Most of us know at least one person who suffers from frequent or daily tension, cluster, sinus, migraine headaches or, just persistently pounding headaches. According to medical data gathered in 2004, the percentage of adults that suffered from severe headaches and/or migraines was almost 20%. Migraines, characterized by throbbing pain and other debilitating symptoms, have no known cause, treatment or cure. Women suffer more than men and the percentage of adults suffering from migraines was found to have jumped by 77% over the last decade.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), chronic migraine headaches can either be “classical” or “common”. The symptoms of the common migraine headache are; generalized malaise, dizziness, fever and nausea. The most distinguishing sign of a classical headache is an aura just before the onset of your headache. The aura may be auditory or visual. Further, a classical headache is usually of short duration, typically less than 12 hours, as compared to a common migraine which can last for up to four days.
How Muscle Imbalances, Poor Posture, and Trigger Points are a Source of Your Tension, Cluster, Sinus or Migraine Headaches!
Even though research is yet to clearly identify the cause of migraines, there are several well known risk factors. These include; stress, allergies, pollution and diet. A few lesser known risk factors, such as muscle imbalances, bad posture and trigger points are often the hidden causes and culprits for your debilitating chronic headaches and migraines. Many individuals here in Los Angeles have turned to Neuromuscular Therapy and Posture Realignment Exercises with great success. Headaches caused by muscle imbalances and poor posture often originate from your jaw, neck and upper back muscles which become tight and rigid. Posture realignment care corrects these muscle imbalances, bad posture and resolves resultant migraines.
Trigger points, which are like “landmine knots,” build up in your neck muscles from poor posture, stress, or trauma and lead to tension and trigger point headaches. The headache begins as a tension band around your head as opposed to a painful pulsating ache on the side of the head normally seen in migraines.
Irrespective of the type of headache, many people suffer needlessly for years taking aspirin, ibuprofen and/or acetaminophen without results. In fact, long term use of these medications shows they have a rebound effect by increasing the frequency of the headache. Withdrawing the medication leads to an increase in the severity of the headache too. To make matters worse, these medications damage your gut, kidney and liver when used over a long period of time.
At the end of the day, the most important thing to note about headaches is that a headache is a symptom – a sign of something else that is wrong in your body. Treating the symptom and failing to find out the cause is the wrong approach. Painkillers merely treat the symptom but holistic approaches such as neuromuscular therapy, trigger point therapy and posture realignment exercises go to the root of the problem. If you suffer from constant headaches, get a qualified Neuromuscular Therapist to assess you.
