How do I know if my headache is coming from my neck? There are so many causes of headache (over 300 different causes according to the
International Headache Society!), that sometimes it can be difficult to identify the exact cause of a headache. In a lot of cases, the cause is thought to be “multifactorial” – that is, a combination of quite a few factors. This might ring true for a lot of people, when you think
about the combination of factors like fatigue, stress, dehydration, heat etc… Often a headache can arise after the “perfect storm” of quite a few of these factors together.
How, then, can we try to identify the neck as a potential contributor? Well, having regular neck pain and stiffness can be a sign that the neck is part of the “perfect storm” of factors. (Sometimes it can be the main cause, other times it is just one of many factors). Headaches caused by the neck also often occur after activities of neck strain (eg. working on a computer for a long period).
Physiotherapists work by palpating the different structures in the cervical spine (neck area) and can often reproduce a patient’s headache by pushing on the structure responsible. By targeting treatment to the structures responsible, and working on longer-term factors such as neck strength, flexibility and posture, often the cervical spine improves and headaches can cease in both the short- and long-term.