Headaches, Migraines and Neck Pain
If you've noticed that your neck pain, headaches, and/or migraines coincide, then this webpage will explain why.
I am a chiropractor, but instead of doing spinal manipulation, I use laser therapy to treat the muscles that cause this neck tension. Many can notice a difference in their neck within 10 to 20 minutes of comfortable laser treatment which you can learn more about on this site.
If you have found relief with massage, chiropractic, botox, accupuncture, and physical therapy, but have not gotten lasting relief, I will explain why and what really needs to be corrected.
Start by watching the two-minute video below to get the basics of why neck pain triggers headache pain. After that, I will explain the more important areas of the body that need to be treated beyond the neck muscles themselves. (The eight minute version goes into more detail if you want.)
Important Fascial Connections
If most headaches are due to tightness in the neck, how does one actually loosen these neck muscles? Here is the simple methodology I use in my office with a person experiencing neck pain or headaches.
First, I check their neck and find tight areas. If I apply mild pressure to the tightest areas, I can usually recreate their headache pain within a few seconds. Then, when I let go, their headache goes away. Now I know which muscles are the problem and which fascial lines to treat.
The primary fascial lines related to headaches are shown in these images. There are three of them, and they all run head-to-toe. The neck is often the least effective area to treat in someone with neck tightness. You'll see what I mean in a bit.
The missing ingredient is understanding fascia. You might not have ever heard about fascia. This entire website deals with fascia and how it interconnects muscles along different fascial lines. In these images, you see three fascial lines: A, B, and C. Where you hurt is usually not the only problem. The true problem lies elsewhere, where you do not notice it.
Looking at the images, can you see how knowing the fascial lines is vitally important? It depends on where you hurt as to which fascial lines I need to treat..
If your pain is at the side of the neck (Image A) or the back of the neck (Image B), then I want to start laser treatment on the back of the lower leg (calf area). But if it is in the levator scapula muscle (Image C), then I want to work the back of the upper arm. Working this way, I get way better results than just working on the area where you hurt in the neck.
Why do I focus on the calves and triceps for neck pain? I have found that working these areas affects the fascial lines in the neck more than working any other part of the body. The neck muscles are small and wimpy compared to the powerful muscles of the legs and arms. When the legs or arms are tight, they don't necessarily hurt, but other smaller muscles in the same fascial line can, because this is what fascia does. Muscles along a fascial line help other muscles along the same fascial line. If your powerful calf muscles are tight, then your neck muscles in the back of your neck will most likely be tight as well in response to the tight calf muscles.
It's not that the neck doesn't need treatment; it often does, but to start there, without treating the cause, isn't the most logical. The point is that I often have to treat the neck as well after I have released the legs or arms somewhat.
The next question is, what causes tight muscles and muscle knots?
Muscle Knots in Your Neck and Traps
I'm sure you've felt knots in your neck and have tried everything you can think of to get rid of them. Massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, botox, cortisone, you name it, but have they worked? Probably not long-term.
These are all great therapies, but they don't fix the metabolic issue in your muscles. Muscle knots are localized contractions in your muscles that are so intense they feel hard. Yes, like when you flex your bicep, and it feels hard, these muscle knots feel hard too. The difference is the muscle knots in your neck, or anywhere in your body, never let go. Why is that?
If you read "How Lasers Work" on this website, you know that tight muscles are like rigor mortis. Rigor mortis is the intense muscle contraction that happens hours after a person dies. But this doesn't make sense. Why, when someone dies, do their muscles go into hard contraction? The reason is that there is no energy production in the muscle cells anymore because the blood flow has stopped, and muscle cells run out of fuel to stay loose. Yes, muscle cells burn a lot of energy to stay loose. They use more energy to lift weights and exercise, for example, but they still consume energy even at rest. This energy is used to operate calcium pumps in muscle cells. When the calcium pumps have plenty of ATP energy to pump calcium, the muscles stay nice and relaxed. But when the ATP levels decrease, the calcium pumps, which also consume ATP energy, begin to fail, and calcium builds up near the muscle contractile proteins, which initiate contraction.
This has nothing to do with calcium being bad. Not at all. It's just not where it's supposed to be because the calcium pumps aren't working well. When this effect is localized in muscles, you get muscle knots. Areas of intense contraction may or may not hurt, but they feel tight and hard, and you can't release them by pressing on them because the problem is a chemical problem with decreased ATP production.
The solution is to increase ATP production in the involved area and along the fascial line using laser therapy to induce a photochemical reaction, which increases ATP production even after the laser therapy ends.
People often ask me, is this permanent—a dangerous question in healthcare. Let me answer it this way. The chemical changes appear to be mostly permanent, but when a person's symptoms come back, they don't understand or think I was lying. So let me tell you my experiences. Patients usually walk out of my office feeling improved. Not all the time, but usually. About half the time, they report feeling even better the day after or the day after that. The other half can have their pain return exactly as it was, or they have a few good days and then their pain returns exactly as it was.
This can be quite discouraging to people, and I've discussed this elsewhere on this site. So why do I say the chemical part is mostly permanent? Because it appears to be when I feel the tissues. When I feel the spots where I lasered prior, the tissues are often looser and less tender. Yet the person's pain might be the same as it was before they started. I get it. But usually after a few more treatments, they really start to feel the improvements.
Laser therapy is amazing, and it's effects are often faster than many other therapies I've tried in the past, but it does take time. I wish it were as simple as pointing the laser at the knot for five minutes and having the whole thing melt away. But it's not that easy due to all the fascial connections and the fact that these knots are often rock-hard by the time someone comes to me. So, take that for what it is.
In my experience, the chemical changes and the loosening I see in muscles lasts. Not necessarily the symptom relief, but the loosening. Over a few treatments, the knots often become soft enough that a person's symptoms fade away. With more treatments, the knots can often be fully loosened, but once someone feels good, they often stop treatment, even if their knots are still there to some degree.