines. Please keep in mind that not everyone reacts positively or negatively to these foods. You need to use a food journal to identify which foods trigger your headaches and which do not.
Three Foods to Avoid:
Aged Cheeses: These contain tyramine, an ingredient known to trigger migraines.
Processed Meats: Nitrates, a common ingredient in processed meats, are known to dilate blood vessels and cause headache pain in some people who suffer from migraines.
Artificial Sweeteners (Aspartame): This common ingredient in low-calorie, non-sugary drinks is a highly neurotoxic ingredient, in other words, an ingredient that kills brain cells; it’s a well-known trigger of migraines.
Three Foods to Add
Fatty Fish (Salmon): Fish are well known to have high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of fat that reduces inflammation and supports brain cells.
Magnesium-Rich Greens: Green vegetables are well known for nutrients that help relax blood vessels. Spinach and kale are well-known for their magnesium, which helps support the circulatory system.
Five Proven Supplements for Migraine Support
Supplements can be very helpful in decreasing the symptoms of migraines or preventing migraines completely. It is important to understand that the supplement only supplements a good diet and lifestyle. Supplements cannot work like medications, but when used appropriately, they can improve your overall health.
- Magnesium Glycinate: Helps relax muscles and neurological pathways.
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): Supports mitochondrial energy in brain cells.
- Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10): A powerful antioxidant for vascular health.
- Feverfew: A traditional herb used to reduce the frequency of attacks.
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Reduce systemic inflammation.
Common Phases And Triggers of Migraines in Lincoln Square, IL
The majority of migraines are neurological in nature, meaning the nerves around the head start acting erratically, developing the specific headache. Migraines typically develop in four phases:
Prodrome:
In this phase of the migraine, the patient typically suffers fatigue, nausea, food cravings, and difficulty concentrating. The prodrome phase can last a few hours to even a few days.
Aura:
This phase is characterized by numbness, tingling, ringing in the ears, and temporary vision loss. Some patients may also experience blind spots in their vision, as well as flashing and/or wavy lines. About 15 to 20% of people suffer from this phase with migraines, and it can last from 5 minutes to an hour.
Headaches:
This is the main symptom of a migraine; the headache usually begins on one side of the head and cannot move to the other side. The headache can last up to 72 hours.
Postdrome:
This phase is considered the “handover phase” because it can last a day or two to recover from the migraine. Usually, people feel fatigued or depressed, having difficulty concentrating and understanding things. When this happens, most patients tend to stay home from work and want to be alone while recovering. But some people experience the opposite, feeling euphoria and becoming very animated.
How to avoid the common triggers:
Triggers are like the key to start the car, or, in other words, the match that starts the fire. Understanding triggers is one of the most important steps to prevent recurrent migraines and to start taking control of this very annoying condition. Here are the most common triggers:
Dehydration: This affects many parts of our body and makes it difficult to heal or prevent symptoms. It is well documented that a person suffering migraines, being in a state of dehydration, is one of the most common triggers. Our body requires water to help us heal and perform other important functions. We highly recommend that we all consume half our body weight in ounces of water daily for proper hydration.
Irregular Sleep patterns: We all know that sleeping 8 hours a day is important for our bodies to heal, our brains to relax and recover, and for overall health and well-being. This is why it is a no-brainer that having an irregular sleep schedule or not sleeping enough hours can be one of the primary triggers of migraines.
Bright Lights/Blue Lights: In the age of technological advances, blue light is the most important for our phones and TV sets. Scientific research proves that these blue lights overwhelm our eyes and brain and can be a hidden trigger of migraines. Wearing blue-light-blocking glasses when working on a computer or using a phone can help minimize this stress.
Red wine, cheese, and chocolate: While red wine, cheeses, and chocolate are mostly considered healthy foods, for some people, migraine is one of the main triggers. It is also very important for a patient with migraines to understand which foods can be triggers for these headaches. At Pro-Holistic Care, we recommend performing a food sensitivity test to eliminate Foods that can potentially trigger migraines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can going to a chiropractor help with migraines?
The clear answer is Yes, but this can only be achieved if a proper consultation, evaluation, and x-rays lead the doctor to understand the root cause of the migraines and the most appropriate treatment. For example, if we identify structural misalignments in the neck, a chiropractic adjustment can address them, increasing nerve conduction and blood flow, leading to a significant reduction in migraine frequency and intensity.
Can a neck being out of alignment cause migraines?
Absolutely, when the arc in the neck, in other words, the proper curvature of the neck, is compromised, it creates mechanical stress and nerve interference that can trigger the debilitating neurological symptoms of a migraine.
Are migraines bad for the brain?
Well, most migraines don’t cause permanent damage to the brain. Chronic attacks can lead to Central sensitization, making the brain more hypersensitive to pain over time, which is why early intervention and prevention are vital.
What is the quickest way to get rid of a migraine?
While acute relief often involves resting in a dark, quiet room, hydrating, and taking a supplement like magnesium, the fastest way to stop the cycle of recurring migraines is to identify and correct the specific structural or metabolic trigger through a professional evaluation. It is extremely important to understand the triggers and the root cause of migraines to understand the best way to stop the symptoms.
How do you permanently cure a migraine?
Because migraines are a complex neurological and circulatory condition, we focus on functional elimination by correcting spinal problems and fixing the individual’s metabolic health so that the body no longer hits the threshold required to trigger a migraine attack.
Does exercise help with migraines?
It is important to avoid high-intensity exercises during an active migraine attack. Low-impact movement and specific postural exercises help reduce the muscle tension and the “tech neck “strain that contribute to migraines.
At Pro-Holistic Care
We are very passionate about helping patients suffering from migraine headaches. Since 2009, we have helped thousands of patients with migraines, either by minimizing them or eliminating them. If you know someone who suffers from migraines, or you suffer from this type of headache, contact us at Pro-Holistic Care. We promise to conduct a thorough evaluation to determine whether our services can eliminate your migraines. We hope to see you soon.
$69 New Patient Special
Includes Consultation, Evaluation, X-rays if needed & Doctor’s report of findings
