Most headaches are caused by the cervical spine
In the past, people tend to think that headache is caused by the problem of nerves and blood vessels in the head, but do not pay attention to the role played by the neck, so the treatment is “headache medicine, foot pain medicine”, such as playing medicine or doing acupuncture, physical therapy, massage in the head pain place, oral pain tablets, etc.. The treatment effect of these methods is often unsatisfactory, and the situation of “headache for patients and headache for doctors” is formed.
In fact, most headaches are caused by cervical spine problems, and the concept of cervicogenic headache was first introduced by an American doctor in 1983. After nearly 10 years of debate and research, cervicogenic headache was finally recognized by experts in many disciplines and in 1990, it was recognized by the International Headache Society. In 1995, it was pointed out that degenerative changes in the cervical spine and muscle spasm in the neck are the direct causes of cervicogenic headache, so cervicogenic headache is also called cervicogenic headache.
What are the characteristics of cervicogenic headache?
Cervicogenic headache is caused by cervical spondylosis and acute and chronic cervical spine injury, and is related to the stimulation of the nerves in the neck. Patients with cervicogenic headaches tend to have stiffness and immobility of the neck, and the head or neck is usually traumatized. The headache is characterized by repeated dull or aching pain in the occiput, top of the head, temples, forehead or around the orbits, accompanied by pain in the upper part of the neck. On examination, there is mostly pain around the neck on pressure.
Why is headache related to the neck
Most of the nerves in the head come from the neck. The nerves emanate from the spinal cord and travel upward to the head, passing through many bones and muscles on the way. If lesions occur in the muscles or bones of the neck, such as cervical degeneration or trauma to the neck muscles, the nerves that pass through this area will be affected and abnormal changes will occur, and these abnormal changes will lead to headaches.
Whether cervicogenic headache is related to age and gender
The relationship between age and cervicogenic headache is not clear enough and further research is needed. Most cervicogenic headaches occur between the ages of 20 and 60, but younger ages are not uncommon, and the youngest patient we encountered was only 6 years old. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend of cervicogenic headache patients in secondary school students, which may be related to excessive study pressure and prolonged head-down reading, resulting in cervical spine or neck muscle injury.
Clinical work has found that female patients with cervicogenic headache are significantly more than male patients. Some studies have shown that female patients are twice as common as male patients. The exact cause of this condition is not clear and may be related to the more sensitive psychological response of women.
How to treat cervicogenic headache
The traditional treatment of cervicogenic headache is mainly based on non-surgical treatments such as acupuncture, massage, tui-na and physical therapy. However, since the main cause of cervicogenic headache is injury or aseptic inflammation of the cervical spine and neck muscle tissue, these traditional treatments, if applied improperly, can cause the injury to worsen and accelerate the disease process.
In recent years, the method of injecting anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs into the onset site has been widely used in clinical practice. It allows the drug to fully function locally to reduce and eliminate soft tissue inflammation, thus relieving or eradicating cervicogenic headache. For patients with long onset and more intense headache, minimally invasive interventional analgesic surgery can be performed. This procedure has the advantages of being non-invasive, less invasive, and more effective, and is a more ideal treatment for intractable cervicogenic headaches.
What to pay attention to in order to prevent cervicogenic headache.
Maintain a good sleeping position and working posture.
People spend 6 to 9 hours a day in sleep, so it is important to choose a suitable pillow and put the head and neck in the proper position during sleep to prevent cervical spine and neck muscle strain diseases.
Change your posture frequently at work, avoid the same posture for too long, insist on doing interval exercises, and change the type of work when necessary.
Self-protection and prevention of head and neck trauma
In life and work, especially in cars and airplanes, the use of seat belts can reduce the occurrence of head and neck trauma and reduce the degree of injury.
Timely treatment of acute head and neck injury
In the acute injury period, attention should be paid to keep bed rest, use neck brace and other appliances for neck braking protection, if necessary, also can take oral pain relief tablets and other drugs to reduce inflammation and analgesia, and try to make the injured cervical spine and muscle trauma reaction to the lowest degree.
Avoid excessive mental work and long-term mental tension
Excessive mental work and long-term mental tension are common features of cervicogenic headache patients, and are also important triggers of cervicogenic headache attacks. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the combination of work and rest and to adjust the psychological state frequently to control cervicogenic headache.