When Your Headache Comes From Your Neck

One of the most common things we help with are people with headaches and migraines.  

How would a chiropractor help with headaches you ask?

There are many connections between your head and neck.  Changes in the neck can affect nerve, bone and/or soft tissues connecting to the head, and sometimes this can result in head pain or more often referred to as headaches.

One very important area in the upper neck is the suboccipital region.  There are four tiny muscles on either side, and one called the Rectus Capitis Posterior Minor has a direct attachment to your Dura.

The Dura is part of the sheath around your spinal cord and brain.  Changes in the structure of the neck can put strain on this small muscle (that is connected from your skull to the first vertebra) and cause tension in the Dura and lead to headache.

One case study looked at a man who suffered for years, and the migraine medication was not working.  The surgeons cut this connection between the muscle and dura and the headaches disappeared.

As a chiropractor I look at what is causing the tension in the first place.  If you have structural shifts in the spine leading to this you will know when I test your neck.  

In most cases I feel the shift, put a slight pressure on the irritated tissue and the patient reports that it creates the same headache they have been feeling.

Search for the root problem, and not just the symptom.