Physical Therapy for Headaches, Chronic Pain

By Krista Frederic, MPT, CSC

Forever Fit Physical Therapy and Wellness

. http://www.foreverfitptw.com/

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Physical Therapy for Headaches, Chronic Pain

Millions of people suffer from headaches, with tension headaches being the most common type of headache. Headache pain can be debilitating causing people to miss work, miss events with their family unable to function as usual in their daily lives.

Tension headaches often are accompanied by a tight feeling in the upper back and neck muscles, but that's not the only sign of a tension headache. Patients sometimes can exhibit symptoms, but sometimes not the headache itself, including soreness, stiffness and tension in the back or neck, ringing in the ears, blurry vision, and watery eyes.

Headaches are specific to each individual and physical therapists develop an approach specific to the symptoms and causes each patient may face. The first step in developing this approach is the evaluation. Each patient is evaluated to determine where the headache originates and then treated using a multidisciplinary approach to relieve pain and prevent future headaches through simple changes in posture and lifestyle. Treating headaches is sometimes complicated and can involve a trial and error approach to relieve the pain.

Improve Neck Mobility

Manual therapy is used to increase a patient's neck movement and relieve pain by stretching the muscles of the upper back and neck.

Improve Strength

Exercises are taught to increase the strength of muscles in the upper back and neck to improve posture and endurance while making it easier to sit or stand for long periods of time without discomfort.

Improve Posture

Believe it or not, bad posture is one of the major causes of muscle strain and it leads to a host of other health problems, including headaches. Improved posture whether its simply pushing the chest or pulling shoulder blades back, these slight changes to everyday living can make significant impact on posture.

Modify Your Workstation or Home Office

• avoid sitting or standing in one position for a long period of time
• replace regular phone with a headset
• adjust your computer screen so that it is no lower than eye level
• sit up straight, support your lower back, find an appropriate desk chair
• adjust the position of your computer mouse

In addition, there are certain physical therapy techniques that can be used during a headache to reduce the pain, at least temporarily, especially if caught at the beginning. Patients can be taught the best ways to use relaxation techniques and apply ice. Even family members can help by using massage. Stretching exercises can also be used to help reduce pain. It may take 2-3 sessions to find the right mix of techniques to relieve pain.

The approach for each patient might be different but the goals are the same reduce stress and tension to the areas of pain and restore mobility, improve muscle balance and posture, and identify what activities might be contributing to the headache to make sure a patient can get back to their normal pain-free daily routine.