Background:
A study demonstrated that there is a high likelihood that people suffering from persistent low back pain will also be plagued by headaches.
Who Conducted the Study?
The study was reported in the Journal of Headache and Pain.
How Was the Study Conducted?
This study was actually a meta-study: it examined the results of 14 separate studies involving a total of 450,000 subjects.
What did the Study Reveal?
The 14 studies found an association between headaches and persistent low back pain.
What is the Take Home Message?
Although the authors of the study do not spell out the reason for the connection between headaches and low back pain, evidence from other studies points to musculoskeletal dysfunction, particularly involving the spine and spinal nerves, as a potential cause of both problems.
Not addressed by this study is the connection between neck pain and headaches, which is well-recognized. The name given to these types of headaches is cervicogenic, meaning coming from the neck.
Since our office makes it a practice to treat the entire spine, regardless of whether your headaches are brought on by a condition in your neck or your low back, we can help you get better.
Yours for better health,
Jon Mills, DC