The advertisements are everywhere—at the supermarket, gas station, billboards, or TV—compelling us to ingest this pill or that drug if we have any aches or pains and they will go away. But have you ever thought about how you, the consumer, are being manipulated? These over-the-counter drugs are a booming industry and make huge profits for the companies that push them.

Have you wondered why you don’t see an advertisement suggesting that you should see a doctor to get a proper diagnosis to determine the cause of your headache? Instead, we self-diagnose and self-medicate all while finding no long-term solution for a chronic and long-term problem.

The first question a consumer needs to ask is, “Why do I have a headache?”

Why is your body signaling pain? Humans and other animals have evolved with a nervous system that warns us of problems by making us experience pain. The pain is a like a fire alarm. What would life be like if the fire department responded to a house fire by cutting the fire alarm? We’d still be in a raging inferno. But when pain is temporarily silenced with medicine, the cause of the pain continues. No one could seriously think that headaches are caused by a lack of ibuprofen in the diet. That would be outrageous! But these pain pills are consumed by so many of us; they have almost become part of the national diet. And of course, the dirty little secret is that many people double and triple the dosages recommended on the bottle.

The warnings on the bottle don’t seem to help much either. Stomach bleeding, liver problems, and kidney problems are all serious unintended consequences of taking these pills over a long duration. The side effects are even more dangerous for those who regularly drink alcohol.

So, what’s a person to do? First, get examined by a doctor of chiropractic to determine if there an underlying spinal cause for your headache. The doctor can also rule out rare things that can be causing the headache, such as high blood pressure or a brain tumor (very rare causes). Next, it’s important to realize that pain is a signal and should be embraced rather than ignored or suppressed.

Through natural chiropractic care, your headaches can go away without pain pills. Clinical research in the form of randomized clinical trials have documented the effectiveness of chiropractic care in patients with headaches. The safety profile of chiropractic is far superior to pain medications, including the over-the counter variety.