Neck Pain and Headaches - What Is The Relationship?

Headaches that started from neck pain are found mostly in individuals that have improper postures. These pains are known as chronic neck pain. 

It is mostly due to forward-headed body posture and rounded back which cause cervical spine, the top seven vertebrae in the spinal chord to be positioned into extension, hence causes neck flexors, the muscle in front of the neck and the muscles in the back of the neck to be shorten. 

What is wrong with this posture? Some might not know that this posture actually puts a strain on the occipital nerve, where sensory neurons and motor neurons run through these shortened muscles, and with no doubt, leads to headache. 

This pain can be relieved by stretching the muscles. Stretching tight muscles along the neck and the back of the neck, strengthening the muscle in front of the neck and adjusting, improving body postures helps to release the pain. However, stretching of muscle, especially the posterior part of the neck muscle should be done carefully. 

What is the proper method of stretching your muscle?
The proper method should be done by lying on your back, sitting or standing. All these postures help to flatten the cervical spine. Next, after ensuring the body position is correct, pull the chin up and down to relieve pain cause by neck muscle. 

Next, as we know these pains are also caused by improper body posture, it is a way to treat the problem by correcting it. Correcting a forward headed posture can simply starts by strengthening the abdominal region. 

When we are dealing with forward headed posture, we are also handling forward rounded shoulders and increasing the curvature of the spinal chord. Therefore, the short muscle must be stretched and the elongated muscle must be strengthened, or what we called as shortening it. 

It is noticed that the treatment did not focus on the relaxation of neck pain, but by strengthening the abdominal region. The reason behind is because by strengthening abdominal region, leads to the increase stability of the pelvic region and the back muscle, improving the posture and reduce the pain.

Other than pain caused by wrong posture, these pains can also caused by the tightness in one side of the neck. The tightness is mainly due to long period of hours sandwiching the phone is between of the shoulder and the neck. In this case, the shoulder is elevated and the head is tilted. 

These results in upper trapezius, the muscle that extends from the shoulder to the neck to be shortened and the latissimus dorsi, the muscle that extends down from the side of the back to be weaker, hence leading to the pain mentioned above. This can be treated by strengthening the latissmus dorse and stretched the upper trapezius where tightness is experienced. 

In summary, before heading for any tension headache medication, it is important to have ensured that correct body posture is maintained. The cause might be simply the tension on muscles in your neck and limited range of motion in spinal chord. Correcting it might be a better way before heading for medication help.