“The combination of neck pain, headache and increased pain sensitivity can also be seen in patients with acute neck pain after a whiplash injury,” says Brian Grosberg, a neurologist and director of the Hartford HealthCare Headache Center.
In some cases, neck pain that’s accompanied by head pain “can be a red flag if someone has chills, a fever, coordination or balance problems, difficulty walking, radiating pain, or tingling in the arms or legs,” Buse says. In these instances, the neck pain could suggest a tumor or meningitis, she notes.
If these worrisome symptoms aren’t present and neck pain accompanies someone’s tension-type headaches or migraine attacks, the challenge is to treat both forms of pain so they don’t continue to trigger each other. “We want people to be aggressive about treating their neck pain so this problem doesn’t get worse,” Green says.
Magnetic stimulation and other treatments
Right now, there isn’t a single treatment that’s guaranteed to help both forms of pain. Various non-pharmacological therapies—including massage, acupuncture, stretching exercises, or the application of heat or ice (whichever feels better)—can improve neck pain, Ailani says. Improving your ergonomic set-up at work and switching to a more supportive pillow for sleep may help, too.
Research has found that myofascial release—which involves applying pressure to hyperirritable spots in neck muscles—and stretching techniques are also effective in improving migraine pain intensity and cervical range of motion.
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