Pain on one side of the head and around an eye, stiff neck, dizziness, sensitivity to light?Cervicogenic headache is the third most common type of headache, with a much higher incidence in women. it has been widely criticized, but today it is taken more seriously for a remarkable fact: in many cases it becomes chronic.
It is well known that these kinds of realities (those related to headaches) often remain in this area of social invisibility and even skepticism. Some people ask, “How can a headache be a reason to escape?”that the social and personal impact of migraines, tension headaches and cervicogenic headaches is immense.
- A study by AstraZneca and Ferrer Internacional laboratories.
- For example.
- Found that while only 12% of people with these conditions manage to leave on average 3 days.
- The quality of life of these people when the problem becomes chronic.
- It is quite affected.
Therefore, we consider it important to give visibility to this type of patients, we all know or hear about migraines, however, cervicogenic headache is not so known, although its symptoms are very recurrent in a part of the population. It should be said that this is not just neck pain or headache.
Let’s see more about this
“The real pain is that we suffer without witnesses.
Studies such as O’Mullony I, Lafuente A, Pareja JA (2005) and published in the Spanish Pain Society indicate that recognition of this syndrome is increasingly accepted by the clinical community.
Cervicogenic headache was first described in 1993 by Ottar Sjaastad; however, just a few years ago, the International Headache Society (IHS) developed the diagnostic criteria to show that we are actually dealing with the third most common type of headache.
A first fact that we should know is that this condition affects women the most, this is due to a very specific fact: it is linked to osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis in which progressive joint wear occurs, which is undoubtedly recurrent in women. .
Let’s look at the main characteristics of cervicogenic headaches
Cervicogenic headache usually has several triggers and origins, as we have already pointed out, one of them is osteoarthritis itself (linked to the C2-C3 vertebrae), which can certainly lead to chronic pathologies in which the patient must seek appropriate therapeutic approaches offering at least a minimum quality of life.
The causes that would cause this condition are:
The most important thing in these cases is to have a good diagnosis, many people simply think they have a simple headache, other times doctors can simply prescribe medications (anti-inflammatory drugs) to treat neck pain.
However, the most appropriate approach is to use an approach to which different therapies contribute, from the origin of cervicogenic headache, with this in mind, studies such as that carried out at the University Hospital of Akershus, University of Oslo, point to certain therapeutic strategies.
Finally, and in the most severe cases, there is the possibility of performing some type of spine surgery in case, for example, of nerve compression, are very specific cases in which the possibility or not of an intervention will depend on the particular situation. of each patient.
In conclusion, it is sufficient to note that in most cases, if we carry out most of the specified therapeutic approaches, we can improve our quality of life.