The Three Kinds of Headaches I See Most in Coeur d'Alene — and How I Treat Each One

People often think of headaches as one thing — a generic pain in the head you treat with ibuprofen. After 17 years of working with patients in Coeur d’Alene, I can tell you they’re not. The three I see most often are tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches, and migraines, and they need different approaches.

If you’re getting headaches more than a couple of times a month, the answer almost certainly isn’t to take more medication. It’s to find out which kind of headache you’re having and treat the actual cause.

1. Tension Headaches

These are the most common. The pain feels like a tight band squeezing the top of your head or pulling at the base of your skull. They build slowly through the day and often get worse if you’re sitting at a desk or staring at a screen.

The root cause is usually muscle tension in the upper neck, shoulders, and the small muscles at the base of the skull (the suboccipitals). When those muscles stay locked up, they send pain signals up into the head.

How I treat them: I use Muscle Therapy and myofascial release directly on the upper neck and shoulder muscles, then add gentle Activator adjustments to free up any restricted cervical joints. Most patients with chronic tension headaches feel a noticeable drop in frequency inside the first few visits.

2. Cervicogenic Headaches

These start in the neck and refer up into the head — usually on one side, often behind the eye or at the temple. They’re frequently mistaken for migraines because the pain pattern looks similar. The clue: turning your neck or sleeping in a bad position makes them worse.

The root cause is usually a restricted joint in the upper cervical spine (C1–C3), almost always combined with surrounding muscle dysfunction.

How I treat them: Same playbook — find the muscles that have shut down, reactivate them, release the chronically tight ones, then adjust the restricted joint with the Activator. Cervicogenic headaches often resolve faster than patients expect once the right joint and muscle pattern is addressed.

3. Migraines

Migraines are more complex. They have a real neurological component — vasoconstriction and dilation, light/sound sensitivity, sometimes nausea or aura — and I’m not going to claim chiropractic care alone “cures” them. But there’s strong evidence that musculoskeletal dysfunction in the upper neck is a frequent trigger, and that addressing it reduces migraine frequency and severity in many patients.

How I treat them: I work on the cervical spine and the muscles that influence it, and I’ll often add acupressure to calm the nervous system and reduce the sensitivity that primes a migraine. I’m honest with migraine patients about what we can and can’t change — but most see a meaningful reduction in how often migraines hit and how hard they hit.

What Won’t Help

Stretching alone, more pillows, or another round of ibuprofen rarely solve recurring headaches. The muscles and joints driving them stay locked up. You need someone to identify which type of headache you have and address the actual mechanical cause.

If you’re in Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls, or Rathdrum and your headaches are part of your normal week, book a visit or call (208) 660-2480. I’ll take time to figure out which kind of headache you have, then treat it accordingly.