Treating

HOW CAN PHYSIOTHERAPY HELP IN TREATING MIGRAINES?

A physiotherapy assessment may help in identifying what triggers your migraine or some potential contributing factors. Where these factors are outside the scope of a physiotherapy practice, referral back to the GP may be necessary. Some typical contributing factors may be:

• Alcohol or caffeine

• Stress

• Poor sleep

• Diet

TREATING MIGRAINES WITH PHYSIOTHERAPY MUST BE PERSONALISED.

1. EXERCISE:

Keeping fit is part of a healthy lifestyle and physiotherapists can be seen as exercise experts. If your migraine is in any way neck related, there may be some hands-on treatment, as well as exercise prescription which may assist in dealing with the issue. Even when you are not in a ‘flare up’ phase, a good exercise regime may be important to maintain general health and as a helpful stress reliever, which as we mentioned above, is one of the key contributors to migraines.

We can break this down further and look at specific head and neck exercises versus general exercises and consider the importance of both.

• Specific head and neck exercises:

When your migraine is in a flare-up phase, ‘keeping fit’ is probably not going to be helpful in terms of alleviating your symptoms. We can agree that no number of squats or lunges will improve your symptoms. This is because, if there is a musculoskeletal neck component, we need to find the movements which will provide relief and facilitate recovery. Certain stretches of the neck or activation of specific muscles may be helpful in this instance. However, this will of course differ from one individual to the next.

• General exercises:

Plenty of research reinforces the importance of maintaining good physical health as a preventative measure for most conditions. It helps strengthen our immune systems, provides psychological and emotional benefits and builds up resilience when our bodies are temporarily hit with illness.

It is important to make this distinction between specific and general exercises because not all exercises are created equal. Therefore, not all exercises will be therapeutic in certain situations. What helps one-person deal with a problem may exacerbate another person’s problem. This is why treating migraines with physiotherapy, always needs to be personalised to make sure the prescription fits the individual.

2. SCENAR THERAPY

SCENAR therapy is a useful tool for treating headaches. The SCENAR falls under the electrotherapy umbrella and can be helpful with identifying problem areas which are compromised due to injury or disease. It works by restoring normal function through improved blood flow and stimulation of the nerves, thereby reducing pain. As the SCENAR is not specific to any one type of anatomical structure, it can be helpful in treating issues where it is difficult to identify a clear cause. Your physiotherapist can advise if this treatment is appropriate for you.

So, treating migraines with physiotherapy is a very good alternative and adjunct to analgesic treatment.

Margarita Gurevich is and uses

Clinical

Senior Physiotherapist

Pilates, SCENAR Therapy & other evidence-based techniques, including Real Time Ultrasound and McKenzie Treatment. Margarita specialises in sports injuries, women’s health (including incontinence) and gastrointestinal issues.

Margarita may be contacted via her website.