What Are Cervicogenic
Headaches?
Headaches
are a very common problem that can have multiple causes ranging from
stress to trauma. To make matters worse, there are MANY different
types of headaches. One such type is the “cervicogenic headache”
(others include migraines, cluster headaches, etc.).
The
main distinction between the symptoms associated with cervicogenic
headaches and those associated with migraine headaches are a lack of
nausea, vomiting, aura (a pre-headache warning that a headache is
about to strike), light and noise sensitivity, increased tearing with
red eyes, one-sided head, neck, shoulder, and/or arm pain, and
dizziness. The items listed above are primarily found in migraine
headache sufferers. The following is a list of clinical
characteristics common in those struggling with cervicogenic
headaches:
- Unilateral (one-sided) head or face pain (rarely is it on both sides).
- Pain is localized or stays in one spot, usually the back of the head, frontal, temporal (side) or orbital (eye) regions.
- Moderate to severe pain intensity.
- Intermittent attacks of pain that last hours to days.
- Pain is usually deep, non-throbbing, unless migraines occur at the same time.
- Head pain is triggered by neck movement, sustained awkward head postures, applying deep pressure to the base of the skull or upper neck region, and/or taking a deep breath, cough or sneeze can trigger head pain.
- Limited neck motion with stiffness.
Infrequently,
the cervicogenic headache sufferer can present with migraines at the
same time and have both presentations making it more challenging to
diagnose.
The
cause of cervicogenic headaches can be obvious such as trauma (sports
injury, whiplash, slip and fall), or not so obvious, like poor
posture. A forward head posture can increase the relative weight
applied to the back of the neck and upper back as much as 2x-4x
normal. Last month, we discussed the intimate relationship between
the upper two cervical vertebra (C1 & C2) and an anatomical
connection to the covering of the spinal cord (the dura) as giving
rise to cervicogenic headaches. In summary, the upper three nerves
innervate the head and any pressure on those upper nerves can result
in a cervicogenic headache. Doctors of chiropractic are trained to
examine, identify, and treat these types of potentially debilitating
headaches.
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