What Causes Headaches?

Headaches can have many causes including muscle tension, poor posture, stress, and spinal issues. Common headache types we treat include:

Muscular Tension in the Neck and Shoulders

Headaches are usually caused by muscle tension in the neck and shoulders. If you have tried to sit in front of a computer for long hours, your head is placed forward, which can cause your muscles to be overstretched. You may experience neck pain, and then you get a headache because your muscles are tense. Our physiotherapy treatment delivered by our expert physiotherapists can help you with headaches.

Trigger Points

Trigger points are considered as hyper-irritable spots in the muscles that often cause pain, tenderness, and sometimes referred pain to other areas of the body. The headache is usually triggered after stress or overuse of your arms, shoulders, and neck muscles.

Blood Vessel Disorder

A few reasons can cause a disorder in your blood vessels, such as your neck and head muscles have been overworked, you are having a history of migraines, and so on. A headache could be experienced at the back of your head or around your eye, which is caused by a disorder in the blood vessels. Your physiotherapist will use manual therapy to relax stiff muscles and improve blood flow to reduce your headache. You can reduce the risk of getting neck and head pain by doing neck exercises that our physiotherapists will teach you during physiotherapy treatment sessions.

Stress

Whether you have a stressful job, home life, or school life, stress can impact many aspects of your life. It's even possible for muscle tension to be a result due to the stress in your life. You could experience a headache when you are stressed because your muscles are tense and contracted around your neck and shoulders. Our team of physiotherapists can provide you with a program for stress-relieving exercises that will help decrease the tension and stress that has been put on your neck and shoulders.

Tension Based Headaches

Tension headaches are usually experienced at any time. This headache is caused by stress and fatigue that has been put on the muscles in your neck, jaw, and shoulders. Our physiotherapists can provide you with a program to decrease stress so you will not feel tension. Other than this, your physiotherapist can also perform manual therapy for neck pain so you will not feel tension or pain after experiencing it.

Occipital Release Headaches

When your muscles are stiff, you can experience a headache at the back of your head, which is known as Occipital Release Headaches. Your physiotherapist will perform sports massage to help relax these muscles so these headaches can be reduced.

Sinus Headache

Sinus headaches are caused when you have an inflammation in your nasal cavities. This will lead to the sinuses becoming congested, which results in pain in the forehead or around the eye socket. You can get rid of these kinds of headaches by taking over-the-counter medication for pain. However, our physiotherapists can provide you with a treatment that will help reduce pain and headache for good by reducing inflammation.

Cervicogenic Headaches

Cervicogenic headaches originate from problems in the cervical spine (neck) and are often caused by poor posture, joint dysfunction, or muscle tightness. These headaches typically start in the neck and radiate toward the head, causing persistent pain that can be mistaken for migraines or tension headaches. Our physiotherapists specialise in diagnosing and treating cervicogenic headaches through targeted manual therapy, postural correction, and exercise programs designed to restore neck function and reduce pain.

Migraines

Migraines are intense, throbbing headaches often accompanied by symptoms such as nausea, sensitivity to light, and visual disturbances. While migraines have complex causes, muscular tension and poor posture can worsen their frequency and severity. Physiotherapy can support migraine management by addressing muscle tightness, improving posture, and teaching relaxation techniques to reduce triggers. At our Whetstone clinic, we provide tailored physiotherapy plans that complement medical migraine treatments for better overall relief.

If you’re dealing with ongoing headaches, it’s important to get expert assessment and targeted treatment at our leading London headache clinic.