Are Headaches Causing You Frequent Pain? Find Relief with Physical Therapy

Did You Know Physical Therapy Could Help With Headache Relief?

The term "sick headache" might have been coined to describe exactly how you feel today -- and every day. A one-off headache encounter can be distressing enough, but frequent or constant headache pain can completely disable you.

Many of these headaches have underlying musculoskeletal or biochemical causes - which means that they can be corrected through the right forms of treatment. In many cases, physical therapy turns out to be just what the doctor ordered for chronic headaches and Washington Physical Therapy and Rehab can help solve your pains.

Are you experiencing these symptoms?

Stress-related headaches can vary widely in severity, although they're rarely as debilitating as migraines.

They tend to a generalized ache over a broad region of the head, as opposed to attacking a specific area such as the eye (a trademark of another type of headache called a cluster headache).

The tension that brings them on may stem from emotional stress (if that emotional stress creates chronic neck tightness), but it may also be caused by:

  • Weak neck muscles that become fatigued easily
  • "Text neck," a strain disorder that occurs if you're always drooping your head forward to look at your smartphone
  • Repetitive motion or overuse from work or sports activities
  • Secondary pain problems such as arthritis in the cervical spine

Stress-related headaches that bother you for more than 15 days out of the month for 3 months or more are considered a chronic pain condition.

Physical therapy and headache relief

Our physical therapist can help you get to the bottom of your headache problem.

If your headache is cervinogenic in nature, we may need to work on your neck. For instance:

  • Our physical therapist can help you identify other migraine triggers and suggest strategies for avoiding them in your everyday life.
  • If your migraines are the result of a recent concussion, a carefully-administered course of physical therapy can actually help you recuperate from that concussion more quickly.
  • Corrective exercises and postural/ergonomic changes can help you steer clear of "text neck" and other occupational headache triggers.
  • Laser therapy and massage therapy can both relax tight neck tissues and speed recovery to injured muscles.
  • Chiropractic adjustment can correct skeletal misalignment issues that place your neck muscles under unnatural strain. These adjustments can also help to reduce cluster headache attacks.
  • Exercises that strengthen and loosen your neck muscles can help to ease the stresses that set off your headaches.

What’s causing my persistent headaches?

What is a headache, beyond the simple definition of a pain in the head? There are actually several categories of headaches, each with its own distinct causes and symptoms.

For most sufferers, chronic headaches mean tension headaches. A tension headache can be triggered or aggravated by emotional tension, but the actual mechanism involves physical tension in the muscles of the neck.

Tight or strained neck muscles can go into spasm. When spasms overtake certain tiny muscles near the base of the skull, the resulting tugging action irritates a membrane called the dura mater. The dura mater then responds by flooding your head with a vaguely pounding or aching sensation.

Weak or underdeveloped neck muscles may be naturally vulnerable to tightness and spasms. Accident injuries (including whiplash) can push the skull off-center in relation to the neck, subjecting the neck muscles to abnormal stresses. (A headache that specifically involves the upper cervical spine is termed a cervinogenic headache.)

Even routine postural problems can cause neck strain and tension headaches. For instance, if you stare down at your smartphone for hours each day, you can develop a painful problem known as "text neck" which also promotes headaches.

Other kinds of headaches, while less common, can prove even more debilitating. Cluster headaches are a prime example. These intense headaches strike one side of your face in clusters of attacks. These headaches have been associated with cervical spinal abnormalities.

Migraines are even more notorious for causing nausea, light/sound sensitivity, faintness and vision problems on top of brutal headaches. Migraines sometimes occur as a complication of concussions; they are also triggered by exposure to specific stimuli such as lights, sounds, or foods.

Schedule a consultation with a physical therapist today

You're not doomed to go through life plagued by frequent headaches. If you're ready to free yourself from this burden, give physical therapy a try.

Contact our physical therapist today to learn more about our headache treatment options!

Say Goodbye to Your Stress Headaches, Once and for All

If stress headaches are happening so frequently that they are impacting your daily life, it’s time to start thinking about physical therapy for relief. Stress headaches, also called tension headaches, are the most common type of headache that impacts people. While they are not as serious as migraines, tension headaches are a sign that something in your body is “off.” A physical therapist can work with you to determine the cause and eliminate stress-related headaches for good.

Causes of Stress-Related Headaches

One of the main causes of stress headaches is right there in the name: stress. The headache generally happens when the muscles in the neck or scalp become tense and contract. Depression and anxiety are similar emotions to stress that can also lead to headaches. In addition, there may be a physical cause behind your stress-related headaches. An accident or injury to the neck or back can contribute to headaches. Poor posture and arthritis are two other potential causes.

Diagnosing Your Headaches with a Physical Therapist

Before your physical therapy treatments begin, your therapist will work with you to diagnose your headaches. You’ll need to discuss your medical history with the therapist. If you sustained an injury to your neck, back or jaw years ago, it could still be contributing to headaches to this day. The location where you experience pain, such as in the face, back of the neck or forehead, can also help to diagnose the source.

Your physical therapist will likely run you through some tests as part of the diagnosis phase. For example, your posture will be checked as you engage in several activities. The strength of your muscles and the range of motion in your neck and shoulders will be tested. Your therapist might do some manual therapy to see how mobile your neck joints are. Once the cause of your stress-related headaches is determined, a customized course of physical therapy can be prescribed to treat them.

Physical Therapy for Stress-Related Headaches

The treatment of your stress headaches will depend in part on the diagnosis. For example, one course of treatment that would work for correcting your posture and strengthening the neck muscles might not be appropriate if your headaches are the result of a past injury. In general, you can expect stretching and strength training to be part of your treatment. Other options that your physical therapist might employ can include:

  • Soft tissue mobilization
  • Hot and cold compressions
  • Body mobilization
  • Cervical traction
  • McKenzie therapies

Aside from your physical therapy sessions at the clinic, your therapist will also recommend exercises, stretches and lifestyle changes that you can make at home, which will all contribute to eliminating your headaches.

Benefits of Physical Therapy for Headaches

The ultimate goal of your physical therapy regimen will be to eliminate your stress-related headaches. However, in addition to relief, you will gain additional benefits that will likely improve your overall quality of life:

  • Improved Strength: Your therapist will teach you exercises to strengthen your neck and upper back, which will lead to improved posture. With better posture, you will be able to stand and sit longer without experiencing discomfort.
  • Reduced Neck Tension: You will have better range of motion in your neck and reduced tension, thanks to manual physical therapy techniques applied to the muscles there.
  • Better Posture: Bad posture is really one of the leading causes of stress-related headaches. If you don’t enjoy good posture throughout the day, it is likely to lead to more generalized aches and pains, as well as the muscle tension that contributes to stress-related headaches.

What are you waiting for? Stress-related headaches can be a thing of the past for you, after working with a physical therapist to correct the problem. Contact our office today to schedule your first appointment.

Say Goodbye to Your Stress-Related Headaches, Once and For All

Are you tortured by headache pain morning, noon and night, day after day? Does emotional and/or physical stress always seem to trigger a headache? If so, you’re one of the many Americans who suffer from stress-related or tension headaches. These headaches have own distinctive style, and some of their underlying causes may actually surprise you. If you’re ready to tackle those underlying causes so you can relieve your headaches without turning to drugs, physical therapy might hold your answers. Contact Washington Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation today — our physical therapist will be happy to help you feel better!

What Are Tension Headaches?

The emotional and physical stresses of modern everyday life seem to go hand-in-hand with headache pain. For some people, stress can even serve as a trigger for fearsome migraine attacks, which cause not only blinding headaches but other issues such as vision problems, vomiting, and faintness. But for the majority of us, the word “headache” refers to a tension headache.

Tension headaches are well named, but not always for the reasons you might suspect. They actually begin, not in the head, but in the muscles of the neck or shoulders. If these muscles become chronically tense and tight, they tend to go into spasm. This is bad news for the dura mater, a pain-sensitive membrane attached to certain small muscles near the base of the skull. The tight muscles pull on the dura mater, which causes it to refer pain signals up into the head.

Symptoms and Causes of Tension Headaches

Tension headaches can vary widely in severity, although they’re rarely as debilitating as migraines. They tend to a generalized ache over a broad region of the head, as opposed to attacking a specific area such as the eye (a trademark of another type of headache called a cluster headache). The tension that brings them on may stem from emotional stress (if that emotional stress creates chronic neck tightness), but it may also be caused by:

  • Weak neck muscles that become fatigued easily
  • Text neck,” a strain disorder that occurs if you’re always drooping your head forward to look at your smartphone
  • Repetitive motion or overuse from work or sports activities
  • Secondary pain problems such as arthritis in the cervical spine

Tension headaches that bother you for more than 15 days out of the month for 3 months or more are considered a chronic pain condition.

How Physical Therapy Can Help With Tension Headaches

Over-the-counter pain relievers may reduce the symptoms of stress-related headaches for a few hours, but they do nothing about the stresses and strains that are making those headaches recur day after day. If you want a more lasting solution, physical therapy is a good place to start. Our physical therapist will administer an examination to see whether you’re dealing with tension headaches or with some other type of headache that requires a specialist’s attention. Physical therapy strategies for treating tension headaches include:

  • Exercises to strengthen your neck muscles, allowing them to hold the weight of your head more evenly and with less strain
  • Postural and ergonomic advice to help you get rid of any bad habits that might be causing “text neck”
  • Flexibility exercises, manual therapy, heat therapy and/or ice therapy
  • Stress reduction measures such as yoga, lifestyle changes, and advice on how to reduce common stress triggers in your life.

Take action to stop those stress-related headaches from taking over your life. Call our physical therapy clinic today and schedule an appointment with our skilled physical therapist!

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