Migraines affect many of our lives. Here are some interesting statistics from the Migraine Research Foundation:

39 million men, women and children in the U.S. experience migraines and an astounding 1 billion worldwide.

Everyone either knows someone who suffers from migraine, or struggles with migraine themselves.

Migraine is the 3rd most prevalent illness in the world.

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households includes someone with migraine.

Amazingly, 12% of the population – including children – suffers from migraine.

18% of American women, 6% of men, and 10% of children experience migraines.

Migraine is most common between the ages of 18 and 44.

Migraine tends to run in families. About 90% of migraine sufferers have a family history of migraine.

Most people don’t realize how serious and incapacitating migraine can be.

Migraine is the 6th most disabling illness in the world.

Every 10 seconds, someone in the U.S. goes to the emergency room complaining of head pain, and approximately 1.2 million visits are for acute migraine attacks.

While most sufferers experience attacks once or twice a month, more than 4 million people have a chronic daily migraine with at least 15 migraine days per month.

More than 90% of sufferers are unable to work or function normally during their migraine.

Migraine is much more than a bad headache.

Migraine is a neurological disease with extremely incapacitating neurological symptoms.

It’s typically a severe throbbing recurring pain, usually on one side of the head. But in about 1/3 of attacks, both sides are affected.

In some cases, other disabling symptoms are present without head pain.

Attacks are often accompanied by one or more of the following disabling symptoms: visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, extreme sensitivity to sound, light, touch and smell, and tingling or numbness in the extremities or face.

About 25% of migraine sufferers also have a visual disturbance called an aura, which usually lasts less than an hour.

In 15-20% of attacks, other neurological symptoms occur before the actual head pain.

Attacks usually last between 4 and 72 hours.

For many sufferers, migraine is a chronic disease that significantly diminishes their quality of life.

More than 4 million adults experience chronic daily migraine – with at least 15 migraine days per month.

Medication overuse is the most common reason why episodic migraine turns chronic.

Depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances are common for those with chronic migraine.

Over 20% of chronic migraine sufferers are disabled, and the likelihood of disability increases sharply with the number of comorbid conditions.

Migraine disproportionately affects women

Migraine affects about 28 million women in the U.S.

85% of chronic migraine sufferers are women.

Before puberty, boys are affected more than girls, but during adolescence, the risk of migraine and its severity rises in girls.

Roughly 1 in 4 women will experience migraine in their lives.

Three times as many women as men suffer from migraine in adulthood.

About half of female sufferers have more than one attack each month, and a quarter experience 4 or more severe attacks per month.

More severe and more frequent attacks often result from fluctuations in estrogen levels

Migraine affects kids, too.

Migraine often goes undiagnosed in children.

About 10% of school-age children suffer from migraine.

Half of all migraine sufferers have their first attack before the age of 12. Migraine has even been reported in children as young as 18 months. Recently, infant colic was found to be associated with childhood migraine and may even be an early form of migraine.

Children who suffer are absent from school twice as often as children without migraine.

In childhood, boys suffer from migraine more often than girls; as adolescence approaches, the incidence increases more rapidly in girls than in boys.

A child who has one parent with migraine has a 50% chance of inheriting it, and if both parents have migraine, the chances rise to 75%.

Migraine is a public health issue with serious social and economic consequences.

Healthcare and lost productivity costs associated with migraine are estimated to be as high as $36 billion annually in the U.S.

In 2015, the medical cost of treating chronic migraine was more than $5.4 billion, however, these sufferers spent over $41 billion on treating their entire range of conditions.

Healthcare costs are 70% higher for a family with a migraine sufferer than a non-migraine affected family.

More than 157 million workdays are lost each year in the US due to migraine.

U.S. headache sufferers receive $1 billion worth of brain scans each year.

Migraine sufferers, like those who suffer from other chronic illnesses, experience the high costs of medical services, too little support, and limited access to quality care.

Beyond the burden of a migraine attack itself, having migraine increases the risk for other physical and psychiatric conditions.

Migraine remains a poorly understood disease that is often undiagnosed and undertreated.

In 2018, there are about 500 certified headache specialists in the U.S. and 39 million sufferers.

More than half of all migraine sufferers are never diagnosed.

The vast majority of migraine sufferers do not seek medical care for their pain.

Only 4% of migraine sufferers who seek medical care consult headache and pain specialists.

Although 25% of sufferers would benefit from preventive treatment, only 12% of all sufferers receive it.

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With how poorly migraines are currently understood and managed, what would hope be worth to this community? What if there was a simple solution without drugs, surgery, or side-effects that let migraine sufferers break away from its burden and live their lives as they desired?

In ours and many other Chiropractic practices around the world, migraine sufferers are given their life back. They are finally able to lead a normal life, free of the symptoms and dysfunction associated with migraines.

Our very own Dr. Michelle Pascal seen amazing results with her migraines. As she tells it, full spine adjusting and especially upper cervical care made drastic improvements in the severity and frequency of her migraines. Previously, she used to get them about twice a month and they would be excruciatingly debilitating. Since being under regular chiropractic care, she now gets one or two migraines per year! And they are reportedly much less debilitating and she is able to either catch them early or push through them. Now Dr. Michelle may go for eight straight months or more without getting a migraine!

Many of our practice members report very similar experiences. One young woman that started with us at the beginning of the year, after missing out on her Friends Giving due to a migraine, has not had one since her very first adjustment!

Numerous others experience the same relief from migraines, headaches, and other conditions under specific chiropractic care and the research is piling up!

How you ask?

Chiropractic as all about bringing the body into its natural balance. We do this by easing stress on the nervous system and allowing the body to function and heal the way it was designed to do. When our body is expressing symptoms and pain, this is always a sign that there exists dysfunction within the body. By balancing out the master control system of the body, the nervous system, the body is able to recover as it should and there is no further need for the symptoms. By addressing the cause of dysfunction the body that produces pain and symptoms, there becomes no need for the symptoms or the band-aids or drugs that address them.

Chiropractic helps the body to better manage the physical, chemical, and mental stressors of daily life so that rather than breaking down under them, one can express life to their fullest potential, free of debilitating symptoms like migraine headaches.

Help us recognize migraine awareness month and tell your loved ones about chiropractic care for their migraine headaches, then you get to be the hero for changing their life!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or comments.

Sources:

Peter J.Tuchin GradDipChiro, DipOHS, Henry PollardGradDipChiro, GradDipAppSc, Rod Bonello DC, Dob, “A randomized controlled trial of chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for migraine.” Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, Volume 23, Issue 2, February 2000, Pages 91-95