There are many different kinds of headaches and often diagnosis is not straight forward. One of the main issues that I come across is that people are wrongly diagnosing the type of headache they have. The most common in this group would be migraines. I am not sure exactly why this is but I think that in many ways the term migraine has become interchangeable with the word headache. 

Migraines usually have 4 distinct phases:

1st Phase is usually a sense that a headache is approaching this can vary from one person to the next the 2nd phase is often an auditory or visual aura and the 3rd a severe headache which is usually unilateral often throbbing, can induce nausea and vomiting as well as sensitivity to light or noise and is often helped by sleep in a dark room and finally the 4th phase is a recovery phase which can include tiredness, drowsiness and even elation for some.

For many people migraines are often triggered by certain foods chocolate, wine and cheese, or even smells or stressful situations.

The second is that they are actually suffering from headaches for a number of different reasons or put another way they have 2 or more different types of headache happening at the same time.

Of the types of headaches that I see in clinic often are cervicogenic headaches. Cervicogenic means from the neck.  This sort of headaches has quite a distinct pattern of occurrence.

• They usually start in the neck or at the back of the head

• They are more common on one side of the head

• They will then travel across the scalp and often intensify over the eye on the same side

• If they progress further they can cross over and become a full headache

• They are caused by misalignments in the upper cervical vertebra

They will have a different feeling from the usual tension headaches that many of us have experienced. Tension headaches feel like a tight band around our head and happen toward the end of the day and in stressful situations. Cervicogenic headaches can affect us at any time.

Whilst these are 2 of the most common primary type of headache it is very common to find people coming in with additional symptoms such as foggy thinking or brain fog. These additional symptoms are often related to some other issues that are happening primarily these are:

• Hormone imbalance

• Nutrition deficiencies

• Consumption of foods that cause headaches (coffee, tea and some foods)

• Dehydration

• Medication overuse headache – this is particularly difficult as these are caused by over the counter medications that people are taking to help with the pain from headache

In the case of headaches a good understanding of the type of headache you are suffering from and a holistic approach gives the best results. Looking at nutrition, spinal alignment especially in the case of cervicogenic headaches and triggers can help to alleviate and manage the symptoms of headache that many of us suffer from.