Can Neck Pain Cause Headaches?

One of the most common types of headaches is the cervicogenic headache which is the name given to a headache originating from the neck. When a part of our neck such as the joints, muscles, nerves or ligaments are damaged or put under strain we can experience referred pain to our head area. This is due to the fact that the nerves which supply the neck area also serve the skin surrounding the head, eyes and ears.

Damage or strain to the neck does not necessarily need to be severe in order to cause a referring pain headache. It is quite often the case that such headaches begin after a build up of muscle tightness and imbalance caused by poor posture while sitting at a desk for prolonged periods of time, for example.

Neck pain left untreated will often cause a headache of varying intensity, sometimes made worse by specific movements.

Understanding neck pain triggers

It’s at him again, that pesky tight right side of the neck with vague aching pain. A client of mine has learnt to recognise the type of movements that cause his neck pain such as being triggered by holding a mobile phone to the ear, resting the arm on the door while driving or sometimes using the mouse at work. Once the pain starts this causes stress, which in turn causes more pain and a cycle develops.

On assessment the usual culprits are the levator scapulae and upper trapezius muscles which link the neck to the shoulder - more often than not the taut bands, with exquisite tender spots, which may ‘twitch’ when the fingers are drawn across the muscle fibres - indicate the presence of myofascial trigger points within the muscles themselves. The upper trapezius for example may also refer to the back of the head and temple region and can be the source of cervicogenic headache, albeit of a more muscular origin.

If I am able to reproduce ‘his pain’ by palpating the muscle then I know I have found the likely source of his pain.

Neck pain relief

The best results in terms of providing relief are obtained by first using a gentle dry needling (medical acupuncture) approach to de-activate the trigger points which I follow up with specific soft tissue mobilisation techniques along the length of the muscle fibres to further help normalize muscle tone and length.

Together with mobilisation of the adjacent spinal facet joints, if needed, usually provides good relief of pain and stiffness. The key of course is trying to prevent the problem starting in the first place and for this reason we spend time going through specific postural exercises and self management techniques.

However muscle tissue seems to have a certain ‘memory’ for developing trigger points and despite best efforts on his part, they tend to creep back in after a number of weeks - a consequence of our modern lifestyles perhaps?

As such we have adopted a maintenance approach whereby as soon as the niggles start- he comes in to me for a Physiotherapy session to settle it there and then. This normally keeps the problem under control and negates the need for multiple treatment sessions. This approach works well both for him and other clients who have similar problems.

By Simon Coghlan