Headaches & Migraines

Many headaches originate not in the head itself but in the neck and upper spine. Tension and restricted movement in the neck and upper back can contribute to headaches that start there. Our exam looks at whether the joints and muscles of the neck and upper back are part of your headache pattern. Headaches are also one of the most common complaints following auto accidents and whiplash injuries.

Headaches get talked about as one thing, and they're not. Some belong with your doctor. Some are mechanical, driven by the joints and muscles of the neck and upper back, and those are the ones a chiropractic exam is built to look at. The most common version we see in our Wells Branch office starts low, at the base of the skull, and creeps forward toward a temple or behind an eye. It's usually worse on one side, usually worse after a long stretch of holding your head in one position, and a stiff neck tends to come along with it. What that pattern means is simple enough: the pain shows up in your head while the source sits a few inches lower.

Tension headaches, the kind that feel like a band tightening around your whole head, often have a similar story in the neck and shoulders. Here's the honest boundary, though, because headache advice online is full of promises nobody can keep. We don't treat migraines. Migraine is a medical condition your doctor manages, and it deserves that kind of care. What's true, and much less dramatic, is that plenty of people who live with headaches of any kind also carry real stiffness and muscle tension in the neck and upper back. An exam can tell you whether there's a meaningful neck component to what you're feeling. If there is, it can be worked on alongside whatever your doctor is doing rather than instead of it. If there isn't, you should know that too, and we'll tell you.

So a first visit is mostly about sorting out what kind of headache you're dealing with. Dr. Shelly Hogan and Dr. Nicole Edwards will ask when the headaches started, where in your head they begin, how long they last, what tends to bring one on, and what you've already tried. Then they look at the neck: how far it turns and tilts, which parts are moving poorly, where the muscles at the base of the skull and across the shoulders are tender, and how you carry your head at rest. Your desk and your habits get a look as well, because in a screen-heavy part of North Austin they're one of the most common things we find. You'll get a plain explanation of what turned up before anything is decided.

If the exam points to the neck, care generally involves adjustments to the joints that are moving poorly, hands-on work for the muscles that refer pain upward, and specific changes to how you sit and where your screen lives, so the pattern isn't simply rebuilt each week. Keeping a short record of when headaches hit and what you were doing beforehand is genuinely useful, and we'll ask about it. Our office is at 3407 Wells Branch Pkwy, Suite 625, in Wells Branch, North Austin, with parking right at the door, and Rosamaria on our team speaks fluent Spanish. Book online or call (512) 255-1777.