If you’re struggling with chronic or frequent headaches, you may be wondering where you should turn for relief. Your first guess may be your primary care physician, but oftentimes these providers end up referring you to a physical therapist. If you’re dealing with regular headaches, you can cut out the middleman by going straight to a physical therapist to find relief. Below, we share four ways that a physical therapist can help you treat your chronic headaches.
4 Ways A PT Can Treat Your Headaches
Here’s a look at four ways a physical therapist can help you work towards a solution to your chronic headaches.
- Accurate Diagnosis – Some people may be surprised to learn that a physical therapist can oftentimes provide an accurate diagnosis for your headaches, which again helps to cut out the physician middleman. We have access to imaging techniques and can perform a more comprehensive physical examination to help get to the bottom of your headaches. Whether your headaches are caused by a sensitivity to light or cervical muscle tension, we can help provide you with an accurate diagnosis.
- Manual Therapy – Hands-on therapy is one technique that sets physical therapists out from the rest. This involves the therapist physically manipulating the patient’s body in ways to help safely move soft tissues and work towards headache relief. Manual therapy is great for headaches that are being caused by muscle tension or frequent muscle spasms, and it is best performed by a trained physical therapist.
- Exercise Therapy – We can provide hands-on care for your headaches, but we can also help you develop an exercise and stretching routine that you can perform from the comfort of your home whenever you feel a headache coming on. We can help you develop a routine that counteracts inflammation, calms irritated muscles and promotes flexibility in your neck, all of which can help to calm headache symptoms.
- Education – The final way that a physical therapist can help to treat your chronic headaches is by educating the patient on why their headaches develop and how to best treat them. A lot of times patients are unaware of the underlying factors that are contributing to the onset of their headaches. Factors like dietary choices, posture positioning, sleep pattern dysfunction and lifestyle stressors can all be a direct source of headaches, and we can help explain how these factors can influence your physical health. Moreover, we can help you develop strategies to help prevent them from causing your headaches!
So if you are dealing with regular headaches and want to develop a plan to help reduce their severity or eliminate them from your life, reach out to the team of physical therapists at OrthoRehab Specialists today.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
- Treating Jumper’s Knee With Physical Therapy - January 22, 2025
- 5 Tips For Starting A Gym Routine You’ll Enjoy - January 20, 2025
- Early Physical Therapy Proves Immensely Beneficial For Concussed Patients - January 15, 2025
