An estimated 4.9 million Australians experience Headaches or Migraines with 23% of households having at least one sufferer [1]. Everyone will know at least one person who suffers from headaches to some degree. They could be a nagging ache that lingers throughout the day or an intense throbbing that stops you from performing any of your normal daily tasks. But how can headaches be treated?
Dean Watson has developed an approach for the assessment and treatment of headaches/migraines here in Australia, which is getting good results and plenty of attention. Fairfield Physiotherapy’s Jonathan Bastin has completed training in this method and has been using it for the past 2 years achieving good results in a lot of patients.
There are numerous types of headaches including; tension type headache, migraine, cervicogenic, posttraumatic and others with more serious causes. The length of a headache can also vary from a few hours to a few days [2]. The frequency of migraines can vary significantly too with some individuals experiencing one a year, but the average may be as high as 24 per year [1].
It is not uncommon for a headache to be multi-factorial and while more serious causes may be uncommon, the first priority is to rule them out. Once these conditions are ruled out, the Dean Watson assessment will consider and assess the other possible causes. While dehydration and visual strain on computer screens is often addressed, the upper cervical spine (neck) is looked at closely. This can often be feeding irritation into the nerves which wrap around the temple and to the forehead causing headaches.
Determining the cause of your headache can help improve the outcome of your treatment. Jonathan Bastin will use the Watson headache method to assess these factors and develop a treatment plan including self-management strategies to resolve your symptoms.
Call Fairfield Physiotherapy on 94897744 to book an appointment with Jonathan Bastin to see if the Dean Watson method works for your headache.
[1] https://headacheaustralia.org.au/what-is-headache/prevalence-and-cost-of-headache/
[2] https://www.migrainetrust.org/about-migraine/migraine-what-is-it/more-than-just-a-headache/
