The World Health Organisation recently reported that 4 per cent of adults have headache-related disorders with an estimated 190 million days lost from work in the EU alone because of migraine. Migraine leaves 90 per cent of sufferers unable to perform even the most simple of tasks, disrupting work and family life. It’s also an emotional burden. Unless you’ve had one yourself, you can never understand what it’s like to experience a headache on this scale. Problems in the neck can often exacerbate these debilitating headaches.
The neck is key to other common headaches. Cervicogenic headaches (when pain specifically originates from the neck) often result from years of poor posture or postural strain from sitting at a desk. These headaches tend to present initially as pain around the ‘suboccipital region’, which is around the top of the neck and base of the skull. From here the headaches can be on one or both sides of the head, and commonly travel up towards the eyes, over the top or sides of the head. The headaches often appear on a daily basis, getting worse through the day or with sudden neck movements.
If you’re living with chronic headaches, get in touch and we can assess whether osteopathy is a viable treatment.