Physical Therapy for Headaches: Finding the Root Cause

If you’re one of the millions who suffer from chronic headaches or migraines, you know how debilitating they can be. The throbbing pain, light sensitivity, and nausea from a headache can bring your life to a standstill. While medication can provide temporary relief, physical therapy offers a drug-free approach to treating headaches by addressing the underlying causes.

During treatment sessions, physical therapists perform comprehensive evaluations to identify which factors are contributing to your headaches. Some common causes they might uncover include:

Common Causes of Headaches

• Muscle Tightness and Trigger Points – Chronic tension in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, and upper back can refer pain to the head. Trigger points (muscle knots) are often involved.
• Poor Posture – Forward head and rounded shoulder postures can overstretch the muscles and put increased strain on the joints, leading to headaches. Our modern lifestyle of sitting hunched over computers or devices exacerbates these postural issues. 
• Jaw Dysfunction – Jaw clenching/grinding habits and TMJ disorders can cause referred pain, often felt in the temples. Strength imbalances in jaw muscles can also contribute to postural issues in the neck. 
• Nerve Impingement – Compression or irritation of nerves in the neck can manifest as headache pain. Nerve impingement can also cause numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness in addition to headaches.  
• Injury – Whiplash, concussion or other head/neck injuries can lead to ongoing headaches if not properly rehabilitated. Lingering muscle tension often occurs following these injuries. 

How Physical Therapy Treats Headaches

Once the source is pinpointed, your physical therapist can create a specialized treatment plan to address the root causes. Depending on the factors involved, this may include manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, dry needling, and posture retraining. 

If chronic headaches are disrupting your life, don’t just mask the symptoms with medication. Try physical therapy to get to the root cause and provide lasting headache relief through a personalized treatment program.