Our bodies are always striving to stay in balanace, in fact our structural body IS in fact always in balance, or we wouldn’t be able to stand up without falling over. That doesn’t mean that we are always problem or pain-free however. The human body is what is reffered to as a tensegrity model, which basically means that any force acting on one part of the body is transfered to some degree to every other part. Within this model, there are certain structures which have relationship and effect each other greatly in keeping this balance.

At the base of your spine there is a wedge shaped bone call your sacrum, upon which the whole spine is stacked all the way up to your skull. The part of the skull which is at the base at the back is a bone called the occiput. The sacrum and the occiput basically have a very close inter-relationship which means that they mirror each others movement, and if one shifts in any direction the other will eventually move to keep the all important gravitational balance. So, if we put this into practice then if one day you slip and fall landing heavily on say the base of your back or onto your bum, there is a very good chance the sacrum could be knocked out of line. If the pain goes away without any treatment, then that means to compensate for this movement, the occiput will move and any tension caused by the fall will now be sitting at the base of your skull. Depending on other factors, this tesion could very well develop into headache causing trigger points which could appear most likely at the base of the skull itself or very commonly over one or both eyes! And that…is how your headache might just be a pain in the bum.

Working with any chronic complaint, taking a detailed case history and a careful physical assessment is hugely important and can lead to finding the root cause of an issue. Once we have an idea what the root cause is, we can treat much more effectively and offer lasting relief from problems and not just tempory benefits.

Alex J.P. Boylan BSc(Hons) MBAcC http://www.re-creation.org.uk