Headache caused by prolonged head down

  In the past year, Ms. Cai, who has been engaged in copywriting for many years, always felt soreness and pain in one side of her occipital area at work, sometimes extending to the top of her head, temporal area and forehead, with ear congestion and eye swelling when the pain was severe, which improved slightly after rest. A few days ago, the painful Ms. Cai came to the pain clinic of the Second Hospital of Xiamen, and Dr. Weng Zelin, who was attending to her, found that every time Ms. Cai had a headache, she had a headache after a long period of time with her head down, and a physical examination also found that her neck muscles were stiff and pressing on her neck could trigger a headache.  Dr. Weng said that cervicogenic headache is a type of headache caused by cervical spine lesion and cervical muscle spasm, which is mostly caused by damage to cervical muscles after prolonged head down, and then cervical spine displacement and degeneration. These headaches are most easily treated as common headaches and can improve after symptomatic treatment, but like Ms. Cai, they can still recur and get worse gradually, which greatly affects life and work.  What should be done after suffering from cervicogenic headache? Dr. Weng Zelin suggests that firstly, the bad habit of keeping the head down for a long time must be changed; secondly, the earlier the treatment, the better. Reasonable medication, physical therapy, paracervical and occipital nerve block or ozone injection can minimize the pain and even relieve the headache completely.  Finally, Dr. Weng reminded readers that prevention is the most fundamental solution to cervicogenic headache: firstly, avoid prolonged head down such as working at desk, surfing the Internet, playing cell phone, watching TV, driving, etc., and during the period (40-60 minutes interval), it is better to do some head tilting and neck massage to relax the neck muscles; secondly, it is better to use a pillow of suitable height when sleeping at night (I am one fist high). Finally, in summer, in the air-conditioned room, avoid the neck to be cold.