Community Update

The
holiday season is upon us.  While many
Americans are looking forward to celebrating the holidays with loved ones, more
than 180 million headache sufferers are dreading the thought of loud crowds,
travel delays and family squabbles which aggravate their symptoms.

To
help sufferers during the peak headache season, Accelerated Physical Therapy is
offering free headache screenings in their Chicagoland area centers, including the Buffalo Grove location at 1156 Lake Cook Road.  From November 15, 2013 through December 31,
2013, Accelerated physical therapists will provide complimentary headache
screenings to help sufferers better understand the source of their headaches
and obtain information on how to seek treatment.  

To schedule a free headache screening, call 877-97-REHAB.

A
headache screening is performed by a licensed physical therapist and includes
an assessment of your medical history, neck range of motion, posture, and joint
mobility as well as a discussion of headache triggers.

Cervicogenic
headaches affect between seven and nine million Americans and are often
misdiagnosed because the symptoms can mimic migraines or tension headaches.

The
screening will determine if your headache is cervicogenic.  These types of headaches are caused by your
neck structure and alignment and can cause pain in other areas.    

Typically,
cervicogenic headaches result from dysfunction in your discs, stiff joints, or
an injury to neck muscles and/or ligaments. 
However, pain can also be caused by an excessive amount of stress to the
neck and spine as a result of a current or prior injury, poor posture and/or
muscle tension. 

Accelerated
physical therapists are extremely proficient at treating cervicogenic headaches
and can relieve pain, improve neck function and restore your quality of
life.  If necessary, our physical therapists
can also refer you to a physician for further evaluation.

“With
physical therapy, we have successfully treated many cervicogenic headache
sufferers.  We help decrease pain and
return sufferers to activities that they may have quit or modified due to their
headache symptoms,” explains Denise Schneider, PT, COMT, FAAOMPT, ATC, head of
the Accelerated Headache Rehabilitation Program. “With an individualized
physical therapy treatment plan, we are able to return patients to their normal
and active lifestyles, including their previous working, sleeping and
exercising activities.”

The
Accelerated headache team treats cervicogenic headaches with these specialized
techniques:

s  Manual therapy techniques, such as
joint mobilization and soft tissue massage

s  Exercise and stretching

s  Postural and body mechanics education

s  Pain relieving
modalities

To
learn more about the Accelerated Headache Program, visit www.acceleratedrehab.com. 

*Free headache screenings
are not available for federally funded payers.