Most of us have experienced headaches and may have experienced a migraine at some stage in our life. Unfortunately, frequent headaches or migraines can regularly occur for some of the population and disrupt their daily life. There is growing clinical evidence that patients that have a musculoskeletal element to their headache can often do quite well with physiotherapy. We can work with you to treat your headaches and migraines.

What is the difference between a headache and a migraine?

The most common headaches I see in the clinic are tension-type headaches and migraines. These are two different things and often people don’t know which one they are experiencing. Tension headaches typically don’t cause nausea, vomiting, or sensitivity to light. They do cause a steady ache, rather than a throbbing one, and tend to affect both sides of the head. On the other hand, a migraine is a severe, throbbing headache accompanied by nausea. Increased sensitivity to light, sound or smells, dizziness and extreme fatigue.

Physiotherapy, Headaches and Migraines: What Can We Do?

As with any injury or issue we run through a thorough physical examination and speak with you about any current emotional or lifestyle stressors. Then by analysing our findings in line with your story we will begin eliminating possibilities to zone in on your true cause and discover what exactly is going on with you. We look at the body and mind holistically and examine stress factors and other triggers.

In many cases, this will give us a good idea of what could be causing the headaches or migraines from a physiotherapist’s perspective. We can also work closely with your GP and refer you for a specialist appointment as we work with all major insurance providers.

Physiotherapy for headaches

Causes of headaches from a Physiotherapy perspective can include but are not limited to poor posture, reduced neck movement, whiplash and abnormal jaw movement, repetitive trauma, shortened neck muscles.

Physiotherapy management of headaches involves:

• Getting the correct diagnosis
• Working with you to develop a management plan to fit your lifestyle
• Educating you on the most appropriate treatment options and mindset
• Assessment of postural habits and loading
• Pillow assessment. A pillow assessment can help ensure that you have the proper pillow and sleeping position to improve neck positions during sleeping.
• Workstation or work desk set up – We can work with you to assess your workstation and desk height, and monitor height and activity levels during work to ensure they are not causing you to suffer
• Strength program – The physiotherapist will then prescribe an exercise program to improve the strength and coordination of your deep neck stabilisers and upper back muscles, which are important for preventing re-injury.

Physiotherapy for migraines

Every person can have a different set of triggers for their migraines. Physiotherapy focuses on treating the muscles and joints outside your brain and spinal cord to ease the pain and intensity of your migraines.

Physiotherapy management for migraines involves:

• Massage to ease your migraine symptoms
• Treating migraine-related musculoskeletal problems
• Manual cervical traction. This can help ease neck pain from your migraines and relieve tension from your nerves and stretch your neck muscles
• Self-management methods. We can teach you how to use ice and heat to ease your symptoms and prescribe self-relaxation tips to lessen pain during a migraine.
• Stretching. Certain stretches can help you feel better during a migraine.

In the clinic, we take a logical and evidence-based approach to dealing with headaches and migraines. We work with clients using techniques such as dry needling, heat, joint mobilisation, soft tissue massage, postural and workstation setup advice, stretching and strengthening exercises.

These techniques in whatever combination is needed will help you identify what treatment options work best for you, and will hopefully reduce the frequency and intensity of your migraines. Helping you to resume normal life at a quicker rate. Although physiotherapy may not be the first place you think of when dealing with headaches or migraines why not consider it as a drug-free alternative to improve your symptoms and quality of life?