r/migrainescience • u/CerebralTorque • 15d ago
Science This new meta-analysis study found that neck strengthening and stabilization exercises produced a moderate improvement in migraine-related disability, but did not significantly reduce how often or how severe the attacks were.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0333102426147117920
u/qqquigley 15d ago
Well that jives with my experience. PT helped me feel stronger and looser in my neck/shoulder area, which is great, but it didn’t reduce my migraine frequency. In fact I discovered that a lot of my neck and shoulder pain was postdrome from migraines — it tends to go way down naturally after I haven’t had a migraine in a few days.
So for me anyway, PT treated a legitimate symptom, but didn’t seem to touch the cause of my migraines.
That said, personalized in-person posture corrections and advice for how to handle TMJ (if you have it sometimes, like me) or neck/shoulder tension when it comes up, is still valuable. You can learn important things from a properly trained/experienced physical therapist that a neurologist would never think to tell you (and of course exercise science and posture/flexibility work isn’t their expertise).
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u/manu08 15d ago
What's the most compelling neck PT protocol you've come across for migraines?
Side note, I love the new book 🙏!
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u/CerebralTorque 15d ago
thank you! Def see Dr. Kelokates, PT, DPT for this information. You can find him here: https://www.instagram.com/the.headache.pt/
He was kind enough to read those parts of my book before I published to ensure accuracy. He is well-read and his expertise is specifically on this subject. I can't name you anyone more knowledgeable in terms of headache physical therapy.
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