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Headache Relief

Your Neck and Your Migraine: Which One Is Causing Which?

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Neck pain and migraine turn up together constantly.

Most people who get migraines report neck symptoms around their attacks. Stiffness, tightness, soreness at the base of the skull, sometimes pain running up into the head.

And almost everyone draws the same conclusion: my neck is causing my migraines.

Sometimes that is right. Frequently it is backwards. And occasionally both things are happening at once.

Getting this straight matters, because the three situations call for three different approaches.

The Migraine Paradox: Exercise Can Trigger an Attack and Also Prevent Them

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If you get migraines, you have probably had this experience.

You decide to get fit. You go for a run, or push harder than usual at the gym, and within a few hours you have an attack.

So you conclude, reasonably, that exercise is a trigger for you. And you stop.

Here is the frustrating part. Both things are true at the same time. Exercise genuinely can trigger an individual attack. And regular aerobic exercise appears to reduce how often attacks happen overall.

That contradiction is why so many people with migraine end up avoiding the one lifestyle change that might actually help them. So let us work through it properly.