So a cervicogenic headache is a headache that originates from your cervical spine or from your neck. There are other types of headaches, such as a tension type headache, cluster headache, or migraine that can all kind of mimic this. But a cervicogenic headache is actually quite different.
It can be a little tricky to diagnose, as sometimes these headaches can appear together and you could have a cervicogenic headache that triggers your migraine or vice versa. A cervicogenic headache always starts in your suboccipital region, which is the area right behind your skull. It is pain that usually presents on one side only and it can radiate to the front of your head, and even sometimes behind your eye. Rarely, people can even have pain that doesn't start here, but just presents in the frontal region and behind the eye.
This can come from either the facet joints, which are the spine joints of your neck, the soft tissue, the muscles, or really any of the structures that are innervated in that area and can refer to the front of your head.
The cause of this can be a whiplash type injury or a deacceleration injury, or it can be non-traumatic such as repetitive poor posture positions or just poor range of motion and strength for your neck as well. Cervicogenic headaches can sometimes be associated with global neck pain, such as pain lower in your neck or even in the trap region.
You know you have a cervicogenic headache if it starts in that suboccipital region and starts to radiate into the front of your head, or if you find specific things, bring this on. Such as having to turn your head one direction, having to spend a lot of time on your phone or on your computer, or even being in a position for a long time such as sleeping.
Treatment for a cervicogenic headache can be multifaceted. Sometimes it requires pain medication. Other times, physical therapy can be really useful to help improve the range of motion strength, and postural function of your neck. A health care provider type can also utilize manual therapy and exercise training. Oftentimes, the muscles back here can get very tight, and the underlying joint structures don't move as well as they should.
To learn more about headaches, please visit us at Spine-health and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one. Thanks for watching!
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