01
Work out where it starts
The first question is whether this headache is coming from your neck at all. Exam findings, the pattern of the pain, and what makes it better or worse do most of that work.
Health conditions · Headaches
Some headachesstart in your neck.
There are more than two hundred kinds of headache. They are not all the same thing, they do not all have the same cause, and only some of them are a chiropractic problem. Knowing which is which is the useful part.
Up into the base of the skull and behind the eyes. The top three cervical nerves share a pathway with the nerves that supply the head.
What headaches & migraines actually is
Patient education — general information about the condition, not medical advice about your body. Only an examination can tell you what is going on with yours.
Tension-type headache is the most common by a distance — pressure and dull pain around the forehead, the sides, or the back of the head, often described as a band. It is the one most people mean when they say they have a headache.
Migraine is a different animal: severe, often one-sided, and frequently packaged with dizziness, sensitivity to light, nausea, vomiting or blurred vision. A migraine can flatten an entire day. It is a neurological condition, not simply a bad headache, and it deserves to be treated as one.
The third category is the one that brings people to chiropractors: the cervicogenic headache — a headache whose source is actually the neck. The nerves from the top three cervical vertebrae share a pathway with the nerves that supply the head and face, which is why an irritated joint at C1 or C2 can be felt as pain behind the eye. If your headaches start at the base of the skull and climb, or track with your neck stiffening up, that is the pattern worth investigating.
How it shows up.
Does this sound like you?
Tick what you actually feel.
Not a diagnosis, and not a test — nothing here can tell you what you have. It is a list you can take with you, because everybody forgets half of it the moment a doctor walks into the room.
0 things to mention. However many you ticked, the exam is what tells you anything.
What tends to be behind it
01
The neck
Joint irritation in the upper cervical spine can refer pain into the head. This is the headache chiropractic care is genuinely aimed at.
02
Posture and screens
Hours of forward head posture loads the muscles at the base of the skull. They get tight, then they get sore, then they refer.
03
Stress and muscle tension
Jaw clenching, shoulder tension and sustained stress all pull on the same structures at the top of the neck.
04
Triggers that are not mechanical
Dehydration, sleep debt, alcohol, skipped meals, hormonal shifts and specific dietary triggers cause plenty of headaches. An adjustment does not touch any of those, and it is dishonest to pretend otherwise.
How care approaches it
What Dr. Meansactually does about it.
Written as aims, not outcomes — because that is all anyone can honestly promise you before they have examined you.
02
Address the upper cervical spine
Where the neck is implicated, adjustments to the upper cervical spine aim to reduce the joint irritation that is referring pain into the head. Blair is precisely an upper-cervical method.
03
Release the soft tissue
The suboccipital muscles at the base of the skull are frequently part of the picture. Soft-tissue work addresses them directly.
04
Keep a trigger diary
Genuinely useful and genuinely free. Two weeks of noting when headaches hit, and what preceded them, tells you more than most tests.
Chiropractic care is not a cure for any condition on this page, and no honest clinic will promise you one. What Dr. Means can do is examine you, tell you plainly whether this is something chiropractic care is suited to help with, and refer you elsewhere if it isn't.
If you come in
Here is what actually happens.
Step 01
Free consultation
Call or book online and we'll sit down with you at no cost or obligation. Tell us what's going on and we'll start building the picture.
Read this part
When this is not a chiropractic problem.
Some of what looks like headaches & migraines is something else, and some of it is urgent. A clinic that only ever tells you it can help is not being straight with you. If any of the following is true, do not book a chiropractic appointment — get medical care.
- A sudden, severe headache that peaks in seconds — the 'worst headache of my life'. Call 911.
- Headache with fever, a stiff neck, confusion, or a rash.
- Headache with slurred speech, facial droop, weakness on one side, or vision loss — these are stroke signs. Call 911.
- Headache after a head injury.
- A headache pattern that has clearly changed, or a new headache after age 50.
This page is general health information, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for examination by a qualified provider. In an emergency call 911. See our healthcare disclaimer.
Headaches & Migraines, honestly answered.
Including the questions where the answer is no.
Can chiropractic care cure my migraines?
No, and nobody should tell you it can. Migraine is a neurological condition. If part of what is driving your headaches is coming from your neck, that part is something care can be aimed at — and that is the honest version of the claim.
How do I know if my headache comes from my neck?
Common tells: it starts at the base of the skull, it is worse on one side, it tracks with neck stiffness, and it flares after long periods with your head forward. An exam is how you actually find out.
Should I stop my headache medication?
That is a conversation with the doctor who prescribed it, not with your chiropractor. Never stop a prescribed medication on the advice of a website.
How many headaches is too many?
If headaches are shaping your week, that is worth getting looked at — regardless of who ends up being the right person to treat it.
Often connected
Not sure if this is what you have?
That is what the consultation is for — and it costs you nothing to find out. If it turns out Dr. Means is not the right person for it, he will tell you that too.