Overcome your frustrating headaches with the help of a Visalia headache specialists … one of our expert trained physical therapists here at Bacci & Glinn Physical Therapy.
Frequent headaches can sure throw a wrench in your spokes, and most of us know how they can interfere with our ability to function normally. But for the 45 million Americans with chronic headaches, this inconvenience doesn’t just come and go every so often. Instead, headaches are a regular occurrence that can strike them any time.
Over 100 different types of headaches have been classified, but they are all generally categorized as either primary or secondary. A primary headache simply means the headache itself is the disorder, while secondary headaches result from other conditions like a neck strain, TMJ muscle disorder, stroke, infection or head injury.
Most headaches are caused by a combination of factors, and different triggers can set off headaches in different people. Some of the more common causes of primary headaches include stress, anxiety, lack of physical activity, bad sleeping habits, certain medications, poor diet and bad posture. In every case, it’s important to determine the type of headache first before attempting to treat it.
Headaches Often Respond Favorably to Physical Therapist Directed Treatment
No single treatment exists that’s capable of eliminating all headaches, but all types are treatable. While many people reach for pain-relieving medications like ibuprofen or acetaminophen when a headache hits, these drugs don’t offer a long-term solution to the problem and may not even work for some individuals. Physical therapy, on the other hand, is designed to identify the problem that’s causing the headache and then address it with a variety of interventions.
A physical therapy treatment program for chronic headaches will usually include some of the following components:
- Soft tissue mobilization: rhythmic soft-tissue stretching of the neck and upper back muscles
- LightForce™ laser therapy: the 15 Watt therapeutic laser facilitates pain relief
- Neck mobilization: manual technique to gently move joints of the neck
- Strengthening exercises: to increase strength of the muscles that stabilize the upper back and neck
- Stretching exercises: to increase range of motion to tight muscles in the neck, chest, and upper back
- Posture education: making slight modifications to the home or office to improve overall spinal posture, reduce stress and increase body awareness
Clinically Proven Headache Treatment for Visalia Residents
Research has shown that physical therapy can be effective for helping patients with headaches to improve, like this recent study, which concludes:
Compared with usual care, participants receiving physiotherapy reported significant reductions in headache frequency immediately after treatment (mean difference -1.6 days, 95% confidence interval [CI] -2.5 to -0.6), at 6-month follow-up (-1.7 days, 95% CI -2.6 to -0.8), and at 9-month follow-up (-2.4 days, 95% CI -3.2 to -1.5), and significant improvements in all secondary outcomes immediately posttreatment and at 6- and 9-month follow-ups, (p<.05 for all). No adverse events were reported.
CONCLUSIONS:Physiotherapy treatment provided benefits over usual care for seniors with recurrent headache associated with neck pain and dysfunction. Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27497890
Headaches may be nuisance to your daily life, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Contact our physical therapy team for a complete evaluation of your condition and a personalized treatment program that will address your issues and reduce the occurrence of these bothersome episodes. Click here to for contact information that’s right on our home page.
