HEADACHE BLOG
Would Prolotherapy be helpful for chronic tension headache?
If your neck hurts first, then you get a tension headache, we find this means the cause of your tension headaches are in your neck....or if your neck hurts with the tension headache...in cases like this Prolotherapy has a high cure rate in our experience. Being a holistic clinic, we would definitely try to get to the root cause of your pain and eliminate it, rather than medicate you to try to cover up the pain.

Prolotherapy is a treatment we use here to heal and strengthen damaged or loose tendons and ligaments. If you have problems with these structures in and around your neck and shoulders, they could be a trigger for your headaches as they are responsible for keeping your vertebrae in place, if they are unstable, muscle spasms can trigger headaches.

Prolotherapy is a series of injections to the damaged areas, treatments spaced about 4 weeks apart. Most people need 4 to 8 treatments. Others conditions which may cause headaches are hormone imbalances and chronic food allergies or sensitivities, which we test and treat for here. Commonly it is a combination of factors that cause headaches, especially when other "simple" solutions other doctors have tried do not work. An exam would tell us which direction to go in your treatment plan.

Headaches Have a Neck Component
Ask a person who has chronic headaches-any kind of headache-from migraines, tension, muscular, to cluster headaches-they will inevitably say that either before, during, or after the headache they experienced neck pain. What most people do not realize is that the ligaments in the neck refer pain to the head. This is the reason why most headaches have a neck component.

Three Types of Headaches
The symptoms of headaches are so prevalent that many physicians dismiss headache patients and label them as emotional or stressed out, which leaves them in even more despair. A good example of this is Marion, who started getting migraine headaches shortly after marrying me! On her one and only visit to the HMO physician, she received a quickly scribbled out prescription for Propranolol, though he wanted to give her an antidepressant.

Answer by Ross Hauser, M.D.
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Disclaimer: The information on this website is presented as information only and not a self-help guide NOR AS SPECIFIC HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS. The physician you are visiting has had the benefit of performing medical examinations and laboratory tests to determine the degree of your symptoms. Important tools in not only prescribing a treatment plan but also in determining your response. If you have concerns about your treatment, please direct your questions to your physician because that is the proper course to take. Prolotherapy may not be effective for every individual and there are risks involved, these risks should be discussed with your physician. Results achieved with some may not be typical of all. Please consult a physician.