Over time, we gradually see more people at our clinic who resort to travelling long distances for treatment with us. Every week we see people from as far away as Napier, Auckland and Christchurch who have decided to travel back and forth for treatment. The obvious elephant in the room is the number of pain clinics, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and doctors far closer to these people than our clinic. It seems like something is up here because while we are undoubtedly good at what we do, it’s not as if we walk on water, if you know what I mean. The reasons why so many people in NZ give up on the ‘neck pain near me’ Google search and resort to travelling for treatment are probably numerous and definitely beyond the scope of this short rambling blog. The critical point is that for these people, it is a highly frustrating and often downright distressing situation that leads them to travel for treatment.

Part of the reason that we see such a steady increase in the time and distance people are travelling for neck pain treatment is the Internet. For all its faults, the Internet has many fantastic qualities, and it has changed the world fundamentally. Until recently, we only had to take our doctor’s word for everything they told us about our health. Now, in a short number of years, we have access to essentially all of the health research and expert opinion we could ever hope to because it’s all available on the Internet. This ability helps people to gravitate towards the best treatment technologies of their own accord.

The traditional medical explanation for headaches like migraines is that they are caused by changes in blood flow to the brain, which is most definitely a feature of migraines and possibly tension headaches. Interestingly, migraines may coincide with changes and blood flow rather than being genuinely caused by changes and blood flow. It is also possible that the changes in blood flow to the brain could be triggered by neck issues and may relate to similar connections to those that Mr Bogduk has discovered in his research.You have managed to read this somewhat dense blog to this point, well done! But you probably didn’t come here to read about nerdy neuroanatomy. Most likely, you have come here to have a question answered. Could my headaches/migraines/cluster headaches come from my neck? And the answer is a most definite and resounding YES! In addition, wondering whether a problem causes headaches in your neck, you may be wondering whether there’s anything that can be done. The answer to that question is also a resounding YES!

In the pain management trenches where I live, work and obsess, we find that most headache/migraine sufferers have a significant number of deep knots in the muscles at the top of the neck. They also have stiffness, locking and inflammation of the small weight-bearing joints and the top of their neck. Many also have a limited range of motion in their spinal joints. We find that many of these people experience a reduction and elimination of their headaches once these issues are addressed. For the few who find that these releases don’t work over time, most still get excellent results by reducing stress and improving their lifestyle, making life kinder to their necks.