Remission of Abdominal Migraines Following Chiropractic Care

Published on August 12, 2025, in the open access journal Cureus, was the results of a case study documenting chiropractic care helping a pediatric patient who was suffering from abdominal migraines.

The American Migraine foundation described this condition on their website as, "Abdominal migraine is a form of migraine with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting episodes. It’s different from typical migraine attacks because it doesn’t usually have head pain as a symptom. This disease is mostly seen in children. Attacks can last from two to 72 hours, and in between attacks, a person has no symptoms."

The author of this study begins by pointing out that abdominal migraines (AM) are a debilitating condition that affects about 1% to 4% of the pediatric population. During these attacks, the child may experience moderate to severe stomach pain as well as feeling sick and vomiting. These AM attacks are not accompanied by headaches.

In this case, a 10-year-old girl was brought to the chiropractor for help with mild scoliosis and back stiffness. Although the scoliosis was mild, there was a noticeable asymmetry in her posture and occasionally the girl did experience some discomfort during prolonged sitting or physical activities, like sports. In addition to these issues, the girl was also suffering with moderate to severe recurrent stomach pains for the past 16 months. The stomach pains would typically last from 2 to 24 hours and was accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. This issue had caused the girl to miss eight days of school in the last six months alone.

A chiropractic examination with spinal x-rays confirmed the presence of a mild scoliosis. Specific forms of age-appropriate chiropractic care were started along with recommendations for home exercises. The girl was initially seen at the rate of three visits per week for the first month, after which her frequency was reduced as she showed improvement.

The study reports that by the second month of care, the stomach pains had significantly reduced. Shortly thereafter, the stomach pains had completely stopped. The girl also showed improvement with her back and overall movement. Three months into her care, a second set of spinal x-rays were taken which showed significant improvements in her scoliosis. In an eleven-month follow-up, the girl was still completely symptom free.

In the conclusion of this study, the author explained, "The resolution of symptoms following chiropractic manipulations suggests a possible interplay between spinal misalignment and gastrointestinal symptoms, possibly mediated by the autonomic nervous system." He continued, "This novel case indicates that chiropractic care may serve as a promising non-pharmacological option, calling for further trials to assess its effectiveness against traditional therapies and to investigate processes such as gut-brain axis modulation in the management of abdominal migraines."