Headaches are very common and have many causes. Although they are a frequent source of stress and anxiety, headaches are only very rarely a sign of serious illness.
Many headache sufferers worry about having a brain tumour, but this is a very uncommon event. There are many different types of headaches, including tension headaches, sinus headaches, migraine headaches and cluster headaches.
Tension headaches
The most common cause of pain in the head is tension headache. According to the World Health Organization, this type of headache affects about two-thirds of all men and about 80% of all women in developed countries. These headaches are usually felt as a dull pain on both sides of the head, or as a feeling of having a tight band around the forehead.
They usually appear around times of stress. They may come on with tiredness and sometimes after prolonged reading. Taking exercise or drinking alcohol does not usually make these headaches any worse.
Tension headaches are thought to be due to contraction (tightening) of the neck muscles. Osteopathic treatment has been shown to be very effective in the treatment of tension headache.
Cervicogenic Headace (Headache caused by neck pain)
Cervicogenic headaches Brisbane is clinically defined as pain that is present in the head, but which originates in the cervical spine (neck). Unfortunately, cervicogenic headache is one type of headache that is often overlooked and misdiagnosed.
Many times, these headaches can be a by-product of whiplash, neck injury or muscle trauma due to poor prolonged posture or severe stress.
Cervicogenic headaches, like other types of headaches are different for different people; some are more severe, some present in the head while others have pain behind the eyes.
Although many of the symptoms seen with cervicogenic headache are similar to those seen in migraine sufferers, there is one distinction that separates these two types of headache into different categories. That is, migraine headaches have no association with the cervical spine and do not originate in the neck region, or put simply, people who think they have migraine but also have a sore neck, may in fact have cervicogenic headaches Brisbane.
Additionally, pain that originates in the occipital region (near the base of the back of your skull where it meets your neck) and then progressively spreads upwards into the head is a classic symptom of cervicogenic headache.
Both Tension headaches Brisbane and Cervicogenic headaches Brisbane are treated very effectively by osteopathy, however during your examination your osteopath will take a thorough history and examination of you to definitively determine your particular type of headache, as there are many more types of headache than those discussed here; including, Migraine, Cluster headaches Brisbane, sinusitis.