If you’ve been seeking the right migraine treatment besides just taking meds and locking yourself up in a room, this article will come as welcome news. If you’ve been one of those having splitting headaches and migraines that pretty much debilitate you, there is a solution. You don’t have to live with the pain. It can be so intense for some people that you have to pretty much blcok out the world and any light, noise or sound associated with it. The head can spin and the even the slightest light can trigger the pain. If you know what I’m talking about , then please read on. There are different kinds of migraines for sure but the most common one that most of the people suffer from definitely can be dealt with the right migraine treatment. This is exactly where Physiotherapy comes in. Now hear me out,ok? Yes true migraine may not have a cause but what most of us suffer from is more due to environmental factors or our lifestyle. It’s due to our poor posture and way too much sitting than what our bodies are supposed to do. Let me explain how.
How does your neck play an important role in migraine treatment
Our bodies are very complex but I’ll try to present a simplified version of our anatomy. There’s a group of nerves and blood vessels that supply the head and face. These nerves originate from the top 2 segements of your neck. So with any tightness of the muscles around the neck area or stiffness in the joints, the nerve can get irritated and lead to pain. This can happen due to poor posture over the years, for example, in a desk job if all you do is sit all day. But it can also happen if you’ve injured your neck as in a car accident or a fall. So a migraine treatment that’s directed towards treating the neck will be very helpful in these cases. But I have to point out that because there are different kinds of migraines, it first needs to be established whether the migraine headache is related to the neck for the migraine treatment to be effective. This is exactly where our physiotherapists come in. We can accurately diagnose if the migraine is related to the neck and provide the right migraine treatment.
How do our physios do migraine treatment?
Our physios will ask you specific questions to find out if your neck structures are the main cause of your migraine headache. These questions are not in vain, they help us understand your pain patterns and what triggers your pain so we can customise the migraine treatment to suit your lifestyle. We also do special tests that help us rule in or rule out the neck as a possible area for migraine treatment. Once, we have a diagnosis, we can then start working on getting movement into the neck structures. This helps in increasing the circulation, reducing the inflammation which is what causes pain. Our physios use deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy or even dry needling to get rid of muscle tension and improve joint movement. As with anything consistency is the key. There’s usually a course of treatment that the physio will advise as a part of migraine treatment followed by exercises to strengthen the neck and improve posture.
A research review done in 2011 showed that massage therapy, physiotherapy, relaxation and spinal manipulative therapy might be equally efficient as propranolol and topiramate in the management of migraine. Some studies have demonstrated that physiotherapy is most effective migraine treatment when combined with other treatments such biofeedback, relaxation training, and exercise.
If you or anyone you know is suffering from terrible migraines, please click the link below to see one of our physios today for the right migraine treatment for you!
