Headaches Gosforth | Your Body | Gosforth Physio & Wellness

Headache? Migraine? We can help YOU today!

Headaches and migraine pain can be debilitating leading to time off work; preventing holidays or severely limit your ability to perform sports, engage in hobbies and enjoy life with family and friends.

Do you want to be pain free fast?

Good news

Our expert Physiotherapists at Gosforth Physio and Wellness are highly skilled and specialise in diagnosis, treatment, education and prevention of headaches and migraine pain.

Treatment

We use our head before we use our hands!

Expert - Hands on treatment, acupuncture, dry needling and massage can help settle headaches and migraine pain fast.

We do not keep you coming back week after week, month after month for unnecessary reatments (see our 'Better by 5'). We focus on the root cause fast and treat your pain quickly so you can move on with your life as fast as possible.

You can be sure that you’re placing your health in the right hands. Once a detailed assessment is completed and we have established your diagnosis all appropriate treatment options will be discussed with you and treatment given in the session.

Early diagnosis and treatment is essential to aid speedy recovery from headaches and migraine pain and help prevent its recurrence.

Headache and Migraine causes

Tension type headaches are very common and will affect over 80% of people at some stage of their lives.

There are over 300 types of headache but most fall into three categories:

Migraine
Tension Type Headache
Cervicogenic Headache (neck headache)

Head pain can have many causes, not just migraine.

Some uncommon causes of your head pain may be sinister, and might include brain tumours, aneurysms, meningitis and other systemic illnesses. These are rare and would require a thorough investigation.

Therefore accurate diagnosis is essential to help guide the appropriate treatment of headache conditions. Correctly identifying the cause will lead to better treatment.

Migraines

Are a chronic neurological disorder characterised by episodic attacks of head pain and associated symptoms.

Migraine pain will always present on one side only (although the side can change between attacks). The pain is often described as throbbing and is of moderate to severe intensity. The pain will cause avoidance of normal activities such as attending school or going to work.

Sufferers will usually have one or more of nausea, photophobia (hypersensitivity to light), and photophobia (hypersensitivity to noise).

Migraine headaches can last between 4 hours and – in extreme cases – for up to three days.

Tension Headache

Is the most common type of primary headache. The forehead, upper neck and temple regions may experience a tight band sensation causing varying severity of pain for the sufferer.

Stress and tension are major causes of this type of headache; poor postures and tight or weak muscles are usually a contributing factor.

As the symptoms are not as severe as migraine, tension headache is only considered a problem if it becomes frequent or chronic.

We do not keep you coming back week after week, month after month for unnecessary treatments (see our 'Better by 5').

Worried you have damaged or injured yourself?

Get in touch or live stream one of our classes to start your recovery today.

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Cervicogenic Headaches

Originate from the neck typically as a result of dysfunction of the joints located at the upper aspect of the neck. This may be due to sudden neck movements (e.g. whiplash), a trauma during sports or heavy lifting at work or in the garden.

A constant, dull ache may be present in the back of the head, top of the forehead, behind the eye, in the temple region or less commonly, around the jaw or ear. The headache can usually be associated with neck pain, stiffness and difficulty turning the neck. Symptoms may also increase on firmly touching the affected level of the spine, usually on one side of the neck, just below the base of the skull. Occasionally other symptoms may be present such as pins and needles, numbness, dizziness, nausea or light headedness.

There are several factors which can predispose patients to developing cervicogenic headache. These need to be assessed and corrected to alleviate and eliminate the pain.

These include:

Poor posture
Neck and upper back stiffness
Muscle imbalances
Muscle weakness
Muscle tightness
Previous neck trauma (e.g. whiplash)
Inappropriate desk setup
Inappropriate pillow or sleeping postures
Sedentary lifestyle
Stress
Dehydration

Treatments include:

Manual Therapy
Mobilisation
Manipulation
Acupuncture
Dry needling
Massage
Taping
Soft Tissue Release
Trigger Point Muscle Release
Muscle Energy Techniques
Postural Education / Advice
Postural Strengthening

You will be taught specific strengthening, stretching and Pilates exercises to perform at home to enhance and speed up your recovery, allowing you to effectively self manage your problem.

It is very rare that an MRI scan or X Ray is required. However, if your Physiotherapist or you feel that further investigation is necessary we can arrange private scans quickly. Referrals can be arranged in 2-5 days at The Newcastle Clinic and at North Tyneside MRI Centre.