Headaches and Migraines
I know a lot of you out there have had trouble with migraines or chronic headaches. I know a lot of you feel like you have tried everything and, honestly, if you wrote out your very long list to me, it would look like you have. But have you tried physical therapy?
I didn’t even know PT was an option for this at first.
This is another one of those things that most people don’t know physical therapists can help with in the first place. If you seek PT for your headaches or migraines, you can definitely expect exercise to be part of your treatment. Manual therapy will probably be involved (this is the hands on work that the physical therapist does while you get to lay down and enjoy) and education should be involved. If you see a PT that doesn’t offer education about your condition, then ask for it!
"my head hurts" by CapCat Ragu is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Do physical therapists treat different types of headaches?
Yes! You and your PT will work together to figure out what type of headache you have. Your treatment plan for headaches may look different from someone else’s treatment plan, based on what kind of headaches you have and the resources available to you.
I recently had the pleasure of shadowing at a clinic that was treating a patient with vertigo migraines. They followed their home exercise program, came to sessions, and showed remarkable improvement. They said their dizziness and headaches were much less frequent and they were able to do their work (at home and on the job) a lot more easily. It was really satisfying to watch this person as they were able to live more comfortably and showed up at each session with a bigger smile.
If you’re curious to know more, check out this site:
