Neck Pain and Headaches: What’s the Connection?

Does your headache feel like it starts deep in the base of your skull, then slowly radiates up and around your temples? Imagine waking up excited to take on the day, but instead, your day begins with the heavy, groggy pain of a headache that just wants to stay connected to your stiff neck. We see the link between neck pain and headaches every day in the clinic.

Millions of people experience this, thinking that they are simply cursed to live with a headache. The reality is that your body is screaming for help with the upper levels of your cervical spine when you experience pain referred to your head. Let’s talk about how to decipher the mystery behind your headaches and empower you to take control of your life again.

Can Neck Pain Cause a Headache?

Stop and think about how many hours you spend with a throbbing head because your neck is stiff or sore. This discomfort is what causes many patients to suffer and eventually leads them to our door. Can neck pain cause a headache? The answer is a definitive yes.

When pain originates from the upper elements of your neck and travels into your head, it is medically termed a cervicogenic headache. This is different from a migraine, which is a neurological disease rooted in the brain itself. With a cervicogenic headache, the pain you feel in your head is actually referred from the structures in your neck.

Why Neck Pain and Headaches Often Occur Together

Let’s look at the anatomy. The nerves exiting the top three levels of your neck (C1, C2, and C3) travel through many of the same microscopic spaces as the trigeminal nerve. The trigeminal nerve is responsible for sending pain signals from your face and head to your brain. When these nerves become irritated from injury or overuse, they send a message to a region in your brainstem known as the trigeminocervical nucleus, creating a direct link between neck pain and headaches.

Neck Pain Prevention: Addressing the Root Cause

If you want to stop the symptom, you must address the cause. Let’s take a look at some of the common reasons why your upper neck may be sending pain signals into your head.

Muscle Tightness

The small muscles that attach from the base of your skull to the top of your spine are called suboccipitals. These muscles act as fine-tuning mechanisms that your body recruits when you are working to stabilize your head. When you are sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen or leaning over your iPhone all day long, your body is forcing these muscles to constantly contract to help you keep your eyes level. Over time, these muscles develop “trigger points” or knots that refer pain patterns up over the top of your head and behind your eyes.

Bad Posture or Text Neck

The human head weighs 10-12 pounds on average. For every inch your head rolls forward into flexion, the weight of your head on your neck doubles. This forward head posture causes the ligaments in your neck to become chronically stretched and the small joints that help segment your spine to become compressed. Eventually, your body can no longer cope with the added stress and strain on these joints, leading to cervicogenic headaches.

Joint Stiffness in Neck

The joints of your neck at the very top help facilitate most of the rotation and nodding motion of your head. When these joints become “locked up” or stiff from disuse or old injuries such as whiplash accidents, it irritates the nerves that come from these joints. This sets off a vicious cycle of muscular guarding and pain.

Signs Your Headache Could be Originating from your Neck

Only a professional can truly diagnose your headache, but here are some tell-tale signs that your headache might have a “neck-origin”:

• Does it stay on one side of your head most of the time?
• Does it feel worse when you turn your head to the side or hold an awkward posture for too long?
• Is the base of your skull tender to touch or the very top of your neck?
• Are you stiff when trying to look behind you?
• Does the pain typically start at the base of your head and then “bloom” forward toward your forehead or eye?

Treatment and Prevention of Neck Pain and Headaches at Vira Physiotherapy

So, what's the solution? While pills can mask the pain, they don't address the root cause. And while general movement is beneficial, it often isn't specific enough to target the real issue. The answer lies in targeted physical therapy.

Manual Therapy

Our team of professional physiotherapists is specifically trained to unlock and mobilize stiff joints with hands-on manual therapy. Restoring normal joint movement decreases irritation/inflammation around the joints, which decreases the perception of your headache.

Stretching and Soft Tissue Release

Some of the biggest muscles that can contribute to cervicogenic headaches are the suboccipital muscles and upper trapezius. Dry needling, soft tissue release techniques, and specific stretches can help deactivate the knots that are referring pain into your head.

Posture Training

Most people who live and work in Edmonton have some type of “professional” career. This means we spend many hours bent over desks working on computers. Our office offers ergonomic setup tips to make sure you are properly setting up your workstation to optimize the curve in your neck. Once you learn how to move properly, you can maintain this newfound posture anywhere. Your body becomes resilient when exposed to better movement patterns. It also MUST be retrained to abandon its compensatory “habit” mechanics before lasting change can occur.

Don’t Suffer Another Day

You don’t have to wake up tomorrow with another pounding headache that dictates your entire day. Your body is built to heal itself and adapt to the demands that you place on it. You just have to give it the proper tools and environment to allow it to function at its best. There is no reason you should have to suffer from chronic head and neck pain anymore.

Schedule your appointment with one of OUR experts today and take back the life you know you deserve.

FAQs related to Neck Pain and Headache

How can I tell the difference between a migraine and a headache coming from my neck?

Cervicogenic headaches typically present with onset related to neck movement or maintaining awkward postures for long periods of time. They also usually occur on one side of the head only. Migraines typically cause throbbing pain and are often accompanied by nausea/light sensitivity. Neck-related headaches won’t typically cause these symptoms. People who get migraines will often describe visual “auras” before the pain begins, whereas cervical headaches tend to be a dull, constant ache. If you can recreate your headache by applying pressure to your neck muscles, there is an extremely high chance that it’s coming from your neck.

Can I just get my neck massaged to relieve my tension headache?

Massage can help! Applying massage to your neck will temporarily help with your headache by increasing blood flow to the area and relaxing the hypertonic muscles that contribute to your headaches, such as your upper trapezius. However, to see long-term resolution, you must combine massage with corrective exercises that retrain your muscles to function properly again. Additionally, seeing a professional therapist is key as they know exactly where to massage and where NOT to massage. Simply hitting your neck with a massage ball can further irritate sensitive nerves that contribute to headaches.

Can dehydration make my neck pain and headaches worse?

A huge piece of the puzzle that many people forget about is hydration. Did you know that your spinal discs are made up of mostly water? These discs sit between the joints of your neck and act as cushions. If you are dehydrated, your discs become flat and less resilient, leading to increased joint stiffness and muscle cramping. Staying hydrated allows these tissues to stay resilient and less prone to the chemical irritation that occurs when you are dehydrated during a headache flare-up.