Why I love Treating headaches
Headaches and migraines can be incredibly debilitating conditions, affecting a large percentage of the population (around 1 in 20 people). Symptoms can range from mild pain lasting only a few hours through to severe, throbbing pain that leaves sufferers unable to leave the house for days.
I have been fortunate enough to learn how to diagnose and treat headaches from Dean Watson, founder of the Watson Headache® Approach. I have found it to be an incredibly rewarding method of treatment, with the main aim being to identify the cervical (neck) joint responsible for reproducing a person’s headache pain.
Typically, people come into the clinic experiencing a headache, and during assessment of the upper cervical spine we are often able to identify the exact joint that reproduces and intensifies their familiar head pain. Patients are often amazed and relieved when maintaining pressure on that joint initially reproduces their headache symptoms and then gradually eases them.
This “reproduction and resolution” of symptoms is a powerful part of the Watson Headache® Approach and is aimed at desensitising the brainstem, which is believed to play a key role in headache and migraine disorders.
One of the things I love most about this treatment approach is that it is completely drug free. Research and clinical outcomes have shown success in reducing symptoms in many headache and migraine sufferers. I especially love helping people who have suffered with headaches for years and believed they simply had to live with them forever.
I find it to be a very systematic and reproducible method of treatment that genuinely works, with many patients noticing changes from the very first session.
Here is my favorite headache exercise. It is best done when you are just feeling the onset of head pain or any associated symptoms that precede your headache.
Stand with you back against a wall, with a pillow behind your upper back.
Gently retract your chin keeping your head level. Then use the space between your thumb and index finger to apply pressure to your chin.
Hold this for 20seconds or until the headache subsides.
Repeat up to 5 times in a row
