Headaches with Neck Pain

Symptoms 

• Throbbing Pain: The most common symptom is a throbbing, boring headache. This type of pain is most often found in cervicogenic headaches that are set off by neck movements. 
• Neck Stiffness: Neck pain is usually accompanied by stiffness. This in turn minimizes the mobility of one’s neck. The patient can experience limitations in the ability to move his or her head, or tilt it to the side or bend the neck, which only intensifies the throbbing pain. 
• Shoulder and Upper Back Discomfort: Headaches are effects in the shoulders and the upper region of the back. This is often observed with tension headaches in which the muscle contraction goes beyond the neck area. 

Treatment

Our treatment:- 

• Manual Therapy: The best approach is soft tissue treatment. It enhances mobility and decreases stiffness hence relieving pain after the intervention. 
• Postural Correction: According to the results, incorrect posture is one of the most important causes of headaches that are accompanied by discomfort in the neck area. This is because patients learn the value of posture during the activities of sitting, standing as well as sleeping. Furthermore, we include exercises meant for the muscles that are located around the neck and spinal column. 
• Stretching and Strengthening Exercises: Specific workouts assist in relieving tension in the muscles of neck and shoulders and also assist in building up the muscles that by their nature are least developed adding to postural deviations. This one alleviates pain, enhances flexibility and alleviates subsequent headaches in one cogent move. 
• Dry Needling: Another form of physiotherapy that may be used to address neck related headaches is Dry needling. Specifically, dry needling acts on sensitive points in muscles and relaxes them so that discomfort and pain are minimised while increasing blood circulation. 

Diagnosis

Spine Mantra understands that diagnosing a patient requires considerable time and effort but that is what we do. We employ several procedures in diagnosing the cause of headaches with neck pain. 

• Physical Examination:- First, there is an assessment of the client’s physical fitness and the mobility of the neck while feeling for knots and sources of pain in the muscles. It also involves confirmation of positional abnormalities, and any present signs of discomfort observed. 
• Patient History: Going further, it is important to know the patient’s activities, work schedule, and previous diseases to make the correct diagnosis. The patient is probed on the nature of the headaches, which includes the frequency, magnitude and any activity that may be linked with headaches are queried.
• Posture and Movement Analysis: Our physiotherapists assess if the patient has poor posture that may be causing the headaches or any reproduction of the task that the patient usually performs that may be causing the headaches. This enables us to adjust the strategy of treatment that we use in correcting the posture and the imbalanced muscles. 
• Imaging Tests: There are times when we will refer you for imaging studies such as X-rays or MRI of the spine to ensure that there is no other anatomical cause for the pain such as a disc herniation or arthritis. They are useful in creating a better management plan of the patient since they offer more information.  

Neck pain related headaches hamper your quality of life greatly but when properly managed and treated by a physiotherapist; this is avoidable. Our physiotherapy services at Spine Mantra are unique because instead of providing one-size-fits-all solutions, we tailor the treatments according to the patient’s needs and aims to cure the problem from within. Therefore, if you feel a headache with some neck pain, you should not wait and consult with Spine Mantra for more information and the required assistance.