Headaches: the Grounded Osteopathy approach
Written by Sarah Slater of Grounded Osteopathy
Do you suffer from headaches? You are not alone, studies suggest 52% of people suffer from recurrent or chronic headaches.
Headaches are awful. It’s not just the pain. It’s the impact they have on our work and social lives. It’s the brain fog and fatigue that comes with them. For some, they are completely debilitating.
Something I wish more people knew is that medication is not your only option! Osteopathic treatment can really help those battling with headaches. Treatment can help you avoid or be less reliant on medication and address the underlying causes of your headaches.
Diagnosis: what is triggering your headaches?
For some, triggers are obvious, for others there appears to be no rhyme or reason for the onset of a headache. As your osteopath, it's our job to work with you to find the triggers of your headache.
Some common day to day triggers are:
Stress
Dehydration
Medication related
Hormonal or menstrual related
Dietary triggers
Caffeine withdrawal
But it's not just these lifestyle factors that can trigger headaches. Musculoskeletal triggers are very common. Tension, restriction, pain in the neck, upper back and or jaw can cause or contribute to headaches.
When a headache is caused by dysfunction in the neck, it is called a cervicogenic headache.
When a headache is caused by dysfunction of the jaw, it is called a temporomandibular headache.
When a headache is caused by stress-induced tension around the skull, it is called a tension type headache.
Sometimes musculoskeletal dysfunction is the cause of a headache. In other cases, musculoskeletal dysfunction can trigger or make you more vulnerable to other types of headaches eg. migraine.
Once your Osteopath has given you a diagnosis for your specific headache type, we then work with you to answer the question: how many of these triggers can we remove, reduce or build resilience to? And then give you meaningful strategies, tools and treatment to help combat your specific triggers.
Treatment
Of course, we look at your individual case and unique needs, but some common things we do to treat headaches are:
Manual therapy / hands on treatment to relieve tension and restrictions that are causing your headaches - this may include treatment in the neck, jaw, upper back, chest regions.
Prescribe exercises that initially work to relieve pain, and long term work to reduce or avoid the recurrence of headaches.
Review ergonomics. We look at how you are using your body during the day - and teach you how to better use it. This would include desk station assessment for office workers.
Education and advice on lifestyle factors which contribute. We’ll help you build good habits around avoiding triggers.
Sleep: assess if your sleep habits, position and pillow are causing you grief
Water intake. Most people know they should be drinking more, but we can help you form better habits.
Load management, particularly if physical activity is aggravating your headache
Stress management. We can discuss strategies to help you manage stress.
If you suffer from headaches, please don’t wait any longer to book in and start your journey. Go to our booking tab or give us a call on 9022 0211.
References:
Stovner LJ, Hagen K, Linde M, Steiner TJ. The global prevalence of headache: an update, with analysis of the influences of methodological factors on prevalence estimates. J Headache Pain. 2022 Apr 12;23(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s10194-022-01402-2. PMID: 35410119; PMCID: PMC9004186.
