Types of Headaches We Commonly Work With

If you're living with frequent headaches or migraines, you already know how much they take from you.

The hours lost. The plans cancelled. The constant low-grade dread of feeling one coming on and knowing what's ahead.

Medication manages the pain in the moment. It doesn't address what keeps generating the headaches in the first place. That's the gap we work in at Breathe.

  • Tension headaches — pressure or tightness around the head and temples
  • Cervicogenic headaches — pain originating directly from the neck
  • Migraines with and without aura
  • Occipital neuralgia — pain at the base of the skull radiating upward
  • Hormonal headaches tied to the menstrual cycle or perimenopause
  • Stress-triggered headaches
  • Postural headaches from prolonged desk or screen work
  • Headaches related to jaw tension or TMJ dysfunction

Where Most Headaches Actually Come From

The majority of headaches — including most tension headaches and a significant portion of migraines — originate in the neck. Specifically in the upper cervical spine and the muscles, joints, and nerves that connect your head to your shoulders.

When these structures are restricted, irritated, or under sustained tension, they refer pain into the head in patterns that can range from a dull band of pressure to the full migraine experience — light sensitivity, nausea, visual disturbance, and the hours or days of recovery that follow.

The nervous system adds a critical second layer. A system running in chronic stress mode has a measurably lower pain threshold — meaning the same level of cervical joint irritation that might cause mild discomfort in a calm state can trigger a significant headache when the nervous system is already loaded. Stress doesn't just cause headaches. It amplifies the structures already prone to generating them.

This is why headaches so reliably worsen during difficult periods, and why addressing the nervous system alongside the structural component is what produces lasting change rather than temporary relief.

Our Approach to Headache and Migraine Care

Most patients see a meaningful reduction in headache frequency within the first few weeks of care. The goal is fewer headaches, less severe headaches, and eventually a body that doesn't generate them as readily in the first place.

We begin with a thorough history of your headache pattern — frequency, location, duration, triggers, what makes them better or worse, and how long this has been going on. This, combined with a structural assessment of your cervical spine and an honest look at your overall nervous system load, guides everything that follows.

Chiropractic care focused on the upper cervical and thoracic spine restores joint mobility and reduces nerve irritation at the structural root of most headaches. Gentle, specific adjustments to the C1-C3 segments in particular can produce meaningful and sometimes rapid relief for patients whose headaches originate in the neck — which is most of them.

Acupuncture has strong and growing research support for both migraine frequency reduction and tension headache relief. It works through different mechanisms than chiropractic — directly influencing pain signaling pathways, reducing inflammation, and calming the nervous system hyperactivation that keeps migraine sufferers in a hair-trigger state between episodes.

Soft tissue work releases the sustained muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, suboccipital muscles, and jaw that feeds the headache cycle between visits. For many headache patients, this accumulated tension is the physical mediator between stress and pain — addressing it directly accelerates progress.

Nutritional support plays a supporting role for some patients. Magnesium deficiency is one of the most well-documented contributors to migraine frequency, and blood sugar dysregulation can reliably trigger headaches in susceptible people. Where relevant, we can provide guidance on nutritional factors that may be contributing to your pattern.

 

A Note on Migraines Specifically

Migraines are a distinct neurological event, not just a bad headache.

The throbbing pain, light and sound sensitivity, nausea, aura, and the postdrome exhaustion that follows are all part of a specific pattern of brain and vascular activity that's well understood neurologically even if it's not well understood by everyone who hasn't experienced it.

What chiropractic and acupuncture offer migraine sufferers isn't a cure — it's a meaningful reduction in the frequency and severity of episodes by addressing the cervical and nervous system contributors that lower the threshold for a migraine to occur. Many of our migraine patients continue to work with their neurologist or headache specialist alongside care at Breathe, and we actively support that collaborative approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can chiropractic care help with migraines?
Research supports chiropractic care as an effective component of migraine management, particularly for reducing frequency and severity. The mechanism is primarily through the cervical spine — upper cervical joint dysfunction is a known contributor to migraine threshold, and addressing it reduces how often the nervous system tips into a migraine episode. We don't claim to cure migraines, but meaningful improvement in frequency and severity is a realistic and well-documented outcome.

How is what you do different from just taking medication?
Medication addresses the migraine once it's started. Our care addresses the conditions that allow migraines to start as readily in the first place — the cervical joint dysfunction, the nervous system sensitization, the sustained muscle tension that lowers the threshold for an episode. They serve different functions and work well together.

My headaches are hormonal — can you still help?
Hormonal headaches are often amplified by cervical tension and nervous system sensitization even when hormones are the primary trigger. Reducing that amplification through chiropractic and acupuncture frequently reduces the severity and duration of hormonally-triggered headaches even when the hormonal fluctuation itself continues. Acupuncture in particular has specific relevance for hormonal headache patterns.

How long before I notice improvement?
Many patients notice a reduction in headache frequency within the first 2-4 weeks of care. Migraine patterns that have been established for years typically take longer to shift than more recent headache onset. We'll give you an honest assessment in your initial consultation based on your specific history.

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