Soft tissue pain treatment systems for headaches and migraine pain.
"Mom. There's someone here for you" said Garfield as he greeds you with his finest Sponge Bob Square Pants boxer. Charming. Isn't he? "Tell our guest to come in and I'll be down in a few minutes."
"Hi. I'm Marge. I guessed you're wondering why I'm not out there trying to save the world from the Fallen. I know he's on his way. I can't--not until my pounding headaches subside. I must have slept the wrong way. I woke up with these terrible headaches and they haven't subsided yet."
"Sorry about the mess. I usually keep my living room spic-and-span. But it's kind of hard with my son still living at home. Anyway, I've schedule an appointment with my chiropractor later this afternoon for my headaches and neck pain."
Different types of headaches.
"I used to get regular headaches all the time. It affected my marriage. My ex-husband didn't believed me when I told him not tonight honey, I have a headache. I thought my headaches were migraines. But they're not. Have you heard of cervicogenic headaches?"
"I've found out that migraine headaches commonly affected more women than men. And they typically begin in childhood. Migraine headaches generally decrease in frequency and severity as you get older--especially after 40."
"My chiropractor said my headaches are a combination of tension and cervicogenic headaches. Similar to migraines, these types of headaches are more prevalent in women. Unlike migraines, tension and cervicogenic headaches can be on either side or both sides of the head when you get them."
Symptoms and characteristics of migraine, tension-type and cervicogenic headaches.
"Excuse me. Garfield. Can you turn that down? Do you want anything to drink? I have Doff beers, apple juice or bottle water. Hmmm...beer. Excellent choice my friend."
"Now, back to our exciting headaches. Migraine headaches can either be migraine with aura or migraine without aura. Migraine without aura typically lasts between 4-72 hours. And it affects one side of your head. The pain is somewhat pulsing with mild to moderate intensity. You might be sensitive to lights and sounds and feel nauseous depending on how severe the migraine is."
"Migraine with aura tends to have some sort of brief neurological symptoms before the onset of the headache. These auras (neurological symptoms) may include visual disturbances like seeing spots or sparkling of lights, speech and sensory disturbances."
"Tension and cervicogenic headaches are very similar. They are usually described as headaches with tight band around the head. You'll often feel tightness and pressure in the back of the neck and base of the skull. The pain may also be around the eyes, temporal areas and jaw."
"And that's exactly how I felt this morning when I woke up at 11:30am. I'm still experiencing the pounding, dull ache around my right eye and temporal area. My neck seems to be not as tight, but I can still feel some tightness, ache and pressure."
Causes of migraine, tension and cervicogenic headaches.
"How's that beer? Want another one? Nah. Don't worry about it. It's never too early to drink beer. See that line by the bay window. Once the sun passes it, it's Doff time."
"Although the exact cause of migraine headache is still unknown, it appears that hormonal changes, certain food and stress often provoke them."
"On the other hand, stress, poor head and neck posture, trigger points in muscles of the neck, jaw, temporal and around the eyes can lead to chronic tension and cervicogenic headaches. Spinal joint restriction and dysfunction are also major contributor to chronic tension and cervicogenic headaches. It's common to find people experiencing this type of headaches and neck pain after sleeping the wrong way--especially on the couch, extended work on the computer, after an auto accident or stress from work and at home."
Common locations of headaches
- The base of the skull and the back of the head often get tight resulting in a low grade, dull ache. Headaches in this location feel like a squeezing band behind and around the head.
- In some cases, the sources of headaches started out with the feeling of tightness in and around the back of the neck. Then the pain would go up the back of the neck and head, sometimes as far as the top of the head.
- Pain behind the eyes, in front of the head and along the side of the head are another common locations for headaches.
Treatment options for migraine, chronic tension and cervicogenic headaches.
"Listen. I've an appointment with my chiropractor at 2:30pm. Why don't you come along and see how he treats my headaches and neck pain. He does a lot of soft tissue treatments which help my headaches. I don't think he would mind. I did the same thing with Garfield before my 35 years old son started to see him for his back pain."
"By the way, do you have any idea of how to encourage your son to move out? I've changed the entrance lock, the house number and pretended not to speak English. And yet he's still here. I didn't know my son could speak American either. Anyway, that's another issue."
Wouldn't be nice not to have regular, chronic headaches and migraines? Imagine what your life would be like. Soft tissue treatments including Active Release Techniques, myofascial trigger point therapy and acupressure administrated at St. John's Chiropractic may be another solution for your chronic headaches and migraines, especially when other format of treatments has yielded limited success.
Migraine pain and headaches solutions and treatments