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  • Home
    • Highly Skilled Headache Treatment
    • Neck treatments don't work for me. Will this?
    • You're not sure the neck is the problem - can we help?
    • Why Choose Melbourne Headache Centre?
  • About Us
    • Our Staff >
      • Opportunities
    • Our Philosophy
    • Research >
      • Our Research
      • Neck Research >
        • The Watson Headache ® Approach
        • 80% of migraine related to neck
      • Medical Research
    • Our Guarantee >
      • Migraineur's Bill of Rights
  • Our Services
    • Headache or Migraine Assessment
    • Migraine Treatment >
      • Migraine with Aura
      • Migraine Classification
    • Menstrual Migraine Treatment >
      • Menstrual Migraine
    • Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Treatment
    • Vestibular Migraine
    • Medication Overuse Headache
    • Cluster Headache - TAC's
    • Cervicogenic Headache
    • Tension Type Headache
    • Trigeminal Neuralgia, facial pain and headache
  • FAQ
    • Should I See My Doctor?
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Nine's Today Show Watson Headache Story
    • Seven News Story
    • Herald Sun News Story
    • The Age - Chronic Migraine and Headache Treatment
    • The Age - Headache and Migraine Relief
    • Migraine Treatment Melbourne Headache Centre Ten News Story
    • 3AW Interview - Ross and John
    • SEN Interview - Fit and Well
    • Health Times Feature Story
  • Contact Us
    • Location
    • Online Assessment Form
    • Contact Details
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Cluster Headache - Is there a role for the neck?

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Chronic and recurrent headaches are a complex problem. This is an understatement when it comes to Cluster Headache. This is by far the most severe form of headache and many experts believe it to be the most severe condition humans experience. This prompted eminent Professor and World expert on headache management Peter Goadsby to comment:

"Cluster headache is probably the worst pain that humans experience. I know that’s quite a strong remark to make, but if you ask a cluster headache patient if they've had a worse experience, they'll universally say they haven't. Women with cluster headache will tell you that an attack is worse than giving birth. So you can imagine that these people give birth without anaesthetic once or twice a day, for six, eight, or ten weeks at a time, and then have a break. It's just awful."

We know from the research that there are multiple areas of the brain active during cluster headache attacks. Most notably the hypothalamic grey matter (housing our internal body clock), which in all likelihood explains why there is such a strong timing component with cluster headache. Like the other major headache types (migraine, tension headache and cervicogenic headache), cluster headache is characterised by a hyper-reflexive trigeminal nucleus.

​It stands to reason, as one of the two major inputs into the trigeminal nucleus, that the upper cervical spine may be responsible for the overstimulation, and hence, hyper-reflexivity.

Assessment looks for three key signs that the neck is involved:
  1. There is a mechanical fault creating pressure on the upper three cervical segments, charactersied by a muscle spasm under the base of the skull.
  2. This mechanical fault is reversible
  3. The stress this mechanical fault creates is capable of referring the typical pain (area and quality, not intensity) of cluster headache.

If we find these three attributes then your neck is contributing to the problem, and that contribution can be successfully managed. 

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