Best treatment for headaches

Headache is a common complaint that can have various causes. About 90 to 95 percent of people sometimes suffer from headaches. Headache can be experienced as throbbing, pounding, stabbing or nagging and can be very annoying in daily functioning. A common form of headache is (muscle) tension headache. Excessive tension in the neck– or facial muscles is often attributed to this form of headache. In addition to physical aspects such as increased muscle tension, psychological aspects can also play a role, such as stress, anxiety and depression.

Types of headaches

You may experience all kinds of headaches. This can be used for (muscle) tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches and some forms of migraine manual therapy very helpful. In addition, there are also cluster headaches and medication-dependent headaches. Take in this case Contact to see which treatment will be most effective for you.

Muscle tension headache

Muscle tension headaches do not necessarily mean that you are actually tense. It can also happen that, for example, the neck muscles are tense.

The following complaints often apply to muscle tension headaches:

• The feeling of a tight band around the head
• A dull, pressing pain on both sides of the head
• Presence of neck complaints and tense muscles in the neck and shoulder region

In general, standard activities can be performed normally without increasing your headaches. Some characteristics of muscle tension headaches may even be consistent with migraines. It is therefore sometimes recommended to keep a headache diary to better distinguish between the different types of headaches.

Cervicogenic headache

The term Cervicogenic headache is used when talking about pain in the head that is caused by one or more structures of the brain neck. Together with migraine, this is a common form of headache and is commonly seen in people between the ages of 20 and 60. Cervicogenic headaches occur after damage to one or more joints, muscles, ligaments or nerves of the upper three vertebrae of the neck. The pain is palpable in the head, while the cause of the complaint lies in the neck.

The following complaints often apply to cervicogenic headaches:

• The pain can be felt under the rim of the skull, at the back of the head, with radiation to the forehead
• There is a relationship with neck complaints
• Movements can make the headache worse

Migraine

Migraine is not an ordinary headache, but it is actually a brain disorder. Susceptibility to migraine often runs in families and is unfortunately partly hereditary. There are also a number of things that trigger attacks at fixed times. A migraine is recognized by:

• • An intense, throbbing pain on one side of the head
  • Presence of neck complaints and tense muscles in the neck and shoulder region
  • Side effects such as nausea and/or vomiting, hypersensitivity to light and/or sound occur
  • Your attack lasts for hours or sometimes days
  • Sometimes an aura occurs

Unfortunately, a physiotherapist cannot do anything about migraine itself, but we can reduce triggering factors.

Make an appointment with a physiotherapist

The physiotherapist can use an interview and physical examination to determine whether physiotherapy can be used and which treatment will help you best. This includes general physiotherapy, manual therapy, dry needling, exercise therapy, myofascial techniques or a combination of these specializations.