Headache and migraine are second to none in terms of impact on quality of life, pain severity and ability to stop you in your tracks.
Unfortunately, most people who suffer from migraine learn to cope and deal with them rather than solve them.
There are several medication options available which are very helpful in management of symptoms but rarely solve the problem.
The root cause of migraine and headache is often a mystery – in fact very few headaches can be put down to a definitive cause.
What we do know is a migraine is usually due to a vast combination of multiple body systems converging through the brain stem and into the cortical pathways where a headache is produced by our brain.
The Brain Stem plays a critical role in the proliferation of a headache.
The Brain Stem is critical for our autonomic function (ie it controls our respiration and heart rate) and therefore is saturated with highly complex and dense bundles of neurons which are incredibly sensitive to disturbances within the system.
One primary convergence of neurons within the Brain Stem is the “Trigemino-Cervical Nucleus” (TCN).
This large collection of neurons has been shown (beyond any reasonable doubt by multiple studies) to play a critical role in the development of a headache and/or migraine.
This bundle of neurons (as the name suggests) is fed information by our Cervical spine and the Trigeminal Nerve (this innervates a large portion of our face including the jaw, maxilla and forehead).
The TCN acts as an amplifier within the brain stem and if sensitised will drastically alter the intensity of neuron signal coming up into the brain.
What sensitises the TCN?
Mutiple sources within the Cervical Spine or form the Trigeminal Nerve.
We at Physique are uniquely placed to be able to help manage sensitisation of the TCN with skilled manual therapy targeting the Cervical Spine and Trigeminal Nerve field.
The Watson Headache Approach is post-Graduate training that is required to be able to provide correct and specific therapy to the neck in a gentle but precise manner.
We have five Physios who have undertaken this training (myself, Jess, Bec, Neil and Caitlin). This approach is heavily backed by science and has been helping people for over 40 years.
Our mission at Physique is to make a difference and we can generally make a large difference in people lives who do suffer from migraine and headache. By treating the neck appropriately (with gentle, precise and sustained mobilisation of specific joints – not just your general loosen up) we can reduce the sensitisation of the TCN and therefore impact our patient’s headaches.
Please get in touch with us at the clinic if you would like to know more about how we can help your headache. You do not have to suffer!
