What to do if you have a headache in your cervical spine

1. How to treat headache caused by cervical spondylosis

Headaches caused by the cervical spondylosis can be relieved by traction, massage, and warm compresses. Traction is an effective and widely used non-surgical treatment for cervical spondylosis. It is simple to operate and has good efficacy. The main function of massage is to relieve tension and spasm of the neck and shoulder muscle groups, loosen nerve roots and soft tissue adhesions, and thus relieve headache symptoms. Warm compresses can improve blood circulation, relieve muscle spasms, and reduce swelling to reduce headache symptoms. In addition, there are drug therapy and some other physical therapies as an auxiliary treatment method to achieve a more ideal therapeutic effect.

2. Causes of headache caused by cervical spondylosis

Cervical spondylosis affects the neck muscles, causing persistent spasmodic contraction of the neck muscles and obstruction of muscle blood circulation, which can release pathogenic substances such as lactic acid, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and bradykinin, causing headaches. Cervical spondylosis directly stimulates, compresses, or pulls headache-sensitive tissues in the head, causing headaches. Headaches are caused by lesions stimulating, compressing, or damaging the cervical nerves, especially in the occipital region, and can also radiate pain to the head through reflex action, causing headaches. Patients with pushing pulse type cervical spondylosis have headaches because the lesions directly affect the pushing pulse, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the vertebral-basilar artery system.

3. What are the cervical spondylosis headaches?

Localized headache. The local headache caused by cervical spondylosis is mostly dull or lacking pain, and a few patients experience stabbing pain. This is due to fatigue and tension of the neck muscles caused by changes in the position of the intervertebral joints of the cervical spine, which causes an imbalance in the structural stability of the cervical spine. It is often caused by improper sleeping posture and is more common in the morning.

Headache with radiating upper limb pain. Patients with cervical spondylosis headaches also have radiating pain in the upper limbs, which is a common symptom of radiculopathy of cervical spondylosis. Clinically, it mainly manifests as radiating pain along the upper limbs to the hands, which is caused by the stimulation, compression or traction of the spinal nerve roots by the protruding nucleus pulposus or bone hyperplasia. The distribution area of ​​pain is consistent with the spinal nerve innervation area of ​​the diseased part, mostly tingling, often accompanied by numbness and loss of sensation.

Vascular headache: Vascular headache caused by cervical spondylosis. It is a common clinical symptom of vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis. It is caused by compression or stimulation of the vertebral artery due to cervical spondylosis, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the vertebral artery. Clinically, it often manifests as migraine, and is mostly unilateral. The symptoms are limited to the temporal region, with short attacks, throbbing or burning pain, often accompanied by dizziness and sudden collapse. Each attack is often associated with neck rotation or scoliosis.

Headache with referred visceral pain. Patients with cervical spondylosis headache may experience referred visceral pain. This is mainly caused by the compression of nerves in the lesion site of cervical spondylosis, which control the sensation of internal organs. If patients with headaches also have symptoms of angina pectoris and stomach pain, they should be highly alert to the occurrence of cervical spondylosis.