Your Bellevue Massage Therapist And Headaches.

What is a “cervicogenic headache” you ask? Well I’m glad you asked! There are many types of headaches that can plague you and ruin your day, and a cervicogenic headache is one of them. All this means is that the headache that you are experiencing is coming from your neck. These types of headaches are usually accompanied by pain or stiffness in the neck region. Neck related headaches are generally due to poor posture, injuries such as whiplash, or just plain weak muscles.

Car accidents are one of the major causes of neck causing headaches. You have 20 tiny muscles, 8 nerves, and 7 bones in your neck and in a whiplash injury from a car crash all of these small structures are thrown every which way creating a ton of damage! All this damage creates pain, and if it happens just right it will shoot the pain into your head, creating a headache.

Most cervicogenic headaches will come with a variety of other signs and symptoms such as stiffness in the neck, reduced ability to turn the head, nausea, discomfort in the eyes, to name a few. The severity of these headaches depend mostly on how long they have been going on and how much damage there is in the neck. Many of my patients also tell me that these types of headaches are made worse when they move their heads.

Cervicogenic headache treatments:

I always tell my patients that if there is something that can be done to eliminate their pain you why would you not do it? So we are going to look at a few ways to help you get rid of your headache symptoms.

1. Chiropractic Care- Chiropractors are professionals at diagnosing and healing neck dysfunction. If there is a difficulty in the neck, such as a sprain or strain, or bones out of alignment there is no better spot to acquire proper care. Analysis has proven time and again that chiropractic proper care is one of, if not the finest kinds of treatment for neck pain.

2. Therapeutic Massage- I have found that massage therapy is one of the best ways to help relax spasmed, tight muscles. Knowing that muscles spasms are a big part of causing cervicogenic headaches, it is imperative to relax those muscles! Not only does it help deal with your headaches, massage feels good too!

3. Posture Enhancement- Keeping a weak stance for a prolonged period of time can direct to cervical joint stiffness, which in turn can guide to cervicogenic headaches. You may be doing this every single day at your job, while on your computer. Any chiropractor or bellevue massage therapist will be ready to guide you as you function to appropriate postural issues.

Seeking care from a chiropractor, receiving massage therapy, and postural corrections are a big step towards correcting the causation of headaches. Starting a detailed exercise plan is also an important part in keeping your body healthy enough to maintain proper alignment. Make sure though that you receive proper advise from a health care practitioner, as doing it wrong can actually make the problem worse.

Have you been searching for a place to have a massage in Bellevue, Wa. Look no further, visit www.bellevuemassage.org to schedule an appointment.