Headaches Archives - Synergy Rehab & Wellness

Find Relief for Persistent Stress-Related Headaches with Physical Therapy

You Don’t Have to Go Through Life with Chronic Headaches

Headaches are a common issue that can plague everyone from pre-teens to retirees. However, when recurrent tension or stress-related headaches make it difficult to get through your day, physical therapy may be needed in order to provide long-lasting pain relief.

Our experienced physical therapists have the skills needed to target the root cause of your headaches and to create a tailored treatment plan that is safe and effective. Are you tired of dealing with irritating and painful headaches? Keep reading to learn how you can benefit from physical therapy treatments!

Why am I experiencing stress-related headaches?

The most common type of headache experienced by teens and adults is the tension headache—which is sometimes referred to as a stress-related headache. This type of headache pain occurs when the scalp and neck muscles tense up and then contract.

If you experience tension headaches, you most likely feel the pain begin at the back of the neck before it climbs up to the top of the head and eventually causes pain and discomfort behind the eyes. It’s also common to experience tension headache pain in the cheeks, jaw, and even down into the shoulders.

Some common causes of a tension headache include:

Arthritis
Poor posture
Anxiety and depression
Fatigue
Wearing hair pulled back tightly or sporting a tight hat
Stress

Other common types of headaches that can cause recurring pain and discomfort include the sinus headache, caffeine headaches, migraines, hormonal headaches, post-traumatic headaches, and cluster headaches.

What can I expect from physical therapy treatments for stress-related headaches?

As stated by Choose PT, “There is effective treatment for almost every type of headache.”

Physical therapy can help to reduce the pain associated with headaches while working to restore proper function and a full range of motion in the neck and shoulder areas.

Typically, there are 2 different types of physical therapy treatments that are ideal for relieving chronic headaches, these include:

Active therapy treatments

Range-of-motion exercises
Low-impact aerobics
Pain relief exercises
Muscular releases
Strengthening exercises
Stretching

Passive therapy treatments

Soft tissue mobilization
Ultrasound
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or TENS
Ultrasound
Massage therapy
Alternating ice and heat therapies

Depending on the severity and cause of your headaches, our physical therapist may suggest a combination of physical therapy treatment methods to provide pain relief.

However, because each person responds differently to headache pain, it’s important to keep in mind that there is no “one size fits all” treatment plan.

In addition to pain relief methods, you will gain additional benefits that to help improve your overall quality of life as well:

Better Posture: Bad posture is really one of the leading causes of stress-related headaches. If you don’t enjoy good posture throughout the day, it is likely to lead to more generalized aches and pains, as well as the muscle tension that contributes to stress-related headaches.
Improved Strength: Your therapist will teach you exercises to strengthen your neck and upper back, which will lead to improved posture. With better posture, you will be able to stand and sit longer without experiencing discomfort.
Reduced Neck Tension: You will have better range of motion in your neck and reduced tension, thanks to manual physical therapy techniques applied to the muscles there.

Because physical therapy targets the muscles and joints, it is an effective treatment option for those who experience tension headaches or stress-related headaches, and headache pain that radiates down into the jaw, neck, and shoulder areas.

Over time, our physical therapist aims to not only reduce your pain but hopefully prevent recurring headaches altogether. The primary goal of physical therapy is to not only provide pain relief but to increase mobility, improve posture, and to help strengthen the muscles that control your neck, shoulders, and upper back areas.

With all physical therapy treatment plans, our patients will receive helpful educational information that will help them to complete pain relief exercises at home to supplement in-office visits.

Relieve your stress-related headaches by scheduling an appointment today

If you or your loved one has been living with recurrent headaches, you can find quick and effective pain relief with regular physical therapy sessions.

Are you interested in learning more about the many benefits of physical therapy for stress-related/tension headaches? Contact Synergy Rehab and Wellness at (540) 416-0530 today and be sure to schedule an initial consultation with one of our friendly and highly trained physical therapists!

Do You Have Stress-Related Headaches? Physical Therapy Has the Solutions

When you see someone at work or in a difficult situation clutching his head, you may assume either that he’s under extreme stress, or that he has a headache. In fact, you may be right on both counts. Both physical and emotional stress can cause tension headaches; they can also trigger cervicogenic and migraine headaches, any of which can leave you effectively disabled.

You may struggle with chronic or recurring headache pain yourself — in which case, you’re probably tired of taking pain relievers all the time. Maybe it’s time you found a better answer by consulting our physical therapist. Physical therapy can ease your headache symptoms by treating their underlying causes, giving you a safer, more sustainable headache management strategy.

The Relationship Between Stress and Headaches

Emotional stress and physical stress are closely linked, with either capable of causing or aggravating the other. Perceived crises can cause muscles to tighten up as the body goes into “fight or flight” mode. When that tightness affects small muscles at the base of the skull, such as the RCPM muscle in the neck, those muscles may pull on a pain-sensitive membrane in the head called the dura mater. The dura mater responds by sending out waves of pain, giving you a classic tension headache.

Cervicogenic headaches also originate in the neck. These headaches are often caused by alignment problems or imbalances in the cervical spine. These imbalances place the neck muscles under physical stress, producing both headaches and neck pain. Emotional stress can also play a role in cervicogenic headaches, since the muscle tightness they create can help to pull the neck out of alignment.

Last but certainly not least, migraines are the most dreaded of headaches. In fact, a migraine attack may go far beyond the crushing headache it is notorious for producing, causing symptoms such as:

Nausea and vomiting
Faintness
Sound and/or light sensitivity
Visual distortions known as “auras”

While it’s hard to pin down the underlying causes behind migraines, many of triggers are well known — and they include stress. In addition to various foods, bright lights, loud sounds, weather changes and hormonal swings, migraines can be set off by physical overexertion or emotional strain.

How Physical Therapy Can Help

Pain relieving drugs such as NSAIDs can relieve the occasional headache, but they can’t address the stresses that lead to chronic headache problems. For that level of relief, turn to physical therapy. Our physical therapist will conduct a thorough evaluation that includes an examination of your neck and cervical spine, discussion of your symptoms, and analysis of lifestyle factors that may be sources of stress. This background allows us to create a headache management program largely rooted in the management of stress and its effects. This program may include:

Exercises to limber up your neck or strengthen your neck muscles
Massage therapy to relax a chronically tight neck
Dry needling to ease stress-induced tension and pain
Ergonomic adjustments such as changing your computer monitor height (to prevent constant neck droop)
Chiropractic adjustments to correct cervical spinal alignment
Suggestions for changing or sleep position or trying a different kind of pillow
Mindfulness exercises such as yoga to help you add more serenity to your daily life

Let Our Physical Therapist Address Your Headache Pain

Conquer your stress, and you may just conquer your chronic headaches as well. Get in touch with our physical therapist at Synergy Rehab and Wellness to learn more about this drug-free approach to headache relief!

How to Make Your Stress-Related Headaches Disappear

Did you know that headaches are the third most common pain complaint throughout the world? They can impact your quality of life and make it difficult to function normally. Luckily, headache relief can be found through physical therapy. Your trained physical therapist will work with you to provide pain relief from headaches, in addition to any other aches and pains you may be suffering from. In this guide, we’ll outline the different types of headaches and the causes for them, in addition to explaining how physical therapy can help.

Different types of headaches:

Any type of pain that occurs within the head can be referred to as a “headache.” Most headaches will resolve on their own without medical intervention; however, severe or recurrent headaches that interfere with one’s quality of life should most certainly be evaluated further. The challenge lies in identifying which type of headache you’re experiencing and then devising a treatment plan accordingly. Physical therapists are adept at diagnosing different types of headaches and can develop pain relief strategies for stress-related headaches.

There several different types of headaches that can be treated with physical therapy. These include, but are not limited to:

Stress (tension)
Post-traumatic
Migraine or sinus
Caffeine
Hormone
Exertion
Cluster
Rebound
Hypertension

What are stress-related/tension headaches?

Tension headaches are some of the most commonly treated headaches by a physical therapist. They occur when the neck and scalp muscle contract or become tense, and they can happen at any age. Stress-related headaches generally start at the back of the head and progress to the top of the head and eyes, sometimes accompanied by facial pain along the jaw and cheeks. This type of discomfort has been compared to having hair pulled or wearing a very tight hat. These types of headaches can occur as a result of:

Increased stress
Poor posture
Neck or jaw problems
Fatigue
Arthritis
Anxiety
Depression

How physical therapy helps:

At your initial visit, your physical therapist will conduct a thorough evaluation of your physical abilities, in addition to reviewing your health history. He or she will ask you a series of questions to determine the type of headache you’re experiencing. After your physical therapist determines what type of headache you’re dealing with you’ll work together to develop a treatment plan for meeting your physical health goals.

During your first visit, you can expect to undergo some of the following:

Inquiries about the location of the pain, in addition to any other symptoms you are experiencing.
Questions regarding previous injuries to your neck, head, jaw and/or back.
Measurements regarding the range of motion of your shoulders, neck, and other relevant parts of the body.
Examination of your posture while engaged in different activities.
Tests of your muscle strength and sensation.
Manual therapy to ascertain the mobility of joints and muscles in your neck.

A physical therapist’s mission:

While the end goal of physical therapy is pain relief, there are some important steps along the way that our physical therapist will help you with, in order to decrease pain and improve function. These include, but are not limited to:

Posture improvement. Your posture throughout the day greatly impacts your likelihood for pain and stress-related headaches. Our physical therapist will teach you methods of improving your posture in order to function more comfortably in your daily life.
Strength improvement. You’ll learn exercises to help strengthen the muscles that control your neck and upper back, in order to improve posture and increase your ability to stand or sit comfortably for longer periods of time.
Neck improvement. Using manual therapy, our physical therapist will stretch the muscles in the back of your neck to relieve pain and increase movement.

Different types of physical therapy treatments

Our physical therapist may suggest any combination of specialized treatment services, including but not limited to:

Heat or ice compressions
Soft tissue mobilization
Muscular releases
Muscle energy techniques
Body mobilization
Cervical traction
McKenzie-based therapies
Stretching
Strengthening

With all treatment plans, you can expect to receive education that will supplement your in-office experience.

Persistent and life-altering headaches may not go away without physical therapy. To experience long-lasting pain relief and improve your quality of life, contact our office today. Our staff at Synergy Rehab & Wellness at our Verona, VA, and Waynesboro, VA location would be happy to talk with you and discuss how we can help you achieve a pain-free life.

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