Cervicogenic Headache

How To Tell If You Have A Cervicogenic Headache, And How To Treat It

Neck pain and pain in the back of the head are the most common symptoms associated with a cervicogenic headache.  This involves the muscles of the skull, where they connect to the upper neck muscles.  It is also called a cervical headache. The pain is associated with muscle tension or spasms. It is not a sharp pain like a migraine, but a dull ache.

Moving the neck and head makes it worse.  The neck muscles will usually be sore and tender when touched or pressed.

A cervicogenic headache can be treated with multiple approaches including medication, manipulation and exercise therapy, and stress reduction. Here we will look at stress reduction and exercise therapy.

The following is a process designed for a headache that causes pain in the neck and back of the head. If desired, use a CD or music system with instrumental music and/or nature sounds designed for meditation

  1. Get into a comfortable position, in a quite place where you will not be interrupted. Picture your head as a balloon, surrounded by a layer of benign matter that absorbs and dissolves pain. Take a deep breath in as you count to 6, and imagine the balloon getting larger and becoming very light, as the balloon soaks up the pain and it dissipates.

  2. Then breathe out as you count to 12 and make a sound or imagine a sound, of air being released from the balloon. As the air goes out, picture the balloon floating away into outer space, taking with it the head pain it has absorbed.

  3. While continuing to breathe gently in and out, cradle the back of your neck softly in your hands, and place your fingers into the pit of the neck, where the neck attaches to the skull. Breath in to the count of 6 and out to the count of 12, while feeling with your fingers the pit of the neck rising and falling, just as your belly does if you feel it while breathing in and out using belly breathing.

Another approach for treating cervicogenic headaches is a combination of manipulative therapy (i.e. massage) and exercise. A controlled study by the physiotherapy department at the University of Queensland in Australia concluded the participants who did manipulative and/or exercise therapy had greater pain relief than those who did not.

Some exercise therapy for immediate relief:

  1. Tuck your chin: Stand with you back and neck straight, shoulders slightly back.  Tuck in your chin until you can feel a stretch in your neck, but not to the point of pain. Repeat 10 to 20 times.

  2. Press shoulder blades:  Stand straight, with arms loosely at your sides. Tighten and squeeze your shoulder blades together, as close to each other as possible without causing pain, hold five seconds.  Repeat 10 times.

  3. Turn your head:  Sit up straight with shoulders slightly back.  Turn your head to one side, looking over your shoulder, as far as you can without any pain.  Repeat to ten times. Then do the same, looking over the opposite shoulder.

 

 

 

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