Anyone who has suffered from regular headaches knows how unpleasant and disrupting they can be. Many headache sufferers find it difficult to concentrate, to work or even carry out simple activities without feeling grumpy.
Jamie’s story
Jamie came to me here at Sundial because of six years of headaches that were affecting his work and his life with his partner. And things were getting worse. A recent increase of the frequency of the episodes made him realise he had to do something.
Headaches can be bad enough but Jamie’s symptoms started a journey all of their own. His pain was travelling from his neck to the top of his head on one side and travelling down to the shoulders and to between his shoulder blades. He would always have the headaches during the week and only found respite at the weekends. A stressful day at work or being on a computer for long period of time was increasing the pain to unbearable levels so even painkillers were ineffective
Jamie has a job with a lot of responsibilities in a big company and needs to manage a team. He spends a lot of time sitting in meetings and even more staring at a computer screen. Stress is a constant feature in his work.
When Jamie came to see he was keen to end this agony. After an examination I found that some of the joints in his neck were stiff and not moving correctly. The surrounding muscles were in spasm and were very sore to the touch. It was clear that Jamie was suffering from headaches caused by referred pain from the neck – so called cervicogenic headaches.
In Jamie’s case the dysfunction has been triggered by his repetitive poor posture, especially sitting at the computer for long periods of time.
Successful treatment begins
I started to treat Jamie for cervicogenic headaches, by addressing the cause. As a chiropractor I worked on the muscles of Jamie’s neck and shoulders applying gentle pressure to relax the muscle tension. I also used my hands to increase the mobility of his neck joints using gentle pressure.
But Jamie had to bring some change in his life as well. Here are the tips I gave him and it could help you too to deal with your cervicogenic headaches.
- Stretch your neck and shoulder muscles using these exercises
- Adjust your posture at work to keep your neck straight and stop pointing the chin forward
- Drink plenty of water
- Strengthen your upper back muscles to help holding a good posture
- Move regularly if you have to sit for long
Jamie has now far fewer episodes of pain and during a really stressful day at work, if the pain starts, he can decrease the intensity and the duration of the episode by himself using these tips
If you would like a free check up to see if chiropractic can help you then call to make an appointment or use our online booking above.