Description

The lifetime prevalence of headache is more than 90%. In recent population-based surveys of US adults, nearly 25% annually report recurrent episodes of severe headache and 4% daily or near-daily headache. Prescription or nonprescription products are used by 9% of US adults each week to treat headache, matching hypertension as the primary reason for medication use. The majority of patients presenting to physicians will have primary headache syndromes such as tension-type, cluster, and migraine. Less than 2% of patients in office and 4% of patients in emergency department settings will be found to have headaches secondary to significant pathology. Although the number of studies concerning effects of diet on headache/migraine are very small, there is a growing body of research on types of diets such as the Atkins diet, ketogenic diet, elimination diet, low glycemic index diets have all been investigated. Integrative approaches to the management of headache to include chiropractic spinal manipulation, acupuncture, stress management, exercise as well as meditation all appear to play an important role in headache management.