Tension Headache Relief in Chelsea

Among the types of headaches, which include migraines and cluster headaches, tension headaches are by far the most common and they are easily treated with massage and acupuncture. The pain from tension headaches is usually a deep dull ache and can be bilateral. Unlike migraines, tension headaches are not accompanied with nausea, light sensitivity, or worsened with movement. Usually trigger points can be found in the neck that when pressed elicit the headache pain.

Many people today live with chronic neck tension. While stress can be a t co-factor, head forward posture is the primary cause - commonly from the iphone, the computer, driving, child care, and cooking. Meetings also lead to head forward postures because we lean forward and tilt our head, sittingt still in order to adopt a professional listening posture. Psychotherapists, for example, frequently experience tension headaches. Typically these people wake with some stiffness in their neck which improves with movement, but then the pain and headache gradually return and worsening after work. Often there is such a level of neck tension to which the person has become accustomed that it takes only a slight movement - for example carrying groceries that are just a little too heavy, or a slight wrong move exercising - to make it seem as if the pain came from “nowhere.” And the pain can be intense, feeling like a pinched nerve because trigger points, which form in tight bands of tissue, actually change the neurochemistry of the muscle. We now know that trigger points can remain activated until they are de-activated by therapy. The good news is that years of chronic pain can be resolved quickly, unless, of course, the patient immediately returns to the postural pattern that caused the pain.

Tension in muscles is relieved by movement - swimming, yoga, Tai Chi, dancing. Often tension headaches start after someone who works at a computer returns to the gym and strength training. I continually advise people who work at computers to delete the shoulder press, or lifting weights above their head. Trapezius, which bears the weight of the head when the head is forward, should not have to work even harder. The time gained from deleting the shoulder press, should be spent challenging latissimus dorsi (the “lats”) which counteracts head forward position by pulling the scapula down and back. As the lats increase in strength, the shoulder girdle and the cervical vertebra will stabilize, decreasing tension headaches. Stretching is only minimally helpful. It is more effective, at the end of the day, to lay head back on a massage tool or the arm of a sofa applying pressure to the paravertebral structures at the back of the upper neck below the occiput, and rest in that position. I call this “targeted rest.” It’s likely that the headache pain will be replicated slightly and then, by gently maintaining the position with slight shifts in position, the myofascia will be felt to release. 

Many of the muscles that maintain head forward posture connect to the upper cervical vertebra and when they're too tight throw off the alignment of the atlas and axis. The paraysympathetic nervous system ganglia (the relaxation response) are concentrated in the upper neck. The tension headache person is probably not histrionic - having panic attacks, yelling or crying  which is associated with the sympathetic nervous system and crisis mode. But certainly, upper neck tension creates an inability to relax - the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation response, is jammed in the off position. 

The old brain, which is responsible for survival functions, including fight and flight, breathing and mood, rests on the atlas and axis. Correct alignment of the neck is integral to healthy brain functioning to keep our brains from feeling, as a client stated, “lopsided.”Also, acupuncture which has been proven to light up the old brain, dramatically treats basic functions like mood and biorhythm. Acupuncture makes people feel happy. 

Chronic tightness can disrupt the autonomic nervous system affecting digestion, hormones (sexual difficulties), blood pressure (dizziness ), and problems with fluids (urination, sweating, thirst.)

Acupuncture which has been proven by MRI to light up the old brain, dramatically treats basic functions like mood and biorhythm.