Health blog Category: headaches
Get Rid of Headaches Without Medication!
If you have experienced ongoing or recurring headaches more often than not, you have probably taken aspirin or any other over-the-counter medication to “relieve” the symptoms. However, this is only a temporary fix. It is creating a false release of the muscles and thus a temporary release of the muscle tension and pressure.
The problem with headaches is that typically, the small muscles in our neck and those covering our skull have gotten into a more permanent state of tightness and pressure.
Read full blogGet Rid of Your Headaches Today!
Even minor headaches can be a nuisance that create stress, and can have significant social and emotional impacts – not only on you, but also on those around them. Did you know that 47% of the adult population will have a headache at least once within a year according to the World Health Organization? Forty-five million Americans complain of headaches each year, 8 million visit their doctor, and 3 million went to the emergency room, according to U.S.
Read full blogCommon Causes of Neck Pain and What You Need To Do About It
Neck pain can present itself in many different ways. You may first notice pain/tightness when turning your head in certain directions. Then it may progress to where you start to lose range of motion. Range of motion loss is often first seen when driving and it becomes difficult to look over shoulder when changing lanes. Sometimes neck pain can manifest itself in tension headaches. You may feel the headaches on the top of your head and even into your forehead.
Read full blogWhat a Headache is and How Can It Stop Our Everyday Activities…
Many of us have probably experienced headaches at one point or another and some of us may have even experienced migraines. A headache, in its simplest form, is pressure from something on your brain. A headache can be broken down into two main causes:
- Headaches from external pressure
- Headaches that come from internal pressure
The most common type of a headache is that which comes from external pressure. By that, we mean that something is pressing from the outside on the outside of the skull and causing it to thus press inward on the brain.
Read full blogForget the Advil, Try These Steps to Relieve Headaches
Anatomy of Your Head
To understand the two main causes of headaches, and steps to take to relieve headaches, we need to first understand the anatomy of our head. Our skull is a combination of multiple bones that when put together, form a general circle and thus, a hard protective layer around our brain. On the outside of our skull, there are many muscles that surround the skull. These muscles on the outside have a direct connection to the muscles in our neck and shoulder blades.
Are you Sticking your Neck Out?
How often do we use computers and phones throughout the day? Now think about your posture. Are you sticking your neck out or down when using any of of these devices. Posture plays a large role in maintaining neck health and can negatively impact your ability to complete and enjoy your daily activities.
Issues with your neck are commonly associated with pain, headaches, and general stiffness. Stiffness will cause difficulty looking over your shoulder, and up and down.
Neck Problems Cause Difficulty Turning Our Heads
Neck problems can cause us difficulty turning our head from side to side when driving to check your blind spots, bending our neck up and down as we do when working on our computers or looking at our cell phones. Neck problems may also cause us to have trouble sleeping and may be the cause of our headaches which can affect our ability to concentrate on our work. Neck problems are becoming more common due to our sedentary lifestyles.
Read full blogHeadaches – Poor Posture May Be To Blame
Poor posture may be causing us headaches, discomfort, and stiffness. Headaches can be debilitating and prevent us from playing with our children, having dinner with our families, and completing our daily tasks such as doing the dishes or laundry.
How is your posture? Many of us have sedentary jobs at a desk and/or use mobile technology for day-to-day communications. Think about how you sit when you do these things. It’s easy for us to slip into a poor posture when we’re mindlessly reading emails or sending texts. If our posture issues are not addressed, it can contribute to neck pain, stiffness, nagging headaches, trouble standing up and other painful issues that will prevent us from being able to make that concert with friends or a family gathering. It may even keep us home and unable to go to work and will, most likely, continue to recur.
Poor Posture Causing Headaches, Discomfort, and Stiffness
How is your posture? Poor posture may be causing your headaches, discomfort and stiffness. Many of us have sedentary jobs at a desk and/or use mobile technology for day-to-day communications. Think about how you sit when you do these things. It’s easy for us to slip into a poor posture when we’re mindlessly reading emails or sending texts. Poor posture contributes to neck pain, stiffness, nagging headaches, trouble standing up and other painful issues.
Read full blogEver had a nagging headache that just wouldn’t go away?
By: C. Ashley Border, DPT
Ever had a nagging headache that just wouldn’t go away? Headaches can start for a variety of causes including muscular tension and weakness in the neck, stress, dehydration or low blood sugar, outdated reading glass prescriptions, or something sinister like a stroke, head injury, or other systemic problems in the body.
In the physical therapy world, we treat lots of patients with headaches and often times, the culprit is tightness and tension in the neck muscles which is what we’ll focus on today.
