How Chiropractic Care Can Help With Headaches and Migraines
Headaches are one of the most common health complaints worldwide. While occasional tension headaches may fade with rest or hydration, chronic or recurrent headaches can interfere with work, sleep, and overall quality of life.
What many people don’t realize is that headaches often begin in the neck and upper back — areas that chiropractors specialize in treating.
Understanding the Root Cause
Not all headaches are the same. The three most common types we see in the clinic include:
Tension-type headaches – a dull, tight pressure around the temples, forehead, or back of the head.
Cervicogenic headaches – pain that starts in the neck and radiates upward due to restricted joints or irritated nerves.
Migraines – severe, throbbing headaches that can include nausea and sensitivity to light or sound.
Poor posture*, stress, and restricted spinal joints can cause muscles in the neck and shoulders to tighten and irritate nearby nerves.
Over time, this tension builds into the familiar ache behind the eyes or at the base of the skull.
“When your neck moves better, your head feels better.”
How Chiropractic Helps
Chiropractic care works to restore motion, alignment, and coordination through the spine and surrounding muscles.
For headache and migraine sufferers, this may include:
Gentle spinal adjustments to improve joint motion and reduce nerve irritation.
Myofascial and soft-tissue therapy to release muscle tension through the neck, jaw, and shoulders.
Targeted exercise and posture training to build long-term stability and prevent recurrence.
These techniques improve how the neck moves and how the nervous system communicates — addressing the root causerather than masking symptoms.
What the Research Shows
Modern research supports chiropractic care as an effective, drug-free option for many headache types:
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2017: Manual therapy and specific exercise significantly reduced headache frequency and improved quality of life.
Cochrane Review, 2019: Cervical mobilization and manipulation produced meaningful short- and long-term relief in chronic headache sufferers.
“Cervical manipulation for acute/subacute neck pain was more effective than varied combinations of analgesics, muscle relaxants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for improving pain and function at up to long-term follow-up”
American Migraine Foundation: Notes that spinal adjustments can decrease muscle tension and improve blood flow, reducing migraine frequency for some patients.
Beyond Pain Relief
Chiropractic treatment can improve more than just your headaches:
Better posture and mobility
Less reliance on medication
Improved focus, sleep, and energy
Greater resilience to stress and muscle fatigue
When the spine moves as it should, the body and nervous system performs at its best — and the head follows suit. Allowing for more efficient movement and not overloading one part of the kinetic chain.
What to Expect at August Chiropractic
Every headache case begins with a detailed movement and posture assessment.
Using tools like Kinetisense 3D motion analysis, we identify dysfunctional patterns that contribute to your pain and design a customized plan that may include:
Chiropractic adjustments
Myofascial release and muscle therapy
Corrective mobility and strength exercises
Simple at-home routines to maintain progress
Our mission: move better, feel better, stay well.
The Takeaway
If headaches keep returning despite medication (or even before wink wink), it’s time to look deeper than the pain itself.
Restrictions in the neck, upper back, or jaw often drive recurring tension or migraines.
Chiropractic care offers a safe, evidence-based, and non-drug approach to break that cycle and restore balance to your body.
Better movement means fewer headaches.
References
*poor posture is a complex topic. There aren’t “bad postures,” but there are postures that are worse for us when maintained for long periods of time. This is also dependent on the individual and their compensation patterns, current fitness level, and lifestyle behaviors
