DR Fitness

Headaches.  They can hurt all over.  Your temples, your forehead, heck, even your eyeballs can all feel like there’s a vice squeezing your head.  And for the unfortunate, other symptoms like nausea, dizziness and sound/light sensitivity can really make a bad day worse.  Most of you just suffer, pop some pills, and hope it goes away.

But there is a lot you can do to prevent and treat those headaches besides just taking “Tension Headache” medication.  Here are 3 easy to follow tips that will help cure your headaches once they have already started.

1. The essential oil Peppermint or Menthol – This little known oil, and it’s active ingredient menthol, has been known for years to help treat headaches, and now there’s clinical evidence to back it up.  Just published this year in the Journal of Clinical Practice, Peppermint was found to help relieve headaches in a study that had 118 participants.  When given menthol during the headache attack,  participants reported less pain after two hours, as well as a decrease in other symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and light/sound sensitivity.

Treatment is really easy.  Simply apply the peppermint or menthol to the temples and the back of the neck after cleaning the area with tap water.

How much do you use?  With oils, a little goes a long way, so just a drop at each site.  

This is a simple and very cheap alternative to aspirin and it smells good too!

2. Massage those tight muscles – Most people assume that if your head hurts, rub your head.  But I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Here it is…when muscles experience pain, they do something with it that is quite odd.  They “refer” the pain to somewhere else.  Let me explain.

Most of you are probably familiar with the stories of people having a heart attack complaining of pain running down their arms and into their backs.  Even though it’s the heart that’s having the problem, the pain is “referred” to  and experienced in these areas.  While the heart is made up of a different kind of muscle than the ones that you try and show off, it’s still a muscle.

Well, your muscles do the same thing.  So when you’re experiencing a “tension headache,” what you’re really feeling is the “referred” pain from muscles that are actually far from the place you’re feeling the pain.

A classic example of this is when you’re feeling your headache in your “temples,” the area on the side of your head, just behind the eyes.  You can rub your temples all day long and it still won’t take care of that headache.  Why?  Because the source of that headache is usually coming from the trapezius muscle, which is located between your neck and your shoulders.  Massage this muscle and give it some TLC for a few minutes.  Massage the area as best you can by pinching, squeezing and pressing, trying to find the spot that gives you the most relief.

Each different area of your head that hurts is probably pain being referred by a different muscle.  If you’d like to know more about this topic, or would like professional help to treat your tension headaches, contact me.

3. Now let’s stretch those tight muscles – After a good massage, you’ve got to stretch those muscles out.  In fact, stretching is almost as good as massage in the treatment of headaches.

Stretch your neck and shoulder muscles on all four sides (front, back, and both sides) to get the most relief.

To stretch the muscles on the front of your neck, slowly and gently tilt your head back and look up at the sky.  To create a little more stretch, gently push on the bottom of your chin as if to help you look even higher.

Next, to stretch the muscle on the back of your neck, drop your chin to your chest and lightly pull your head down further by resting your hands on the back of your head.  Don’t pull too hard as this can make things worse.  Simply let the weight of your hands do the work.

Now, to stretch the side of your neck, tilt your head sideways, ear to shoulder, without lifting the shoulder on the opposite side.  Also try to avoid lifting the shoulder to the ear.  Don’t forget to stretch both sides.

Hold these stretches for about 30-60 seconds and do each stretch 3-4 times.  Try not to strain to stretch because that, well, kind of defeats the goal of relaxation.

So there you go.  While there are many things that can help treat an active headache, these 3 tips are the most effective, cheap, and easy for you to implement.

Let me know how you feel after you use these techniques.  Hope you feel better!

Next time, I’ll let you know about the top 3 tips on how to prevent those nasty headaches from showing up in the first place.

DR Fitness – “Get Your Fitness On!”

Disclaimer—> First, see your doctor if you’re not sure of the origin of your headaches.  These techniques are intended to be used if you’ve been diagnosed with tension/muscular headaches.

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