Migraine, headache, mixed headache, and neck pain are words that are often inappropriately interchanged. It is commonly believed that if a headache is associated with nausea or vomiting, or is severe enough to interfere with activities of daily living, then it must be a vascular migraine.

While vascular migraine can certainly be the source of the above symptoms, there are known non-vascular migraines that can result in the same migraine symptoms. These include sinus, tension, metabolic, stress, weather-related vasomotor, and hormonal cycle-induced headache. In fact, most migraines result from a combination of these causes and are therefore are more properly referred to as mixed headaches. And the ocular migraine is a rare type of migraine marked by temporary vision loss.

If ligaments do not heal within several weeks, they may remain chronically stretched, torn, or strained. Many people do not realize how severe or prolonged ligament pain can be. They assume that soft tissue will heal or that it can’t be that bad. While ligament pain may be confined to the injury site, it can also refer pain to distant body parts through a portion of the autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic nerves.

The region that a ligament refers pain to is called a sclerotome (see figures). Ligament pain can mimic nerve impingement, cause sensations of numbness, and be the source of arthritis pain. It can be chronic, persistent, achy, burning, and weather sensitive.