Headaches and Migraines
Headaches are debilitating and distracting and no one wants them.
Over 10 million people in the UK suffer from headaches regularly. A multitude of things such as postural problems, stress, eyestrain, trauma and fatigue can cause them.
If you frequently get headaches, neck pain or both, please don’t worry, as gentle treatment from us is available to ease your symptoms. Decrease that which tends to cause it, if possible, and follow our suggested exercises. Along with our massage and mobilisation of all the bits that have ‘locked up’ around the head, neck and shoulders, you’ll start to feel better right away.
Did you know that NICE guidelines for health services recently published an article on how chronic over use of headache medications could actually cause headaches?
So, if you frequently get headaches and turn to tablets for relief why not consider seeing us first. We can help you get the pain relief you need, fast.
What are the main types of headaches we can get?
Commonly people experience one of two forms of headache. Firstly, those caused by painful joints, muscle spasm and/or nerve irritation in the neck and shoulder area which are known as cervicogenic headaches. The other kind, affects the nervous system (known as migraine and tension headaches). In addition to severe pain, migraine may also cause nausea, sickness, dizziness, changes to vision (or smell) as well as hypersensitivity to light and noise. Patients with migraine can be sensitive to certain foods and hormonal changes as well and feel worse with movement. Sufferers say it feels like a pressing or tightening of the head. Often migraine pain is one-sided, can induce sickness and can last up to three days.
When we ask you about your headache we will consider the many factors which might be involved.
Most popular are tension headaches and we achieve the best results treating these.
Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. Their pain can travel to the back of your eyes, neck and upper back. Pain is often on both sides of your head, and feels vice-like. Triggers include disturbed sleep, bad posture, stress, hunger and tired eyes. Often tension headaches stem from muscle tensions in the neck and shoulders or over the temples.
Commonly with headaches there is an increase in tension at the base of the skull, with pain there or referred to the forehead and eye area. The tightened muscles and joint restrictions in the upper neck from poor posture, stress or injury may contribute to reduced mobility and irritation of the local nerves and blood vessels.
You may not be able to remove the stress from your life but we can help put the health back into the neck muscles and joints so they are better equipped to cope with the unavoidable stress.
Many patients simply don’t realise that they are spending much of their day with hunched shoulders, clenched teeth, or tight fists.
We can relax you and always encourage you to fidget and move to ease the muscle tensions further.
Correcting poor posture, is one of the reasons that osteopathic treatment for headaches can be so helpful. Simply by relieving the tension in the muscles and releasing the joints in the neck we are able to improve your symptoms very quickly (often in two or four sessions).
Invest in a good osteopathic massage. You’ll never regret it.
We can work with you, giving postural advice and helpful exercises and stretches, to prevent the headaches from coming back.
Advice on how to improve your work and home environments to suit your condition is essential too and we make sure you understand what needs to change to achieve your goal to be headache-free.
