Research Supports The Effectiveness of Chiropractic Care for Chronic Headaches

Research is catching up to what chiropractors and satisfied headache patients have known for decades: there's a positive correlation between chiropractic care and relief from chronic headaches. And the research confirms multiple positive benefits that include reduced headache intensity, duration and frequency.

4 Major Research Studies

The first major waves came from a 2012 migraine study published in the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork. While small (10 patients), there was a 100% success rate in reducing migraine headache pain by implementing a combination of neck massage and chiropractic care on the neck. Eight of the 10 patients reported that their pain was cut in at least half.

Four years later, a larger study on cervicogenic headaches—headache pain that originates from the neck— supported the 2012 study. Researchers followed 110 patients and the effects a neck and spinal adjustments had on headache intensity, frequency, duration and more. Patients reported improvement in all three measures within a week.

In 2018, an even larger study on 256 cervicogenic headache patients was conducted. This particular study set out to determine not so much if chiropractic was beneficial, but rather the impact of chiropractic care on headaches based on how many treatment sessions patients underwent.

Researchers discovered what’s called a linear dose-response, meaning the numbers got steadily better for those who underwent the most sessions. Patients reported improvements similar to the aforementioned studies, along with reduced medication use.

The only thing data doesn’t show yet is where the Goldilocks zone of chiropractic care is for headaches. In other words, what is the ideal range of chiropractic treatments required to provide relief.

And then in October 2020, the European Journal of Pain published a meta-analysis on seven studies evaluating how spinal manipulation therapy impacted cervicogenic headaches. Once again, chiropractic care came through for providing pain relief, reducing the number of and intensity.

Why Chiropractic Works for Headaches

Simply put, chiropractors utilize techniques that specifically target headache-inducing spinal fixations, muscle spasms and neurologic malfunctioning, allowing your body to restore normal spinal joint function, relax muscles, increase blood flow, calm inflammation and restore normal nerve function.