Category: Headaches

Best Neuromuscular Trigger Point Massages in Los Angeles: Resolving the ‘Headband’ Headache — With A Neck Massage.

If you’re a chronic sufferer of that particular type of headache that feels like it stretches all along one or both sides of your head like a headband, there’s some hope on the horizon. According to a study published in Cephalalgia (an international journal for headache studies), there’s a powerful correlation between chronic tension in the semispinalis capitus muscles and the 'headband’-type headache. A qualified Neuromuscular/Trigger Point Massage Therapist will tell you that ‘chronic tension’ is very often a codeword for ‘active trigger points in a muscle,’ and this is no exception.

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Best Neuromuscular Trigger Point Massage in Los Angeles: Pain Behind the Eye May Be Pain Under the Ear.

Most doctors won’t hesitate to tell you that (non-migraine) pain behind one eye is a result of some temporary condition — sinus inflammation being the most common culprit. If you have chronic pain in that area, they often move directly to a much more dire suspect — multiple sclerosis, for example. But according to the recently-published treatise Chronic Headaches, the solution might well be a simple trigger point buried in the neck under your ear, in a muscle called the splenius cervicis or sternocleidomastoid. A short visit to a qualified Neuromuscular/Trigger Point Massage Therapist might be exactly what you need to relieve that eye pain.

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According to a World Health Report, migraines are the nineteenth most common patient complaint worldwide with an 18% of women and 6% of men in the United States experiencing at least one migraine headache episode each year.

There is evidence that patients with migraines have an energy deficit disorder associated with their glucose intake. As such, adopting a strict ketogenic diet (in which ketones are the primary source of energy for the body in place of glucose) does appear to benefit patients with migraines.

A 2017 study set out to determine if it was the absence of glucose or the increase in ketone bodies that made the difference for patients. In the study, researchers provided four female migraine patients with a specially designed ten-gram beverage containing a specific type of ketone called B-hydroxybutyrate or bHB twice a day for four weeks.

After one month, their migraine frequency rate dropped 50% to eight days/month on average without any serious side effects. The patients also lost weight, presumably due to consuming less glucose in their diet. An additional benefit of higher levels of ketones in the body is that they have an anti-inflammatory effect.

A larger double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is now underway with a group of 90 patients that will last three months The goal of the study is to determine if this nutritional supplement is capable of reducing migraine headaches without the significant side effects and associated disabilities that are currently associated with many migraine medications.

Neuromuscular/Trigger point massage also targets the root cause of headaches/migraines and is an important part of caring for the whole person. In fact, there is research supported evidence that neuromuscular/trigger point massage alone has a very positive benefit for migraine headache patients as noted in many studies regarding the effectiveness of manual therapies. Based on the outcome of this large-scale study, the use of ketone-based supplementation for migraines may become a new standard.

Best Neuromuscular Trigger Point Massage for Headache Pain: The Classic ‘Base of the Skull-to- Behind the Eye” Headache.

The Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy released a significant study into the source of "behind the eye" headaches a few years ago, and they found that a minor majority (just over half) of behind-the- eye headaches that come with matching ache in the base of the skull are associated with active trigger points in the suboccipital or splenius cervicis muscles — the muscles in your neck that stretch and contract the length of your neck, and let you tip your head from side to side. A qualified neuromuscular/trigger point massage therapist should be able to release such a trigger point in minutes, and 'train' the muscle to stay released over the course of a few weeks, making the headaches a memory quickly and easily.

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