What is This..
A Cervicogenic headache, in a way, is one of the most unusual headache disorders because the pain truly isn’t in the head. Cervicogenic headache is referred pain (pain perceived as occurring in a part of the body other than its true source) perceived in the head from a source in the neck.
Cervicogenic headache is a secondary headache, which means that it is caused by another illness or physical issue. In the case of cervicogenic headache, the cause is a neck related issue like arthritis or Cervical spondylosis.
So here’s what typically happens
Poor posture at the low back and neck area cause us to put undue stress at the upper portion of our neck. One thing that your body will always do is make sure that your eyes are level. So if you have posture in which a slump, you usually will have to compensate at the upper part of your neck by tilting your head back.
This can cause increased tightness and restrictions at the base of the head/upper neck region, and create muscular tightness and stiffness is in those small muscles. A few of those muscles play a huge role and turning the neck, and even more importantly there are portions of nerves and arteries that travel through those muscles. If that area gets extremely restricted, there can be increased pressure which could lead to headaches that come from the neck region.
Understand, I’m not saying that all headaches come from the neck area… But for the ones that do, it is absolutely amazing to see the type of improvement with their symptoms.
Physical Therapy Management
Postural issues rate high with physical therapists dealing with headache sufferers. "People are in a flex posture all the time. They work on the computer, read, write, talk on the phone in this posture.
Strengthening exercises to Deep neck flexors, Upper quarter muscles Thoracic spine thrust manipulation & exercise C1-C2 Self-sustained Natural Apophyseal Glide (SNAG) shown to be effective for reducing cervicogenic headache symptoms.