What’s the cause of my headache?

Here at the Oakville Chiropractic Centre (located just south of the QEW off Trafalgar Road), we encourage our patients to talk about their aches and pains. A topic of conversation that often comes up is headaches. Why am I getting headaches? What is the cause of my headache? What can I do to make my headache go away? What can I do to prevent headaches? Dr. Phil Wessel put together a short video that discusses suboccipital (also referred to as a cervicogenic) headaches. Check out the video along with the transcription below.

Hi I’m Dr. Phil wessel of Oakville Chiropractic Centre. Today I want to talk to you about something we see fairly often in our office. The suboccipital or cervicogenic headache. What these are, are headaches that originate in the base of the skull or the top of your neck and produce pain across the forehead. 

A simple test you can do at home to see if that is your problem area causing your headaches is called the Flexion-Rotation Test. To do this, all you do is bring your chin to your chest and rotate your head from side to side. If this either reproduces your symptoms, meaning it makes your pain worse or you feel like you are restricted in that motion, that is most likely the cause of your headaches. 

Some simple things that you can do at home to help relieve your symptoms are self-massage, so trying to relax the muscles at the base of your skull. Range of motion exercises, which will involve turning your head as far as you can and applying a little bit of pressure to further stretch those muscles in either direction, as well as side to side. And exercise called chin tucks or double chins as i like to call them. So what you do is almost push your chin backwards, tilt your chin down and make that nice sexy double chin.

If you need more help than what you can give yourself, that’s when seeing a Chiropractor would be the best option. We will help address the tight muscles and help restore the normal motion of the joints to help you from being headache-free and also prevent the head from coming back all without the use of medication. 

If this sounds like we could help you, give us a call at the Oakville Chiropractic Centre or go to our website at www.oakvillechiropractic.com.