You know exactly what it feels like. That particular tightness creeping up the back of your neck. The dull pressure settling behind your eyes before you’ve even finished your morning coffee. And that small, tired voice in the back of your mind that says: not again.
So you do what you’ve learned to do. You dim the lights, close the blinds, and wait it out. It works — sort of. The headache doesn’t really end so much as you outlast it. And a few days later, you’re back in the same room, doing the same thing.
Here’s what I want you to know after thirty years in practice: that cycle is not your fate. It’s a pattern. And patterns can be changed.
The Headache Isn’t Starting Where It Hurts
This surprises almost everyone who sits down in my office for the first time. Run your fingers up the back of your neck to where the skull begins — that soft hollow at the base — and press gently. If it’s tender, tight, or strangely satisfying to push on, you’ve just found where a great many headaches quietly begin.
The pain announces itself at your temples or behind your eyes, so that’s where we naturally point when someone asks where it hurts. But the trouble usually starts further down — in the muscles and joints of the upper neck — building pressure long before it ever reaches your forehead.
The top of your spine is a busy intersection. Blood vessels carrying fresh oxygen to your brain pass through it. Nerves routing signals throughout your body run through it too. When the small muscles in that area tighten and those joints drift even slightly out of alignment, that passage narrows. Your brain — sensing reduced flow and rising irritation — produces pain. That’s the headache. Not a malfunction of your head, but a sensible alarm about a mechanical problem one floor down.
Why Pills Help for a Few Hours and Nothing More
Once you understand the mechanism, it becomes clear why medication helps temporarily but never ends the story. Many headache medications work by dilating blood vessels — opening them back up — and they do work, for four to six hours. Then the underlying pressure reasserts itself and you’re right back where you started. The alarm quiets, but the wiring never actually gets touched.
There’s also a less-talked-about part of the loop worth knowing about. If you’re reaching for relief more than ten to fifteen days a month, the medication itself can begin contributing to what’s called medication-overuse headache — sometimes called rebound headache. The body adapts by becoming more sensitive between doses. Headaches come more often, at a lower threshold, and the very thing that was helping can quietly start making things worse. If that pattern sounds familiar, it’s worth a frank conversation with your doctor or chiropractor.
The Loop — And Where It Breaks
What keeps recurring headaches going is a self-reinforcing cycle. A small misalignment in the upper neck creates muscle tension. That tension pulls posture out of balance. Poor posture feeds the misalignment right back. And the whole thing winds a little tighter each time it goes around.
Old injuries are among the most common starting points — a whiplash that “resolved,” a sports knock that seemed fine within a week. So is the accumulated load of hours spent with your head drooped forward over a screen.
The good news is that cycles have entry points. When the alignment in the upper neck is addressed, the pressure lets go, blood and nerve flow move more freely, and the body can hold better posture. Better posture means less tension, which means the alignment holds more easily. The bad cycle starts turning the other way.
I call it the unwind. Watching it begin in someone who had stopped expecting to get better is one of the genuine pleasures of this work.
Five Things You Can Do This Week
Before you ever set foot in a clinic, there are practical steps that can take some of the edge off:
1. Raise your screen to eye level. For every inch your head drops forward, the effective load on your upper neck roughly doubles. This one adjustment takes pressure off the muscles at the base of your skull all day long.
2. Do a chin tuck each morning. Sitting tall, draw your chin straight back — making a “double chin” — hold for five seconds and repeat ten times. It’s simple, effective, and the single best daily exercise for reversing forward-head posture.
3. Drink more water. Consistent hydration helps cushion your brain and buffer against pressure. Dehydration is a more common headache trigger than most people realize.
4. Take magnesium seriously. The American Academy of Neurology rates it “probably effective” for migraine prevention. Magnesium glycinate or citrate at 400–600 mg daily is where I start with almost every headache patient. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before adding any supplement.
5. Protect your sleep. Stress re-tightens the very muscles we’re trying to free. Poor sleep prevents the nervous system from resetting. Together, they can maintain the headache cycle even when everything else is going right.
Want to Go Deeper? Join Our Free Webinar
If your headaches keep circling back and you’d like to actually understand what’s driving them, I’d love to have you join us.
Why Your Headaches Keep Coming Back — A Free Tutt Street Webinar
Tuesday, June 23 · 6:00–6:30 PM
When to Get Assessed in Person
If your headaches keep coming back — same place, same pattern, same tired routine of outlasting them — the most useful thing you can do is have your upper neck properly assessed. A thorough visit should start with a careful history, include a proper examination of your neck and posture, and give you a plain-language explanation of what’s actually causing your symptoms before any treatment begins.
One important note: please seek medical care promptly for any headache that is sudden and severe, unlike anything you’ve experienced before, or accompanied by fever, confusion, weakness, or vision changes. A good chiropractor will always tell you when something is outside their scope — and that honesty is part of what makes care worth trusting.
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