Effective Headache Treatment Options
Headaches can vary greatly and may stem from a variety of causes.
One common type is the cervicogenic headache, which originates in the neck. In these cases, the pain felt in the head is actually referred from the neck—often involving the muscles or joints around the spinal bones.
This type of headache often responds well to targeted treatment from Dr. Jordan at Chiro Jordan Chiropractic.
Effective Headache Treatment
While every case is unique, cervicogenic headaches often share some common characteristics. If you’re experiencing them, you might notice discomfort or tension in your neck, at the base of your skull, or on one side of your head. It’s also common to feel tenderness in the neck muscles when touched or to have limited neck movement.
Proper assessment of headaches is always essential. After a thorough evaluation, if it’s determined that cervicogenic headaches are the cause, we’ll discuss the most effective treatment options and create a personalized plan to help relieve them as quickly as possible.
Your treatment plan may include a combination of approaches, such as targeted spinal adjustments to the neck joints (spinal manipulation), muscle therapy, stretching, and spinal mobilization. In some cases, acupuncture can also be a beneficial part of managing cervicogenic headaches.
- Home exercises, postural tips and ergonomic advice will also be given to address any imbalances and possible attributing factors.
- The reason it is always important to thoroughly and carefully carry out a headache assessment is because sometimes a headache is a sign of an underlying condition that requires further investigation or a different kind of treatment, for instance high blood pressure. Headaches can also sometimes be due to a head injury, side effects from medication or sinus congestion.
- If your chiropractor suspects that your headache is due to another such reason you will be referred to your GP or another specialist. Fortunately this is not commonly required, and a headache is usually not due to something serious.
- The frequency and severity of a cervicogenic headache can vary greatly but those who suffer from this type of headache can experience it on a daily basis until effective treatment is carried out.
- Even when you are better you will need to ensure the problem does not return. This can be helped by avoiding prolonged periods of sitting (especially in a bad posture), getting enough rest, keeping hydrated during the day and exercising regularly.
- Treatment with a chiropractor can also help in the prevention of migraines.
- Migraines can be a very difficult problem to have to deal with and there are many different types of treatment with varied outcomes.
- Whilst any treatment you have with us for migraines will definitely not provide a cure, the aim will be to reduce pain intensity and frequency, and to deal with the effects a migraine attack has on the body, such as increased muscles tension and stiffness of the neck.
