Headaches and Migraines
Migraines and headaches can affect your life in so many ways. Not many people know that physiotherapy can help you relieve the pain that comes with migraines, so you don’t need to rely on painkillers to get through another day.
Headaches or Migraines affect more than two thirds of the population. They can be incredibly debilitating, disturbing both quality and enjoyment of life and impacting on work productivity.
There is a growing body of evidence supporting the belief that the pain of headache and migraine may be caused by problems in the upper part of the cervical spine (neck). This is termed cervico-genic pain. This means that medication isn’t the only option for treatment and hands-on physiotherapy treatment can provide the solution.
Cervico-genic pain originating in the neck can be referred to the head via a pathway that incorporates the trigeminocervical nucleus. The brain receives input from sensory nerves in the upper three cervical nerve roots and acts to sensitise the trigeminocervical nucleus in the brainstem. The brain then perceives and interprets these pain signals as headache or migraine.
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Physiotherapy assessment will identify the relevant neck joints causing the migraine or headache. The treatment techniques used will immediately reduce the pain. Once normal mobility in the cervical spine is restored, migraines or headache will resolve. Treatment does not include high velocity or ‘cracking’ techniques. Home exercises will ensure the long term management of the problem.
Acupuncture can also be used to help relieve the pain from headaches. Evidence indicates that acupuncture stimulates the nervous system when fine needles are inserted into the body or “acupressure” is applied (with the fingers) to specific acupuncture points. This stimulation causes the release of neurochemicals that activate areas of the brain known to decrease sensitivity to pain and stress.
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Another increasingly popular treatment for headaches arising from muscular tension is dry needling. Fine needles are inserted into “trigger points” (more commonly known as knots). These trigger points are often a cause of local and referred pain. Depending on the situation the needles can be placed and left for a short time and then removed, or can be manually stimulated to cause a local twitch response before being removed. This twitch response causes the contracted fibres of the muscle to relax. There can be some post treatment soreness in the muscle after this type of treatment but afterwards there is a significant reduction in pain and increase in mobility. Our physiotherapists have had extensive training in acupuncture and dry needling and would be happy to discuss how this therapy can help you.
We are thrilled by the excellent results we have been achieving and if you are a migraine or headache sufferer, we would be happy to discuss this treatment with you. You don’t deserve to live every day with this nagging migraine that’s ruining your quality of life.
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