Neck issues are often the cause of neck tension headaches and migraines and without the proper treatment, they can often be a crippling experience.
In this blog, find out everything you need to know about relieving your neck tension headaches and migraines.
What is a Tension Headache?
Tension headaches are a popular form of headache, often accounting for 90% of all headaches.
Tension headache types
There are 2 types of tension headaches.
- Episodic tension headaches:
These are tension headaches that often occur less than or equal to 15 days per month
- Chronic tension headaches:
These types of tension headaches occur more than 15 days per month for 3 consecutive months. These types of headaches tend to be more debilitating for those experiencing them.
Symptoms of Tension headaches
Tension-type headaches (TTH) are typically headaches that are felt on both sides of head. They are often described as a dull ache or vice-like in nature. People often feel the sides of their head tightening or squeezing at times. Other symptoms include:
- Pain of mild to moderate intensity
- Sensitivity to sound/light
- Tenderness/tightness of the scalp, neck and/or shoulder muscles
How are they caused?
TTH is often caused by tension, stress, or a poor/sustained posture. It can be related to neck or upper cervical spine dysfunction
Can Neck Issues Cause Migraines?
Yes, neck issues can cause migraines. The reason is due to the overstimulation of the brain stem – the path where your body sends information from your eyes, ears, jaws, and neck, to the brain.
Too much stimulus from one or more of these areas can trigger the brain to think a threat is present, causing it to create migraine symptoms.
A tight neck, jaw or shoulders can contribute to this sensory input. These areas can continually send negative input into the brain stem. In fact, nerves from the top three vertebrae in your spine provide direct input to the brain stem and can be a cause or contributor of migraine symptoms.
How to relieve tension headaches?
There are multiple ways of relieving tension headaches. Methods of doing so include:
- Relaxation techniques such as
- Meditation
- Low intensity exercise
- Taking regular breaks when at your desk
- Stress management
- Massage or acupuncture
- Over the counter medication
- Physiotherapy
How Can a Physio Help to relieve Tension Headache?
Physiotherapists help to diagnose and educate you regarding your symptoms. They can determine if your upper cervical spine is contributing to your tension-type headache and provide manual therapy to relieve tension in your neck and shoulders.
Other methods used to relieve tension headaches include:
- Tailored exercises to improve your posture
- Acupuncture/Dry Needling
- Stress management techniques
- Work ergonomic assessment/training
How Can a Physio Help to relieve a Migraine?
Here at North West Physiotherapy Nundah, our Physiotherapist Dat uses the Watson Headache® Approach.
This approach is a manual (non-manipulative/-cracking) cervical assessment and management process that helps you relieve your migraine. This includes:
- Assessing if the vertebrae is related to your migraine symptoms
- Correct the neck issues.
- Your physio will determine which of the top 3 segments of your neck are contributing to symptoms through slow sustained pressure.
This will reproduce headache/migraine symptoms which quickly eases. This process is repeated until each part of your neck is desensitised to causing the migraine symptoms - We’ll also discuss of strategies to manage migraine once treated
‘The Watson Headache® Approach allows Dat to be able to determine if your neck is involved after 3-4 closely successive treatments without triggering a migraine attack or cracking your neck.
Experiencing Neck tension headaches or migraines?
Don’t let the pain continue! Book in a consultation with one of our physios to help with your tension headache today. For migraines, ask for Dat at our Nundah Clinic!
