Would neck pain cause a migraine?
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Not sure if it is related, but there is a good chance. I always thought migraines were triggered by other things like certain foods. It's possible that your migraine occurred coincidentally with another event that caused misalignment. Also, unlike headaches, tylenol and aspirin tend to have no or little effect on alleviating migraine pain.
I get neck pains and headaches resulting from either bad alignment (over time), or sleeping in a bad position (kink in the neck.) (I also get headaches when the weather changes ...when a strong low pressure system moves in.)
Yoga is a great way to strengthen and align without expensive chiropractice...start off gentle, then work your way up. Take a class with an experienced teacher to start. Look into these gentle poses:
- cat pose (arch and unarch your back/neck like a cat)
- downward dog
- upward dog
On the office side, check your ergonomics. If using a monitor, the top of the monitor screen should be at your eye level, so that you are basically looking down to view the screen. Avoid angles where you pitch your head up for long periods of time.
On the home side, check the way you sleep. Get the appropriate pillow (firmness) for your sleeping style. If you sleep on your back, you can get by with a softer pillow so that your head does not pitch forward (up). If you sleep on your side, you will probably need a firmer pillow so that your head is aligned in a straight line with the rest of your spine as you sleep. Now if you are a stomach sleeper, this might be a little more difficult...but the main thing is to support a neutral position and straight line when you sleep. I've tried contoured pillows but have had very limited success with them.
If your TV is too high (where you are pitching your head up)...lower the TV or raise your seating position.
Yes it will. I have very bad migranes and sometimes they start with a bad neck ache.
Check with a doctor. Your headache could be from your neck. It could also very well be a tension headache and not a migraine. Tension headaches can come from lots of things; straining eyes, stress, over exertion, etc.
Yes! You could have a pinched nerve in your neck. See a chiropractor. He'll straighten you up stat!
There's a new development in migraine therapy:
http://www.neurologyreviews.com/feb04/nr...
Yes, muscle pain (especially in the neck!) is definitely a migraine trigger. Sometimes when I sleep in a funny position I will wake up with neck pain which can turn into a tension headache, which can turn into a migraine if I'm not careful. Also, strangely enough - my neck and back of my head are often sore AFTER a migraine. Not sure if it's from all of the stress on the blood vessels back there or what? If you are feeling concerned you should definitely see your doctor to rule out other problems and help you manage future migraines. Good luck!
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