The Link Between Chronic Headaches and a Stiff Neck

There’s nothing like a headache to ruin your day. Suddenly, even simple life tasks get harder. Your experience takes a dip because everything you do gets colored by the pain.

When you live with chronic headaches, the situation gets particularly frustrating. Fortunately, Ike Malik, MD, and our team can help. With specialization in headaches, Dr. Malik works with you to figure out what’s causing the chronic issue. 

Sometimes, it could be your neck. Fortunately, Dr. Malik has expertise in neck problems, too. At Texas Pain & Orthopedics in Pflugerville, Texas, he can help you get the care you need to address your chronic headaches.

The neck-headache link

Since your neck and your head physically connect, it’s probably not surprising to know they can be connected in other ways, too. Specifically, neck problems can translate to head problems. Usually, headaches that stem from a stiff neck fall into one of two categories:

1. Cervicogenic headaches

This is the name doctors have given to headaches that stem from problems with your cervical spine (your neck). Cervicogenic headaches are a kind of referred pain. That means the pain you feel in your head isn’t from a problem in your head. It’s from an issue in your neck, but pain signaling makes it present as a headache.

Some of the most common causes of cervicogenic headaches include:

• Pinched nerves
• Slipped discs
• Whiplash
• Broken vertebrae
• Arthritis

Basically, a wide range of conditions and injuries that affect the uppermost portion of your spine could cause referred pain in your head. 

1. Tension headaches

As the name suggests, these headaches come from muscular tightness. Knots in muscles in your head could be contributing, but many people with tension headaches can thank stiff or tight neck muscles, too. In fact, a major cause of tension headaches is tech neck, or neck muscle problems that come from regularly looking down at a device. 

Finding headache relief by treating the root cause

When people try to manage chronic headaches on their own, they often turn to over-the-counter pain relievers, which only mask symptoms. Getting lasting relief means figuring out what’s causing your head pain. Dr. Malik can help.

With expertise in neck issues, he can assess your cervical spine to see if something needs care. Slipped discs and pinched nerves often respond to conservative treatment, including rest. 

If your symptoms don’t improve, Dr. Malik can scale up from there. He offers physical therapy, radiofrequency ablation, nerve blocks, and more.

If you’re living with tension headaches, Dr. Malik tailors care for you. Some people get relief with stress management techniques and improved posture. Others need medication or Botox® injections, which can temporarily freeze the muscles behind your headache. That includes the muscles in your neck.

In short, you don’t have to live with chronic headaches. To find out if your stiff neck is playing a role, call our office or book your appointment online today.