Headache is a common, often debilitating condition that affects 96% of people at some time in their life.

There are multiple types of headaches and a common cause can be the upper joints in the neck not functioning properly – cervicogenic headaches.

The upper cervical joints have connections to the trigeminal nucleus in the brain stem. If the neck joints are dysfunctional they can cause the trigeminal nucleus to be irritated and a headache can result.

Headaches can range from a mild ache to very severe pain and may have associated symptoms e.g. blurred vision, nausea etc. Restoring normal function to these joints will frequently alleviate the headache.

Chris Woodman has a particular interest in the treatment of headaches. He uses a treatment approach based on the work of Migraine and Headache Physiotherapist - Dr Dean Watson. This approach uses quite specific manual treatment techniques to correct upper cervical spine joint dysfunction. (It does not involve manipulating “cracking” the neck). Dr Watson reports success in up to 80% of chronic headache sufferers using these methods.

In addition to restoring correct function to the neck and adjoining muscles successful treatment of headaches also requires that other factors be investigated such as faulty posture, headache triggers and stress, as they can all play a role in either causing or perpetuating headaches.