5 things doctors don't tell you about headaches and migraines
Oct 04, 2018
The chances are that if you are reading this that either you or someone you know is suffering from ongoing headaches and or migraines, and I am sure that you are frustrated with not having a real solution.
Why does the only answer seem to be drugs or invasive procedures?
So let’s lift the lid on the secrets of the causes and treatments for headaches and migraines to help you get the best possible solution.
Why does the only answer seem to be drugs or invasive procedures?
So let’s lift the lid on the secrets of the causes and treatments for headaches and migraines to help you get the best possible solution.
1) Regardless of whether you feel neck discomfort or pain there is a strong connection between neck dysfunction and headaches and migraines.
Many cases of headache are caused by referred pain from an area away from the actual pain. This is very common phenomenon in the body. It’s like pain from a heart attack referring to the left arm.
This is a map of the referred pain areas which shows that based on where the pain is located headaches often come from the neck. If your doctor doesn't know this or does not how to examine the neck precisely - then this common diagnosis can be missed.
If you have pain signal that is sent from the neck, the brain will often interpret the signal as coming from the face and it will feel like a head pain. The lower brainstem can also become sensitised, which means that it takes less input for a pain signal to be sent to the brain. When this happens people who suffer from headaches/migraines can either be in constant pain or they can be primed, awaiting a trigger to set off their pain. Triggers can include things such as a change in hormone levels, red wine, noise, light etc.
2) Medication is commonly prescribed as the go-to treatment for headaches/migraines but it could actually make you worse
When you have a headache or migraine, you take pain medication (e.g. panadol, nurofen, triptans etc) to help relieve or eliminate the pain, however these medications only act in the short term therefore you are likely to suffer a headache or migraine again in the near future. These medications are not addressing the underlying cause of your pain, they simply put a bandaid on the condition.
However whilst these medications are supposed to act to help reduce our pain, too frequent use of these medications can lead to what’s known as a “rebound headache” or “medication overuse headache” where the medication can actually cause a headache. Interestingly, this phenomenon only occurs in people with pre-existing headache/migraine conditions who take pain medications. It does not happen in people, for example, with arthritis who take pain relief frequently.
3) People who suffer severe headaches usually suffer mild headaches more frequently. These headaches aren’t separate headaches, they are all connected.
Perhaps you only get a really bad headache once every two weeks to once every month but you get mild to moderate headaches twice to three times per week, or maybe even daily. Can you remember the last time you went a full week without any kind of head pain? Although these headaches might differ in intensity, the cause is the same, they are not separate entities. These mild headaches that you are suffering from regularly are migraines waiting to happen.
4) Once a migraine sufferer, always a migraine sufferer – not true!
In the traditional medical model it was thought that once a migraine sufferer, always a migraine sufferer. That just simply doesn’t have to be true. With accurate diagnosis and treatment, manual therapy can be useful in treating all forms of non-malignancy based headaches and migraines.
5) Not all treatment for the neck are the same and not just any therapist can do it.
So, not only have you tried medication in the past but with a long history of headaches/migraines you have probably tried some form of manual therapy (e.g. osteopathy, physiotherapy, myotherapy etc) at some stage in your journey with some to limited success, so what makes one practitioner different to another? What headache and migraine experts know is that in order to obtain the best outcomes in the treatment and resolution of head pain, you have to carefully assess the position of the problem area, diagnose the area of dysfunction, reproduce the pain and then resolve it. Knowing which order to assess and treat the joints responsible for headaches/migraines is vital for success. Therefore these practitioners are trained in headache and migraine specific techniques and not just neck pain techniques. When it comes to such a specific area such as head pain, wouldn’t you rather be treated by someone who has a dedicated interest and advanced training in that area?
Many cases of headache are caused by referred pain from an area away from the actual pain. This is very common phenomenon in the body. It’s like pain from a heart attack referring to the left arm.
This is a map of the referred pain areas which shows that based on where the pain is located headaches often come from the neck. If your doctor doesn't know this or does not how to examine the neck precisely - then this common diagnosis can be missed.
If you have pain signal that is sent from the neck, the brain will often interpret the signal as coming from the face and it will feel like a head pain. The lower brainstem can also become sensitised, which means that it takes less input for a pain signal to be sent to the brain. When this happens people who suffer from headaches/migraines can either be in constant pain or they can be primed, awaiting a trigger to set off their pain. Triggers can include things such as a change in hormone levels, red wine, noise, light etc.
2) Medication is commonly prescribed as the go-to treatment for headaches/migraines but it could actually make you worse
When you have a headache or migraine, you take pain medication (e.g. panadol, nurofen, triptans etc) to help relieve or eliminate the pain, however these medications only act in the short term therefore you are likely to suffer a headache or migraine again in the near future. These medications are not addressing the underlying cause of your pain, they simply put a bandaid on the condition.
However whilst these medications are supposed to act to help reduce our pain, too frequent use of these medications can lead to what’s known as a “rebound headache” or “medication overuse headache” where the medication can actually cause a headache. Interestingly, this phenomenon only occurs in people with pre-existing headache/migraine conditions who take pain medications. It does not happen in people, for example, with arthritis who take pain relief frequently.
3) People who suffer severe headaches usually suffer mild headaches more frequently. These headaches aren’t separate headaches, they are all connected.
Perhaps you only get a really bad headache once every two weeks to once every month but you get mild to moderate headaches twice to three times per week, or maybe even daily. Can you remember the last time you went a full week without any kind of head pain? Although these headaches might differ in intensity, the cause is the same, they are not separate entities. These mild headaches that you are suffering from regularly are migraines waiting to happen.
4) Once a migraine sufferer, always a migraine sufferer – not true!
In the traditional medical model it was thought that once a migraine sufferer, always a migraine sufferer. That just simply doesn’t have to be true. With accurate diagnosis and treatment, manual therapy can be useful in treating all forms of non-malignancy based headaches and migraines.
5) Not all treatment for the neck are the same and not just any therapist can do it.
So, not only have you tried medication in the past but with a long history of headaches/migraines you have probably tried some form of manual therapy (e.g. osteopathy, physiotherapy, myotherapy etc) at some stage in your journey with some to limited success, so what makes one practitioner different to another? What headache and migraine experts know is that in order to obtain the best outcomes in the treatment and resolution of head pain, you have to carefully assess the position of the problem area, diagnose the area of dysfunction, reproduce the pain and then resolve it. Knowing which order to assess and treat the joints responsible for headaches/migraines is vital for success. Therefore these practitioners are trained in headache and migraine specific techniques and not just neck pain techniques. When it comes to such a specific area such as head pain, wouldn’t you rather be treated by someone who has a dedicated interest and advanced training in that area?
