Headache Assessment
Headache relief comes from a thorough assessment. We can tell in the clinic if your pain is musculoskeletal by taking a history of your headaches and assessing your joints, muscles and nerves. If we see anything of concern, we will refer you to your doctor with a letter of findings.
“more common in women than men”
Is one of the most common symptom experienced by humans. Headaches are usually harmless but can sometimes be a pointer to a more serious illness. That is why, it is always a good idea to see your practitioner or doctor to clear any serious.
“Normally the severity of the headache bears no relation to the gravity of the diagnosis” Dr. Spira.
The assessment involves differentiating between the most common forms of headache and those that may indicate an underlying illness. Here are some categories of the type of headaches:
- Normal headaches eg. food reaction, exercise induced, fasting induced
- Recurring headaches eg. tension the headaches, migraine, cluster headache
- Nerve headaches eg. direct nerve compression – Trigeminal Neuralgia
- Muscle contraction headaches
- Medication misuse headaches
- Head injury headache
- Serious cause of headaches eg. Brain tumour
Headache Management
While there is no absolute cure for headaches, they are generally musculoskeletal in nature and therefore there are heaps of treatment options. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR IF TREATMENT OPTIONS AREN’T WORKING.
Medications
Some can be taken to prevent a headache from happening and some when the patient has a headache. CONSULT A DOCTOR FOR ADVISE ON THIS.
Other therapies – Myotherapy
Here are some factors we look at in your Myotherapy session with us –
- Where is your pain? (Muscle tension can cause headache type symptoms = this tells us what muscle the headache might be coming from)
- Do you grind/clench your teeth? Do you have jaw pain? (Jaw muscle tension can cause neck and head tension)
- What activities/movements are you doing when the pain comes on? What repetitive movements do you do in your day?
- How is your car, TV and desk set up?
- Are there any movement faults in your neck/ upper body/ shoulder that we need to restore? (healthy joint = healthy muscle) Have your ever tried The Mckenzie Method?
- Do you have pain at night / in the morning?
- What pillow/ mattress do you sleep on? (Duck mattress and Therapeutic Pillows Australia)
- What Medications are you on? (e/g/ The pill?)
- Water intake? Nutritional reactions? Do you have any food intolerances?
Feel like you qualify in one or more of these dot points? Try spend some time fixing these and see if your headache gets better. We want to decrease the frequency/ intensity before getting rid of the pain all together. Book in a free 15 min chat to see if we can help you!
REFERENCES
Migraine and Other Headaches 2000 Professor James Lance
Headaches 2000 Dr Paul Spira Health Essentials
Understanding Migraine & Other Headaches 2002 Dr Anne MacGregor
Headache 1999 British Brain & Spine Foundation