Coastal Physiotherapy provides help for headaches and migraines to the North West Coast of Tasmania including Burnie and Somerset.

Do you have symptoms including the following?

• Tension at the top of the neck
• Pain and general ache at the back of the neck, the temples, forehead or behind the eyes.
• Moving your neck forward and backwards tends to make it worse.
• Keeping your neck still can cause Headaches.
• Headaches persisting after your Doctor has checked other causes

What causes Headaches and Migraines?
Headaches and Migraines are very common along the North West of Tasmania and is a symptom of an underlying problem. At times, taking persistent pain relief can mask the symptoms and does not in fact treat the real, underlying problem. Headaches and migraines can be caused by many factors including:

• Trauma (fall, car accident, sports injuries, lifting and carrying heavy objects)
• Posture (prolonged poor sitting, standing and lying positions)
• Muscle imbalances (weakness in the deep neck muscles)
• Existing medical conditions
• Arthritic conditions

One possible cause of headaches and migraines is a nerve irritation of the upper neck due to poor movements in the spinal joints. These nerves supply the upper neck, scalp, side of the face and head, which in turn leads to headaches. Here at Coastal Physiotherapy we are trained in assessing and forming a treatment plan to get you back into normal life again without these headaches or migraines.

Assessment:

Coastal Physiotherapy will conduct a comprehensive history, assessment of your neck including a neurological evaluation to find out exactly what is causing your headaches and migraines. The Physiotherapist will often find abnormality of the neck curves and specific rigidity to groups of joints throughout the upper spine. Other tests that we may be suggested include an Xray, CT scan or MRI if it is appropriate.

Treatment:

Coastal Physiotherapy’s treatment plan for your headaches and migraines will focus on correcting your function by getting your stiff joints moving, your imbalanced muscles working better and strengthening any identified weak muscles. This will reduce the nerve irritation in your neck and in turn eliminate your headaches and migraines.

Techniques that we use for your headaches and migraines include spinal mobilisation, muscle releases, strengthening work, stretching and a supervised gym/pilates program. We may also recommend a contoured pillow to provide the correct support to your neck when you are sleeping.

Some simple steps you can take to get some short term relief and give your neck the best chance of healing quickly:

• Keep Moving: It is very important to keep moving as much as you comfortably can to avoid stiffness.
• Use Heat: Heat has shown to improve pain and function in the first 48 hours of neck pain.
• Watch your posture: Try to keep your neck in a neutral position during activities including watching TV, reading or using your computer.
• Exercises: Some basic neck stretches may reduce neck stiffness and muscle tightness.

Please contact us to arrange an overall headache and migraine assessment to help identify the exact nature of your headache and migraine and begin to correct it with help from Coastal Physiotherapy (Burnie and Somerset).