Hey,
I’ve treated the physical side of headaches for a decade. Neck, jaw, upper back, the muscles at the base of the skull. When there’s a clear neck or jaw component, manual therapy can make a real difference, and I’ll keep doing it.
But there’s some people I see who get some relief, then it comes back. Or they get no relief at all. Same headache, same time of month, same time of day, no matter how good the treatment is.
That’s when I stop looking at the neck and start looking deeper.
Why? Because a headache is usually a threshold problem. The neck and jaw are one of those loads. BUT they’re rarely the only one.
The others are the ones that don’t get looked at:
Brain energy. Headaches that show up with skipped meals, long gaps overnight or afternoon crashes often point to an energy shortfall, which is why magnesium has some of the best evidence for migraine prevention.
Hormones. It’s the drop in oestrogen, not the level, that triggers most menstrual migraines. Postpartum is another high-risk window, with the hormone crash, the sleep loss and the nutrient depletion all landing together.
Nutrient gaps. Ferritin, vitamin D, magnesium and B vitamins all show up in the research. Non-anaemic iron deficiency gets missed all the time if only haemoglobin is checked.
Thyroid. Headache from an underactive thyroid is recognised in the international classification, and a TSH on its own often misses it.
Painkillers. If you’re on pain relief most days, the medication itself can keep the cycle going. That one needs proper support to come off.
Most people who improve long-term fix more than one layer. Treating only the neck leaves the baseline untouched.
I wrote it all up, including the red flags that need medical review first and a simple diary to find your own pattern.
Read: What’s might actually be causing your headaches
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If your headaches haven’t responded to treatment, or they keep coming back, the Functional Blood Analysis is where I’d start. It reads iron, magnesium, vitamin D, thyroid and more together, so you can see which loads are actually active in you.
More next Sunday,
Georgia
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