Cervicogenic Headache

What is a Cervicogenic Headache?

Have you ever noticed that when you have bouts of neck pain you also have a headache? You are not alone, one of the most common symptoms with neck pain is headaches! Why is this?

It is a complicated answer, but a simplified version is that the nerves that provide sensation to your face intertwine with the nerves that detect sensation from the joints in your neck. This can lead to a mixing of signals when you have pain in the joints of your neck. This means that when your nerves in your neck detect some kind of painful stimulus, the nerves that provide sensation to your face might get activated as well. Unfortunately, this extra signal shows up as a headache. A headache that is from your neck is called a “cervicogenic headache,” which simply means a headache that is generated from your cervical spine, or neck.

Sometimes these headaches are provoked by poor sitting posture, but can also be caused from trauma to the neck, such as a whiplash injury.

Types of Headaches

There are many different types of headaches, including migraine, muscle tension, and cervicogenic headaches. How would you know if your headache was a cervicogenic one? Here are some of the things we look for at Lifestrength physical therapy…

Headache that is one-sided
Headache that is aggravated by neck movements
When feeling the muscles/joints in your neck, a headache is reproduced
Limited mobility in your neck
Weakness in some of the muscles surrounding your neck
Headache feels like a dull ache

Goals in Treating Cervicogenic Headache

Once you know that you are dealing with a cervicogenic headache, you can begin to treat it more directly. The three main goals to work on when you have a cervicogenic headache are:

Decrease the symptoms
Restore full mobility
Increase strength in the muscles around the neck and shoulder blade.

Treatments for Cervicogenic Headache

Example treatments that we have found to be most effective for people who have cervicogenic headaches can be seen in the following videos.