Up to 66% of all people in the world experienced one or more headaches in the last year — and up to 4% have headaches at least 15 days every month. If you have chronic headaches that cause interruptions in your day-to-day life, you need a solution that relieves and prevents pain. At Healing Rehab Physical Therapy SC, Amjad Bhatti, DPT, Heliben Patel, DPT, Nabeel Bhatti, PT and the team work together to provide effective, noninvasive headache solutions. Call the Bloomingdale, Illinois, office or click the scheduling link now.

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When does a headache require physical therapy?

If a headache is persistent enough to disrupt your life, or if you have just as many headache days as headache-free days, you may need treatment. Physical therapy is a completely noninvasive and 100% natural way to manage headaches without medication.

Some of the different kinds of headaches that physical therapy can help with include:

  • Migraines
  • Stress headaches (aka tension headaches)
  • Cervicogenic headaches starting in your neck muscles
  • Headaches secondary to sinus issues or other problems

The best way to make sure that physical therapy will be an effective treatment is to seek a clinical exam at Healing Rehab Physical Therapy SC. The experienced team can carefully evaluate your head, neck, headache history, and symptoms to determine what you’re dealing with and how they can help.

What are the benefits of physical therapy for headaches?

Physical therapy offers many benefits to people with chronic headaches. In fact, studies show that physical therapy can:

  • Decrease headache frequency
  • Reduce headache intensity
  • Reduce headache duration
  • Improve range of motion in neck

Physical therapy may help you reduce the amount of pain medication you need for headaches.

It can actually improve your quality of life in general, too.

What does physical therapy treatment for headaches entail?

The Healing Rehab Physical Therapy SC team formulates a treatment plan specific to your type of headache and symptoms, but some common treatments include:

Manual therapy

Manual therapy involves hands-on manipulation of your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints. This type of therapy improves movement, reduces muscle tightness, and minimizes muscle spasms. Overall, the purpose of manual therapy is to encourage natural healing and restore proper position of inflamed tissues.

Massage therapy

Massage therapy involves gentle pressure on your skin to ease pain and improve blood flow. It may be particularly helpful for tension headaches because it can help myofascial trigger points to heal.

Dry needling

Dry needling involves inserting slender acupuncture needles in the muscle attachments at the base of your skull. It can relieve muscle tension within trigger points, which in turn eases headaches quite effectively. Dry needling may be a good treatment to relax muscles before manual therapy or massage.

The Healing Rehab Physical Therapy SC team may also advise you on lifestyle changes, nutritional needs, and other types of simple changes to help you prevent headaches even more effectively.

Click the online appointment scheduler or call Healing Rehab Physical Therapy SC for help with headaches now.