Migraine Triggers and Promising Chiropractic Treatment

Mary Franz - Nov 30th, 2010

If you've suffered from migraines long enough, you've probably been asked by a health care professional to keep track of your daily habits and how they affect the frequency, duration and intensity of your migraines. You may begin to see a pattern and can then identify migraine triggers. By doing so, you might be able to avoid some triggers (such as different types of food or caffeine).

In a recent study¹ printed in the journal Headache, types of migraine triggers were analyzed in a clinic-based population. 91% of participants reported at least 1 trigger and more than 82% reported multiple triggers. The most common trigger? Emotional stress. Closely following emotional stress were too much or too little sleep, odors and missing meals.

The majority (62%) of menstruating women reported that menses was a trigger and out of those, 67% said that migraines experienced during menses were more severe and less responsive to medication and other symptomatic treatment.

Although it makes sense to avoid triggers that can be avoided (too much or too little sleep and/or missing meals), it's obvious that other triggers are impossible to avoid (emotional stress/menses). However, another study shows that there is hope for migraine sufferers.

A 12-month Australian study² showed promising results that spinal manipulative therapy may be the answer to migraine headaches for many. After the initial 6 months of treatment, the participants showed significant improvement in frequency, duration and medication usage. Further evaluation at a 6-month follow-up also showed significant improvement.

Although a larger study is required to prove that spinal manipulative therapy should be a usual course of treatment for migraines, the results of this study certainly indicate that chiropractic care for migraines may be the answer.

1. Andress-Rothrock D, King W, Rothrock J. An analysis of migraine triggers in a clinic-based population. Headache 2010 50(8):1366-70.
2. Tuchin PJ. A twelve month clinical trial of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine. Australasian Chiropractic &Osteopathy. 1999 8(2):61-5.