Expert: John Quackenbush DC - 2/27/2010

Question
QUESTION: I asked another Chiropracter here this question and he couldn't answer, which I don't understand, I thought it was within the expertise of Chiropractors, am I wrong? Maybe you can answer...

Whenever I've had a tension headache, it would always go away soon after taking something like Ibuprofen. I recently have had a headache due to neck pain and learned that it is called a
"cervicogenic headache." I also read that this kind of headache, unlike most others, doesn't respond well to medication, which seems to be the case--when I take ibuprofen, it does nothing for it. Can you tell me why this particular kind of headache doesn't respond to meds? Thanks

ANSWER: Lee,

I would like to answer this question for you. The Cervicogenic headache is best described if we look at the word itself Cervico means cervical which refers to the neck and genic means to create. Doesn't seem to hard to understand it when you break the word down. So this means a headache as caused from the neck. More specifically a cervicogenic headaches is caused by pinched nerves in the neck area and is very common in most chiropractors clinical practice.

I recently did a blog post to my chiropractic blog on cervicogenic headaches http://www.confusionwithin.us/drq/ let me know what you think.

I opine that the reason that Cervicogenic headaches don't respond well if at all to medications because the medication does nothing to the root cause of the cervicogenic headache which is pinched nerves in the cervical (neck) spinal vertebrae. The nerves are pinched and medication can only dull the effects of the pinched nerves called "subluxations." The term subluxation actually means when a vertebrae in the spine dysfunctions by being out of place and then pinches the nerve. In this case it causes Cervicogenic Headaches. Also many people over use medications trying to get rid of the root cause of the problem but this never occurs because the medication cannot remove the true cause which is hard bone on soft nerves.The human body actually has receptor sites where the medication attaches itself in order to change the chemistry of the inflammatory cascade but in it's infinite knowledge the body desensitizes the receptor cells and the meds no longer work as well or in some cases not at all. This is a very dangerous situation because this can lead to liver disease, kidney disease and even death.

These type of headaches respond rather well to competent chiropractic care. If you are actually suffering from Cervicogenic Headaches I highly suggest you seek chiropractic care immediately.

I hope this sheds some light on your question. Please visit my blog http://www.confusionwithin.us/drq/

To that avail I remain.
Dr John Q Quackenbush
www.drqdc.com
http://www.confusionwithin.us/drq/

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: You seem to know more about cervicogenic headaches than anyone here, so I'm hoping you can answer this, it really has me puzzled. I am 58 yrs old and had neck pain starting many years ago, it wasn't traumatic like an accident but it was bad enough that I went to a Dr. and it hurt to turn my head. Since then, I have had on and off neck pain over the years, not as bad as that, but still neck pain and I never had headaches accompany it. In fact, I rarely get headaches. But with this recent neck pain, I definitely have a headache with it and it fits all the characteristics of a cervicogenic headache. So I wonder, just in general terms if possible, why would someone now have headaches with neck pain, when in the past it was just neck pain by itself- what could be different this time?  Thanks again.

Answer
Lee,

The symptom pattern in cervicogenic headaches have come about more than likely due to the amount of time the nerve has been pinched. This has gotten progressively worse and therefore the headaches. The human body is simply amazing and these headaches can be there one day and gone the next. These headaches can disappear for days/weeks at a time and can return with more intense pain or sometimes with less intense pain. There is no hard and fast 100% rule.

I am glad that you do not get headaches but you should still attend to the subluxations in your cervical spine.So if you are not experiencing cervicogenic headaches then you are experiencing cervicogenic subluxation ( Pinched nerves in the neck).

Hope this helps!!
Dr John Q Quackenbush
www.drqdc.com
http://www.confusionwithin.us/drq/