Back pain and headaches are common combination pain symptoms which may be related or independent of one another. This particular duo of misery can be caused by one or more physical reasons, a psychological reason or a combination of the two factors working in unison.
Headaches and back ache are 2 of the most common types of chronic pain syndromes experienced by patients worldwide and both suffer from a diversity of possible causative processes, making successful diagnosis of either condition difficult.
This important article provides details of why head pain and back pain are often experienced together and may have a singular mindbody source.
Causes of Back Pain and Headaches
Back pain can be the result of an injury, congenital condition or degenerative process. It can also be the result of some unresolved emotional issues, disease processes, infection, scar tissue and other factors.
Headaches can be caused by an injury, degenerative process or psychological issues, as well as disease processes and other factors.
The common elements of both of these pain conditions make diagnosis a challenging and often less than accurate science. In some cases, painful expressions might never be associated with one another, despite a common causation. Rarely do doctors link together the common incidence of highly sensitive emotional issues and somatic pain expression, despite a tremendous amount of research proof of a mindbody reason for most headaches and some instances of dorsalgia.
Reasons for Headaches with Back Pain
Pinched nerves in the neck and upper back can cause pain in the back, upper neck and head. Pain from a pinched nerve can be severe and may be accompanied by other disturbing effects, such as dizziness, vertigo or even nausea. Upper cervical spinal stenosis concerns can have similar symptomatic expressions in some patients, depending on the source of canal narrowing.
Back ache, as well as headaches, can be brought on by stress. This stress can be emotional, circumstantial or caused by some other health concern. It is common for patients worrying about back pain to develop frequent severe headaches.
Psychological pain syndromes can cause back pain, headaches or both together. Recurrent migraine and tension headaches are known psychological syndromes that can be controlled without medical treatment in many patients.
Injury or trauma can cause a headache or back ache regardless of the affected region.
Help for Back Pain and Headaches
Some patients with a history of both of these conditions are suffering from psychologically-induced pain. Back and head pain are 2 of the most common forms of stress-related discomfort. It is rare that medical treatment will cure either of these symptoms if the cause is a mindbody process.
To achieve a truly effective treatment result, the patient might need to get to the bottom of the emotional causation, using a purely psychological approach, such as knowledge therapy. Of course, this path may only be effective if the underlying reason for pain is definitely psychological in nature. This is why proper medical evaluation is always crucial for combination pain syndromes.
If the cause of the pain is indeed physical, medical care should be able to pinpoint and treat the source process driving the symptoms.
It is crucial to rule out serious health concerns such as cancer, tumors and circulatory problems, so always report new expressions to your doctor immediately. Pain in the back and head can be an indicator of serious health problems. Don’t take chances.