What can physical therapy specialists do for your cervicogenic headaches?

Dealing with cervicogenic headaches is never easy, and often, these headaches can affect your ability to work through the day or spend time with your family. Fortunately, physical therapy can do a lot to help people with cervicogenic headaches. 

Cervicogenic headaches, or CG headaches, tend to have pain that increases in severity over time, and the pain also tends to be felt on one side of the neck, head and face. These headaches are less common than other types of headaches. CG headaches tend to occur in people between 30 and 45 years old, and they make up 4% of the headaches people suffer. Choosing to go to physical therapy can be a great choice for treating and managing cervicogenic headaches. 

How can physical therapy specialists help with cervicogenic headaches?

There are several basic steps a physical therapist can take to help you with CG headaches. These steps include: 

1. Determining their cause — There are many underlying issues that can lead to CG headaches. Pinpointing the issue that’s causing your headaches is vital to effectively treating them. Physical therapists can use their knowledge of the human musculoskeletal system to reveal the cause of your headaches. Some causes they might find are: 

• Whiplash-related neck injuries
• Cervical arthritis
• Neck or shoulder muscle problems

2. Reducing your pain — A physical therapist can also take steps to reduce your pain. For instance, they can use soft tissue mobilization to ease tension in neck and shoulder muscles that’s causing pain. Dry needling can also be used to address myofascial trigger points in neck soft tissue that are causing painful CG headaches. 

3. Working to prevent future headaches — CG headaches can often turn into a chronic problem. Physical therapists can work with you to avoid recurring CG headaches; one way they can do this is by doing an ergonomic evaluation of your workplace. They can also show you how to perform therapeutic exercises that can help stretch and strengthen your neck and shoulders. 

Find help for your cervicogenic headaches at Back in Motion Physical Therapy

Searching for physical therapy that can help your cervicogenic headaches? Our Back in Motion PT team is ready and willing to help you treat these and other types of headaches. Our physical therapists can perform a free screening on you to determine the cause of your headaches. 

Furthermore, our team excels at building unique physical therapy plans designed to reduce pain and headache frequency. We can even help you get headache treatment from home if you sign up for an at-home care or virtual therapy session with us.

Contact us today for more information about our headache treatment services or to schedule your initial appointment.