Who Consults Us
People looking for a solution to their headache or migraine.
Provided we can temporarily reproduce usual head pain and/or symptoms which ease as the technique is sustained - irrespective of the diagnosis - we can confidently recommend treatment.
We are not influenced by a diagnosis.
At a Watson Headache Clinic we treat all types of headache and migraine conditions including Tension Headache, Migraine with and without aura, Cluster Headache, Menstrual Migraine, Paroxysmal Hemicrania, SUNCT, Hemicrania Continua, Abdominal Migraine, Cyclic Vomiting, Sinus Headache, 'Footballers Migraine', and headache triggered by food or beverages etc.
The medical model of headache is of the view that the numerous headache and migraine types are all separate conditions with unknown but different causes. However if the causes are unknown how can one arrive at this conclusion? Clearly this is an assumption.
A diagnosis is just based on a set of signs and symptoms; it does not tell us what the cause is...
The most recent research suggests that instead all of the numerous headache and migraine conditions being totally different ailments with different (and unknown) causes they are just different expressions of the same disorder and that is a SENSITISED BRAINSTEM. Currently research has shown that the brainstem is sensitised in Tension Headache, Migraine, Menstrual Migraine, Cluster Headache, Cervicogenic (neck) Headache... and ongoing research is likely to reveal this disorder in other headache and migraine types.
The brainstem receives information from the upper cervical (neck) spine - this is irrefutable - simple neuro anatomy. However because the medical model is focused on the brain as the cause of headache and migraine, the possibility of a neck disorder sensitising the brainstem is largely ignored.
The key to effective treatment of headache and migraine...
Is not to treat the sensitisation (which is what the ‘Triptans’ do - Imigran, Naratriptan, Zolmatriptan, Zomig etc) but to identify the reason for the sensitisation and treat it ... and neck disorders are one of four possible causes, and in our experience, the most likely cause.
The Watson Headache Approach can confirm if a disorder of the upper neck neck is responsible for the sensitisation of the brainstem.