~ Headache & Migraine Clinic
We provide consultations with Dr Vanderpol Consultant Neurologist and nationally recognised headache expert. We can arrange a face to face appointment or a teleconference to save you the travel.
Our treatments include injectable interventions (Botox, Greater Occipital Nerve Block, Multiple Cranial Nerves Block, Injectable Monoclonal Antibodies), or treatment devices (GammaCore, Cefaly, and soon coming Relivion).
Headache sufferers are often told “it’s probably just stress related” and offered analgesia which makes the problem even worse, putting many of you into “a vicious circle” of taking more and more painkillers and having increasingly frequent headaches and difficulty to cope with job and family. This annoying dismissal of the impact of stress on such a complex neurological disorder may be frustrating but it is also partially correct. The brain of most chronic headache sufferers is very sensitive to sensory impulses of our external world even when there is no headache present. So, increasing levels of stress of our busy day to day life or job can trigger an attack.
It starts with the correct diagnosis of the headache subtype, based on your interview with our consultant and headache diary assessment.
We offer a holistic approach to a chronic headache management for the ones who would like to stop for a while and address the problem.
Stress is not the only trigger, there are multiple other triggers (e.g. dietary, analgesia overuse, tiredness, insomnia…etc.).
Some patients, particularly with increasing age might suffer from cervicogenic headache which is generated by cervical spondylosis ‘wear and tear” and stiff or tender cervical muscles.
You might be already well aware of what is causing your headache or migraine, but it is always useful to keep a log. Since migraine triggers are specific to each individual, tracking your symptoms in a diary is often recommended to help you identify your usual triggers and monitor the impact on your life.
Individualised program is tailored to your specific needs. This typically includes physiotherapy focussing on relaxing hydrotherapies, massages, life coaching, nutritionist and dietary input, relaxation techniques with mindfulness, Yoga or Tsai chi expert, exercises one to one and in groups and outdoor activities.
Our goal is to minimise headache frequency and severity, reduce the amount of needed medication and return patient to a fully active life.
Targeted physiotherapy can help in management of:
- Cervicogenic Headache
- Tension Headache
- Chronic Daily Headache
- Migraine
- Cluster Headache
The aim of the complex physiotherapy program:
Managing stress
- Many of our patients find stress reducing techniques like relaxation exercises or mindfulness exercise very helpful.
- Most patient benefit from hands on approaches such as relaxing massages or Indian massage of head and neck, reflexology or acupuncture.
- Some patients benefit from learning Yoga or Tai chi techniques, which teaches them to cope with life’s challenges.
- Resting in a quiet ambient place or guided meditation can enable the body and mind to relax, escape from everyday stress, and reduce symptoms for most.
- Regular one to one or group indoor and outdoor exercises with support of our trainer can help reduce stress impact on human body
- There are various smart phone headache and migraine apps we recommend clients might be interested to utilise, that can help to identify triggers and also protectors (e.g. N1 – Headache, Curelator) and replace your paper diary, other apps can help with stress management (e.g. Calm), and can demonstrate you any positive achievements and frequency and severity of your symptoms.
Targeted Balneotherapy relaxing cervical muscles, reducing muscles tension:
- Relaxing hydrotherapy in water from the local mineral springs has always been favourite amongst our customers, as it helps to relax your muscles and reduce muscles tension, as well as reduce the levels of stress.
- Similarly mud packs targeted on paraspinal cervical and trapezius muscles have relaxing property, have been one of the favourite procedures for centuries and you would have a chance to try it.
Dietary adjustments and nutritional advice aiming to:
- Eliminate personal dietary triggers
- Rationalise diet
- Optimise weight (where desired weight reduction)
Improving sleep
- Around 10% of our patient suffer with impaired sleep, improving it can have positive impact on headache.
- Procedures reducing stress levels and muscles tension have positive impact on our sleep.
Reducing need of medication and painkillers
All the above procedures are targeted to enable you to gradually reduce the amount of medication you need for management of headache.
*prescription subject to variation, depending on your diagnosis and other associated health conditions, tailored to your specific needs by our consultant
Learn more about headache and migraine management: “Helping You Successfully Manage Your Headache and Migraine: A Patient’s Guide“, authored by Dr. Jitka Vanderpol, recently published by Cambridge scholars.
