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A tension headache is the most common headache, and yet it’s not well understood. A tension headache generally produces a diffuse, usually mild to moderate pain over your head. Many people liken the feeling to having a tight band around their head. A tension headache may also cause pain in the back of your neck at the base of your skull.

Although headache pain sometimes can be severe, in most cases it’s not the result of an underlying disease. The vast majority of headaches are so-called primary headaches. Besides tension headaches, these include migraines and cluster headaches.

In many cases, there’s no clear cause for a tension headache. Fortunately, effective treatments for tension headaches are available. Managing a tension headache is often a balance between fostering healthy habits, finding effective nondrug treatments and using medications appropriately. In addition, a number of preventive, self-care and alternative treatments may help you deal with headache pain.

Signs and symptoms

A tension headache can last from 30 minutes to an entire week. You may experience these headaches occasionally, or nearly all the time. If your headaches occur 15 or more days a month for several months, they’re considered chronic. Unfortunately, chronic tension headaches sometimes persist for years.

A tension headache may cause you to experience a dull, achy pain or sensation of tightness in your forehead or at the sides and back of your head. Many people liken the feeling to having a tight band of pressure encircling their heads. In its most extensive form, the pain feels like a hooded cape that drapes down over the shoulders. The headache is usually described as mild to moderately intense. The severity of the pain varies from one person to another, and from one headache to another in the same person. Many people report that the pain starts first thing in the morning or late in the day when work stress or conflict at home is anticipated.

Some people with tension headache experience neck or jaw discomfort. There may also be:

* Tenderness on your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles
* Difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
* Fatigue
* Irritability
* Loss of appetite
* Difficulty concentrating

Unlike some forms of migraine, tension headache usually isn’t associated with visual disturbances (blind spots or flashing lights), nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, weakness or numbness on one side of the body, or slurred speech. While physical activity typically aggravates migraine pain, it doesn’t make tension headache pain any worse. A few people with tension headache experience an increased sensitivity to light or sound, but this isn’t a common symptom.

Causes

Experts continue to debate the causes and even the name of tension headaches. Over the years, as different theories emerged about the origins of this type of headache, it was known by names such as muscle contraction headache, psychogenic headache, depressive headache, essential headache and ordinary headache.

The exact cause or causes of tension headache are unknown. Until a few years ago, many researchers believed that the pain of tension headache stemmed from muscle contraction in the face, neck and scalp, perhaps as a result of heightened emotions, tension or stress. But many researchers have questioned this idea.

More recent research discredits this theory. Studies using a test called an electromyogram, which records the electric currents generated by muscle activity, haven’t detected increased muscle tension in people diagnosed with tension headache. In addition, people with migraine have as much muscle tension as do people with a tension headache, if not more.

As a result, The International Headache Society uses the term “tension-type headache” instead of “tension headache,” calling attention to the fact that muscle tension may not be the main cause of this kind of head pain.

Chemical changes

Researchers now believe that tension headache may result from changes among certain brain chemicals — serotonin, endorphins and numerous other chemicals — that help nerves communicate. These are similar to biochemical changes associated with migraine. Although it’s not clear why the chemical levels fluctuate, the process is thought to activate pain pathways to the brain and to interfere with the brain’s ability to suppress the pain. On one hand, tight muscles in the neck and scalp may contribute to a headache in someone with altered chemical levels. On the other hand, the tight muscles may be a result of these chemical changes.

Because both tension headache and migraine involve similar changes in brain chemicals, some researchers believe that the two types of headache are related. Some experts speculate that migraine may develop from the regular occurrence of tension headache. The distinctive migraine features form as the pain becomes more severe. Other research suggests that mild migraine is in reality a type of tension headache.

Two classifications

Tension headache is classified into two forms: episodic and chronic. These forms distinguish between occasional headaches separated by varying lengths of time between attacks and frequent headaches that occur, in many cases, almost daily.

* Episodic. Episodic tension headaches occur on fewer than 15 days a month. These headaches are usually brief, lasting a few minutes to a few hours. Episodic tension headaches may cause scalp and neck muscle tenderness in addition to head pain. People with increasingly frequent attacks of the episodic form may be at higher risk of developing the chronic form of the headache over a period of years.
* Chronic. Chronic tension headaches occur on 15 days a month or more for at least three months. Compared with the episodic form, chronic tension headache is less common, but twice as many women as men have the chronic form. The duration and the severity of episodic and chronic tension headaches are similar, although for many people with the chronic form, pain is daily and almost continuous. Like the episodic form, chronic tension headache can be with or without scalp tenderness.

In some cases, depression and anxiety may cause chronic tension headaches. If you do have a mood disorder, it’s critical to treat this condition as well as your headache to achieve the best possible outcome. For example, if you have both depression and tension headache, treatment for your headaches may be less effective if the depression goes undiagnosed and untreated.

Controversy surrounds the issue of whether chronic tension headache is really a separate entity from chronic migraine. Doctors often have trouble distinguishing between the two types of headache. Both disorders are thought to stem from episodic headaches after pain pathways become sensitized, and both involve similar biochemical changes in the brain.

Triggers and aggravators

There are many possible triggers of tension headache. You may have no identifiable or consistent trigger, or have several obvious ones. Potential triggers include:

* Stress
* Depression and anxiety
* Lack of sleep or changes in sleep routine
* Skipping meals
* Poor posture
* Working in awkward positions or holding one position for a long time
* Lack of physical activity
* Occasionally, hormonal changes related to menstruation, pregnancy, menopause or hormone use
* Medications used for other conditions, such as depression or high blood pressure
* Overuse of headache medication

Half the people with tension headache report that they felt stressed or hungry before their headache began.

Tension headache may be made worse by jaw pain from clenching or grinding teeth (bruxism) or by head trauma, such as a blow to the head or whiplash injury. People with stiff joints and muscles due to arthritis of the neck or inflammation of the shoulder joints may develop tension headache.

Headaches in children

Chronic tension headaches in children are similar to headaches in adults and are often caused by stress, anxiety or depression. Although adults may not always realize it, children can experience tremendous stress — ranging from peer pressure and unreasonable parental expectations to difficulty in school and physical or sexual abuse. And all children, even very young ones, can experience depression.

Risk factors

Tension headache probably accounts for a majority of all primary headaches. And it’s more common in women than in men. Almost 90 percent of women and about 70 percent of men experience tension headaches during their lifetimes. Tension headache is most prevalent in people between the ages of 20 and 50. The majority of people who get migraines also get tension-type pain.

When to seek medical advice

Pain is often one of your body’s ways of signaling illness. But headache pain, even when it’s severe, usually isn’t the result of an underlying disease. Occasionally, however, headaches may indicate a serious medical condition, such as a brain tumor or rupture of a weakened blood vessel (aneurysm). Always be sure to tell your doctor about any headache that concerns you. Even if you have a history of headaches, see your doctor if the pattern changes or your headaches suddenly feel different.

If tension headache disrupts your life, don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor. The condition is a biological disorder for which there’s effective treatment. Many people can manage their headaches by working with their doctors to develop a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan that involves lifestyle changes, medication and complementary therapies.

In addition, see your doctor or go to the emergency room immediately if you have any of these warning signs and symptoms:

* Abrupt, severe headache, often like a thunderclap
* Headache with a fever, stiff neck, rash, mental confusion, seizures, double vision, weakness, numbness or speaking difficulties
* Headache after a head injury, especially if it gets worse
* Chronic, progressive headache that is precipitated by coughing, exertion, straining or a sudden movement
* Onset of new headache pain after age 50

Call your doctor if your child has head pain that’s severe or that causes him or her to miss school or other activities. A child who’s too young to tell you what’s wrong may cry and hold his or her head to indicate severe pain.

Screening and diagnosis

If you have chronic or recurrent headaches, your doctor may try to pinpoint the type and cause of your headaches using these approaches:

* Getting a description of your pain. Your doctor can learn a lot about your headaches from your description of the type of pain, including its severity, location, frequency and duration, and other signs and symptoms you may have.
* Conducting tests. If you have unusual or complicated headaches, your doctor may order tests to rule out serious causes of head pain, such as a tumor or an aneurysm. Two common tests used to image your brain are computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. A CT scan is a diagnostic imaging procedure that uses a series of computer-directed X-rays to provide a comprehensive view of your brain. An MRI doesn’t use X-rays. Instead, it combines a magnetic field, radio waves and computer technology to produce clear images.
* Asking you to keep a headache calendar. One of the most helpful things you can do is keep a headache calendar for at least two months. Each time you get a headache, jot down a description of the pain, including how severe it is, where it’s located and how long it lasts. Also note any medications you take. A headache calendar can offer valuable clues that may help your doctor diagnose your particular kind of headache and discover possible headache triggers.

Complications

Because tension headache is so common, its impact on job productivity and overall quality of life is considerable. When your head is “gripped in a vise,” as the pain is often described, you may feel unable to attend family and social activities. You might need to stay home from work, or if you do go to your job, you work at only a fraction of your normal efficiency.

Treatment

Few people with episodic tension headache seek medical attention. One reason is that tension headache usually is easy to treat with over-the-counter medications. Other reasons may be a fear of not being taken seriously by the doctor or the misperception that tension headache is purely psychological in nature, that admitting you have one means you’re weak or neurotic.

While much remains unknown and even controversial about tension headache, the condition is widely recognized as a biological disorder. And fortunately, while doctors may disagree about what causes this type of headache, they do know how to help you.

Medication:

A variety of medications, both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription, are available for treating tension headache. You may find fast, effective relief by taking pain relievers such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others) or acetaminophen (Tylenol, others). These medications are inexpensive and readily available and don’t require a prescription from your doctor. People with severe or chronic tension headaches may require stronger painkillers or preventive medications to reduce the frequency and severity of head pain.

Which drug works best varies from one person to another.

Whether you have episodic or chronic headaches, don’t overuse OTC medications. Limit your use of painkillers to two days a week. Try to take the medications only when necessary, and use the smallest dose needed to relieve your pain. Overusing pain medications can cause rebound headaches or the development of chronic daily headaches, triggering the very symptoms you’re trying to stop. In addition, all medications used to treat headache have side effects, some of which may be serious. For prescription medications, of course, follow the recommended dosage and do not exceed it.

Acute therapy

Acute therapy aims to stop or reduce the pain of an existing headache attack. Many different medications are used for the acute treatment of tension headache:

* Analgesics. Analgesics are pain relievers. Acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) and a class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are effective in reducing headache pain. Side effects of acetaminophen are rare, but if you take the drug in large doses for long periods of time, it can cause serious liver damage. NSAIDs include the OTC drugs aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and naproxen sodium (Aleve). Prescription NSAIDs include naproxen (Naprelan, Naprosyn), indomethacin (Indocin) and ketorolac tromethamine (Toradol). Side effects include nausea, diarrhea or constipation, stomach or abdominal pain, stomach bleeding, and ulcers. You can reduce or eliminate these symptoms by taking NSAIDs after meals or with milk.
* Combination medications. Aspirin or acetaminophen (or both of these analgesics) are often combined with caffeine or a sedative drug in a single medication. For example, Excedrin combines aspirin, acetaminophen and caffeine. Combination drugs such as this may be more effective than are pure analgesics for pain relief. Although many combination drugs are available over-the-counter, analgesic-sedative combinations can be obtained only by prescription because they may be addictive and can lead to chronic daily headache. Don’t use these drugs more than two days a week, and use them only with careful monitoring by your doctor.
* Other medications. For people who experience both migraine and episodic tension headaches, a triptan can effectively relieve the pain of both headaches. Opiates, or narcotics, are rarely used because of their side effects and potential for dependency. These include codeine combined with acetaminophen (Tylenol With Codeine No. 3).

Medications don’t cure headaches, and over time painkillers and other medications may lose their effectiveness. In addition, all medications have side effects. If you take medications regularly, including products you buy over-the-counter, discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor. Also, remember that pain medications aren’t a substitute for recognizing and dealing with the stressors that may be causing your headaches.

Prevention

Although medications can provide temporary relief, lifestyle changes are ultimately the best way to combat tension headaches. Make sure you’re following a regular sleep schedule and eating balanced meals. In addition, the following tips may help:

* Exercise regularly. Regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming or biking, can help reduce the frequency and intensity of headaches. Exercise relieves stress, relaxes your muscles and increases the levels of one of your body’s natural stress relievers, beta-endorphin. Yoga, massage, stretching and posture classes also can help prevent tension headaches. If you already have a headache, exercise can help relieve the pain. In some cases, however, exercise may bring on a headache, so check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. Your doctor may recommend that you work with a physical therapist to learn exercise techniques that may specifically benefit people with chronic tension headaches.
* Manage stress. In addition to regular exercise, techniques such as biofeedback training and relaxation therapy can help reduce stress. Biofeedback teaches you to control certain body responses that help reduce pain. During a biofeedback session, you’re connected to devices that monitor and give you feedback on body functions such as muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure. You then learn how to reduce muscle tension and slow your heart rate and breathing yourself. The goal of biofeedback is to help you enter a relaxed state so that you can better cope with your pain. Ask your doctor whether such a program might help you.Cognitive behavior therapy also may help you learn to manage stress and reduce the frequency and severity of your headaches. During this type of talk therapy, a counselor helps you learn ways to view and cope with life events more positively.Other relaxation techniques include deep breathing, yoga, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation, which is accomplished by tensing one muscle at a time, and then completely releasing the tension, until every muscle in your body is relaxed. You can learn relaxation techniques in special classes or at home using books or tapes. Many of them may also be helpful for children.

Preventive medications

Certain medications taken at regular intervals may reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. Your doctor may prescribe these if you have more than two headaches a week or have tension headaches that aren’t relieved by acute medication and nondrug therapy. Your doctor also may recommend preventive medication if your headache lasts longer than three to four hours, if severe pain becomes disabling or causes you to overuse acute medication, or if you can’t take acute medication because of other medical conditions.

Doctors often prescribe antidepressants to prevent tension headache, especially the chronic form. These drugs aren’t painkillers. Rather, they work to stabilize the levels of brain chemicals such as serotonin, which may be involved in the development of a headache. You don’t have to have depression in order to use these drugs.

Preventive medications may include:

* Tricyclic antidepressants. Tricyclic antidepressants, including amitriptyline and nortriptyline (Pamelor), are the most commonly used medications to prevent tension headache. They’re effective against both the episodic and chronic forms. Side effects of these medications may include weight gain, drowsiness, dry mouth, blurred vision and constipation. Older adults also may experience confusion or faintness when taking tricyclic antidepressants.
* Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Antidepressants such as paroxetine (Paxil), venlafaxine (Effexor) and fluoxetine (Prozac, Sarafem) produce fewer side effects than do the tricyclic antidepressants but generally are less reliable in preventing headaches. Further studies are needed to demonstrate their effectiveness.
* NSAIDs. Chronic tension headache may be effectively managed with NSAIDs such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) and ketoprofen (Orudis). In these circumstances, you take the medication daily.
* Other medications. Other medications that may prevent tension headache include anticonvulsants such as divalproex (Depakote) and muscle relaxants such as tizanidine (Zanaflex). If you experience migraine-like symptoms, your doctor may prescribe a medication commonly used to treat migraines, such as beta blockers or calcium channel blockers.

Preventive medications may require several weeks to build up in your nervous system before they take effect. So don’t get frustrated if you haven’t seen improvements shortly after you begin taking the drug — it may take a couple of months or longer. You may need a combination of different medications for maximum effectiveness. Also be aware that overusing caffeine or painkillers for acute relief may reduce the effect of a preventive drug.

To obtain the greatest benefit from preventive medication, keep your use of acute pain relievers to a minimum. Your doctor will monitor your treatment to see how the preventive medication is working. If your headaches are under control, your dose of medication may be reduced gradually over time.

Self-care

Rest, ice packs or a long, hot shower may be all you need to relieve a tension headache. A variety of nonmedication strategies can help reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches. This approach can be a vital part of any treatment plan for headache. Try some of the following suggestions to see which work best for you.

Healthy lifestyle. Behaviors that promote general good health also may help prevent headache. These lifestyle measures include following regular eating and sleeping schedules and avoiding excess caffeine. It’s also important to stay physically active. Regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming or biking, can help reduce the frequency of tension headache. If you already have a headache, exercise may help relieve the pain. But be sure to talk to your doctor before starting any exercise program.

Stress management. Stress is a commonly reported trigger for tension headache. One way to help reduce stress is by planning ahead and organizing your day. Another way is to allow more time to relax. And if you’re caught in a stressful situation, consider stepping back and allowing emotions to settle. A variety of relaxation techniques are useful in coping with tension headache, including deep breathing and biofeedback. If anxiety or depression is an issue, behavior therapy may be helpful for dealing with stress and pain.

Muscle relaxation. Muscle tension is associated with tension headache. Applying heat or ice to sore muscles may ease the tension. Which treatment to apply is a matter of personal preference. Some people find heat more effective, while others prefer cold. If heat is your choice, you may use a heating pad set on low, a hot-water bottle, a warm compress or a hot towel. A hot bath or shower also may help. If cold is your choice, wrap an ice pack in a cloth before use to protect your skin.

Massage is a wonderful way to relieve muscle tension. For some people, it may also provide relief from headache pain. Gently massage the muscles of your head, neck and shoulders with your fingertips. Or have someone else do the massage for you.

Perfecting your posture. Good posture can help keep your muscles from tensing up. It places minimal strain on your muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones. Good posture supports and protects all parts of your body and allows you to move efficiently. When standing, hold your shoulders back and your head high. Pull in your abdomen and buttocks and tuck in your chin. When sitting, make sure your thighs are parallel to the ground and your head isn’t slumped forward.

Try to avoid sitting, standing or working in one position for long periods of time. Wearing poorly fitting shoes or high heels also can cause posture problems. Do regular stretching and strengthening exercises for your neck and shoulders. Here are other tips for improving your posture:

* Stand with your weight on both feet.
* When standing in one place, put one foot up on a stool or chair rung and switch to the other foot periodically.
* Don’t carry a shoulder bag that weighs more than 2 pounds.
* Sit in a straight-back chair with your back supported.
* When sitting for long periods, occasionally elevate your legs by placing your feet on a footstool. If possible, get up and move around every half-hour or so.

Coping skills

Living with chronic pain can be extremely difficult. In addition to the physical symptoms, chronic pain can make you anxious or depressed. Ultimately, it may affect your relationships with friends and family, your productivity at work and the overall quality of your life.

You may find that talking to a counselor or therapist can help you cope with the effects of chronic pain. Or you may find encouragement and understanding in a headache support group. Although support groups aren’t for everyone, they can be good sources of information. Group members often know about the latest treatments and tend to share their own experiences. If you’re interested, your doctor may be able to recommend a group in your area.

Complementary and alternative medicine

The following nontraditional therapies may help if you have chronic headache pain:

* Acupuncture. Acupuncture may provide relief from chronic headache pain, among other benefits, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Acupuncture practitioners treat you using extremely thin, disposable needles that generally cause little pain or discomfort. The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture Web site provides referrals to medical doctors who use acupuncture in their practices.
* Massage. Massage is a wonderful way to reduce stress and relieve tension. It’s especially effective for relieving tight, tender muscles in the back of your head, neck and shoulders. For some people, it may also provide relief from headache pain.

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A tension headache can be debilitating and we all know what it is like to rummage through the medicine cabinet in search of pain relief for tension headaches, unfortunately these do not always seem to work. As we have been told in so many circumstances, ‘prevention is better than cure’. Well, to prevent a tension headache we need to understand what makes them occur and perhaps we will be able to reduce the number of times we have to resort to pain relief.

During periods of our lives we require pain relief from tension headaches. Sometimes these headaches can last intermittently for weeks, and taking continuous medication is probably not the best solution. A tension headache is rarely in just one place, it usually spreads from behinds the eyes, around the forehead and temples, down the neck and into the shoulders. Finding pain relief for tension headaches is hard enough, but to find relief from all the other related symptoms is even harder. One of the most effective forms of relief for tension headaches is some fresh air, bearing in mind that these headaches are often triggered by environmental and social situations it makes sense that by changing scenery and going to a calm place that you will find some relief. This does not have to be jumping on a plane to a desert island, simply removing yourself perhaps from the study or kitchen and having a couple of minutes quiet time in the garden or living room.

Sometimes fresh air will not offer relief for tension headaches, especially if these are caused by your body already fighting against a viral illness. In these situations it is best to take a mild pain relief for tension headaches and then having rest to help get over the virus. The headache may by your bodies cry for rest. If you cannot find relief for your tension headache or any other pains which you think may be associated then you should visit your general practitioner for further advice.

If you are regularly suffering from tension headaches you should try to work out the triggers for these. Knowing your personal triggers for headaches will help you to manage your pain relief for tension headaches. You will always know your body better than anyone else, however, in our busy lives it is easy to forget to listen to our bodies. If you are going through a patch of suffering badly from headaches it is definitely worth taking note of when these occur and if there are any consistently recurring factors.

It is believed that dehydration can lead to headaches, so if you are prone to tension headaches it is worth ensuring that you are drinking plenty of water as this may reduce the amount of medication you will need to manage your pain relief for tension headaches.

At the end of the day, most tension headaches are caused by the stressful way in which we lead our lives. Unfortunately we cannot easily take a break and have time to ourselves, but it is always worth trying to have some quiet time.

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If you have ever felt the painful throbbing that goes on in your head while experiencing a headache you know that it can disrupt your activities. The pain is typically experienced on both sides of the head and sometimes in the front as well as the back and it occasionally can be felt in the neck area.

When a pounding headache occurs most people take some aspirin or ibuprofen or acetaminophen and wait for the pain to subside. It should be noted that most over the counter as well as prescription medications can produce unwanted side effects. If you take pain relievers too often you can experience rebound headaches and you can become dependent on them. It is recommended that you follow the instructions that are on the label.

Variety of Medications

There are some headache relief medications that you might not be familiar with that also can be effective. Consult with your doctor before trying any new types of medications. Fenoprofen is used to prevent tension headaches as well as migraine attacks and what are known as hormone headaches. Flurbiprofen is sometimes recommended to prevent tension headaches from occurring and for the relief from a tension headache. Some people have used it for the prevention of migraine headaches. Ketaprofen, Nabumetone and Diclofenac have also been used for tension headaches as well as migraine headaches.

Naproxen can be utilized for treatment of migraine headaches as well as to prevent hormone headaches and tension headaches from occurring. Headache relief drugs such as Ketorolac, Meclofenate, Carisoprodol, and Orphenadrine Citrate, Methocarbamol, Cyclobenzaprine and Metaxalone have been used to treat tension headaches. Most of these drugs have side effects and are not as popular as the effective headache relief medications such as aspirin and ibuprofen.

Headache Relief Techniques

Biofeed back is a relaxation technique which has been used to provide headache relief and the procedure involves the control of muscle tension. Some varieties of relaxation methods have successfully given pain relief for those suffering from a tension headache. During this type of procedure you have to focus on relaxing different groups of muscles. Some people have tried transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation which some people claim can alleviate pain. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be effective at reducing pain for headaches. Yoga as well as meditation can also help reduce the pain from headaches. If you are experiencing a headache there are numerous medications that are effective at headache relief as well as other methods that do not involve medications that can also be effective.

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This article explains how tight neck, shoulder and upper back muscles cause tension headaches to become a chronic condition. It’s an excerpt from the author’s “How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches” program.

How You Get Chronic Tension Headaches

— Simply put, tension headaches come from muscle tension in your neck, shoulders and upper back.
— This tension is usually a result of poor posture and, less frequently, some sort of trauma (like a car accident).
— Conventional pharmacomedical cares (painkillers, muscle relaxers) have little or no effect on chronic tension headaches.
— This is because they treat the syndromes, not the cause.

The Cause of Chronic Tension Headaches

Here’s how your tension headaches typically become chronic:

— You work all hunched over at your job
— You continue to practice poor posture at home
— This posture tightens your neck, shoulders and upper back
— After awhile, this tightness causes muscle spasms
— These spasms restrict blood flow to the back of your head
— These spasms also irritate nerve endings in the back of your neck and head

A typical scenario is that you work every day at a job you’re used to performing in a lousy posture.

Mayby you stoop over a drill press. Maybe you hunch over a computer terminal. Maybe you drive all day. Maybe you sit all day with a phone crooked between your neck and ear.

The common denominator is that while you do these jobs, your back’s stretched out, your shoulders are rolled in and your head’s jutted out.

And when you get home, you continue practicing this poor posture by curling up in front of the T.V., or sitting hunched over in your easy chair.

If you’re like most group, you continue this posture when you go to bed because you sleep in the fetal position.

When you’re caught in this cycle, you’ve trained your muscles to adapt to this abnormal positioning.

This positioning stretches out your back muscles, curls up your shoulder muscles, strains your neck muscles and constricts your chest.

This is what causes your tightness. It’s a sign that these muscles are under tremendous stress.

Unfortunately, It Gets Worse

The continual strain on your neck, shoulder and upper back muscles causes these muscles to tear (on a microscopic level). Your body tries to prevent this tearing by forcing these muscles to knot up.

This results in muscle spasms.

But despite these spasms, some tearing does occur because of the continual strain you’re putting on them.
Over time, these tears heal. And when they do, microscopic scar tissue is left behind. These scar tissue fibers effectively lock your spasms into place.

Why is this important?

Because the tightness in your neck, shoulders and upper back and the spasms associated with this tightness restrict blood flow to the back of your head (it’s like stepping on a turned-on garden hose). This tightness and spasming also irritate various nerve endings in the back of your neck and head.

This Blood Flow Restriction And Nerve Ending Irritation Are What Cause Your Chronic Tension Headaches.

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Over the centuries there have been a lot of theories, and some very strange cures, for what causes headaches and how to combat them. An understanding of what causes headaches begins with an understanding of how the brain sits in the skull and what goes on around the brain.

When you have a discussion of what causes headaches you can instantly eliminate the brain because the brain feels no pain. This is probably why they are called headaches and not brainaches. It is the elements around the brain, the blood vessels and the muscles, that get irritated and this is primarily what causes headaches. Of course there is the condition of head trauma which can leave permanent damage and cause headaches for years.

Headaches are caused by a series of relatively unexplainable events that occur around your brain. Chemicals within the blood system get unbalanced or agitated and cause the blood vessels around the brain to expand or contract and this pressure on the skull is part of what causes headaches. If you get muscle spasms in your skull then these muscles pulling and tugging on the different areas of your skull can cause painful headaches.

Migraine headaches are thought to be caused by an imbalance in the chemicals of your blood stream while some headaches are said to be caused by our own thoughts. So it is a combination of an imbalance of chemicals in the blood, expanding and contracting blood vessels, and muscle spasms in the skull that cause headaches. Well, that is the theory right now anyways. Always remember that medical science is still not exactly sure what causes headaches but these are the best guesses right now.

The Job! The Kids Keep Screaming! My Foot Is Killing Me!

Headaches come from a variety of sources and some of them are self induced and some of them we have no control over yet. I say yet because since there is no solid explanation for headaches then it is not fair to say there cannot be a cure. Tension headaches develop from the feeling of stress or over exertion.

The stress and daily issues in our life build up to the point where we begin to feel a pulling in the front of our skull that can sometimes reach all the way to the back. These tension headaches are thought to be the variety that can be explained with muscle spasms in the skull because tension has a way of tightening your muscles up and causing pain. Relaxing is probably a good way to get rid of a tension headache.

Other headaches like sinus headaches come from definable physical ailments like your sinuses are agitated and this causes pressure in the front of your skull. Migraines are said to be the blood vessels in your skull expanding or contracting until there is pain. Headaches are difficult to treat because there are so many factors involved in creating them and they are difficult to correctly diagnose as well. Ironically, they really are headaches!

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Tension headaches are perhaps the most common headache type in the world. Fortunately, they are also one of the most treatable types of headaches in the world. The best self help for tension headaches is to avoid anything that can make you tense, but that’s probably not going to happen in this lifetime. But there are still things you can do.

Tighten And Release Your Jaw

Tension headaches are often caused or aggravated by clenching your jaw. We all subconsciously clench our jaws when we are angry or stressed out. We often can clench our jaws and keep them clenched without even realizing it. So relaxing our jaws can easily be self help for tension headaches.

The best way to relax your jaw muscles is, oddly enough, to tighten then as much as you can, and THEN let relax them. This seems to give a deeper relaxation response. Try it to see if it works for you. Periodically, check your jaw to see if it is clenched.

Deep Breathing

Another way to quickly relax the muscles that contribute to tension headaches is to take a few deep breaths. We often “heave a huge sigh” at the end of a stressful incident — we really should get in the habit of heaving a huge sigh DURING a stressful incident. It would help not only keep our muscles relaxed, but help give our brains more oxygen in order to concentrate and problem-solve.

One of the reasons why biofeedback is used to ease tension headaches is that it can help you learn how to control some of your body parts so you can relax and get on with life. Once you learn it, you don’t need to rely on the complicated-looking biofeedback training machines or computer programs.

Aromatherapy

The only problem with this form of self help for tension headches is that you have to remember to go get the essential oils, or a tissue doused in essential oils. There are essential oils that make your muscles relax whether you like it or not. One of the most powerful is frankinsence (which is one of the reasons why it is used in religious ceremonies.) Other oils include:

* lavender
* peppermint
* rosemary (although it doesn’t work for me, it has helped others)
* marjoram
* chamomile (but it is VERY expensive!)

Neck Massage

A lot of people’s favorite way to ease tension headaches is to get their necks masaged, or to massage their own necks. You don’t need to know any particular moves — just let your instinct guide you and you should be okay.

Of course, taking over the counter medicines often help for tension headaches, as well, but they often take a while to kick in or perhaps you don’t have access to them all off the time. Some people report that they only need a half dose of over the counter medication when they also use relaxation techniques.

Hope this helps. Have a pain free week.

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By H.E. Scott

As much as 95% of the population suffers from some form of reoccurring stress and tension related headaches. Although not normally debilitating these headaches affect work productivity and add to the billion dollar cost of sick days and time off. Surprisingly one of the causes of this type of ailment is the overuse of the very medication taken to alleviate the pain (called rebound headaches). An obvious solution to tension headaches and stress related muscle pain is massage therapy, a now rapidly growing health trend with schools sprouting up all across the country. Unfortunately not everyone has access to or can afford a massage therapist on a regular basis, or even when one is needed. And so enters todays high tech solution of the massage recliner. No longer the massage chairs of the past, gently vibrating you to sleep, the new age massage recliner can contain up to 12 motors and pack enough punch (literally) to work out the deepest of muscle knots, tension and stress.

The newest version of this technology comes from Premier Health Products and is called the PHP 2026 Silent Shiatsu Massage Recliner. With a 30 rolling back stroke this model can massage from the base of your scull to the tip of your tailbone, even for a person of tall stature. With the ability to provide a deep tissue style tension relieving massage at anytime, users may feel pain medications, even mild ones, no longer necessary for treating stress related ailments such as reoccurring tension headaches. Additional benefits of massage recliners, like the PHP 2026 and PHP 2022, its inversion therapy cousin, can help with; digestion, insomnia, circulation, fatigue, muscle cramping due to exertion, and Fibromyalgia.
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Relaxing the whole body shows it down and also clams the mind-it is easy to do is an antidote to stress. Almost everyone will benefit from doing relaxation exercise each day.

Before learning to relax, it is important to recognirise muscle tension. We often hold our muscles tense without realizing it. Try too king in the mirror and doing this simple exercise.

Put your fingers to the sides of your fore head by the temples, quite high by he hairline. Arid your teeth two or three times and feel the hard ridge of muscle. Let your jaw say and fell the difference. Tension, headaches and injury to the teeth can be caused if you keep up this form of tension for long periods.

You may catch yourself several times during the day with the beginnings of these feelings in your facial muscles. But it is not only the facial muscles that are tensed up in the course of the day. Other parts such as the abdomen muscles, the leg, thigh and shoulder muscles are also affected.

Once you are aware of the difference between a tensed and relaxed muscle, you can let go and relax whenever you need to.

Learn in a warm, quiet room where you won’t be disturbed. Lie on a bed or sit comfortably in a chair. Start by taking two of three breath suso more. Breath in slaowly to and deeply check that your tummy as well as your chest rise hold the breathe for a few seconds, then breath out slowly or this helps you to calm and relax your breathing. Now breathe normally and quietly.

To relax the rest of the body, begin by letting go of your toes and feet, let their muscles relax fully. Let go and relax each of the main group sets of muscles, working up through your calves, thieve, buttocks, belly, chest, then your fingers, hands and arms and finally to your shoulders, neck and face muscles. You should then be fully relaxed all over. Stay relaxd for at least 10 minutes. It may help youif you try. Saying a word orphans to yourself in time with your breathing. You could say the word ‘releax’ or ‘peace’ each time you breathe out. At the end. Stretch and get up slowly.

A daily deep relaxation session is a good long term way to help combat stress, Being able to relax quickly helps you to cop effectively at the time with a particularly stressful experience such as a visit to the dentist or the tension created by a quarrel with your partner.

If you are upset, you take quick gasping breaths from the top of your chest. So, try to remedy this and start by taking two or three breathes as described earlier on.

This will help you calm down but it will be better if you can go quickly into full deep relaxation for a few minutes either before or just after a stressful experience.

First you should learn how to do whole body relaxation as described above. Once you have mastered this, you will be able to go into full relaxation quickly wherever you are. It may be easier if you have learnt to link your special word with the feeling of being relaxed.

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By Hallie Levine Skylar

Feel better fast by making these simple adjustments to your routine.

Everyone knows a sinus infection or a major work project can make your head throb. But headaches can also be triggered by seemingly innocuous everyday activities like sleeping in on Saturdays or cleaning your apartment. With so many culprits, it’s no wonder that one in five women suffer from migraines and nearly half of women in their 30s endure tension headaches. But if you think popping a pill is the only way to ease the symptoms, you’re wrong. We consulted the experts, and they revealed some unexpected causes of headaches, as well as how you can stop the pain for good.

1. TRIGGER
KICKING BACK ON THEWEEKENDS

You put in 14-hour days Monday through Friday, only to wake up midmorning on Saturday with pounding pain in your temples. “So many of my patients tell me that they can work all week in a high-stress environment without a problem, but the minute they start relaxing,they get a migraine,” says Lisa Mannix, M.D., medical director of Headache Associates in Cincinnati. The reason? As tension dissipates, levels of stress hormones,such as cortisol and or adrenaline, decrease. This causes a rapid release of neurotransmitters,the nervous system’s chemical messengers. These send out impulses to blood vessels,making them constrict and then dilate, in addition to releasing other pain causing chemicals.

Although it’s tempting to sleep in on weekends, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. In a survey conducted by the National Headache Foundation, 79 percent of headache sufferers reported that they wake up with a headache after snoozing for more than eight hours. Also, if you enjoy an 8 a.m. cup of joe during the week, try to have coffee at the same time on the weekend. Caffeine withdrawal also causes blood vessels to dilate, which can give you a “grande”-size headache. You should try to factor decompression time into your workweek, too. If you don’t have a consistent fitness program, start one now, aiming for at least 30 minutes of exercise three times a week. One study found that this amount of activity reduces headache frequency by 50 percent. “Exercise buffers the effects of stress and releases endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, which help prevent the chemical changes that trigger a migraine,” says David Buchholz, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University and author of Heal Your Headache.

Also consider incorporating relaxation techniques into your schedule, such as meditation, yoga, or biofeedback, which teaches you to control involuntary body responses like muscle tension and heart rate. Studies show that using these therapies, either alone or in combination, can improve symptoms in up to 80 percent of patients suffering from headaches, says Alexander Mauskop, M.D., director of the New York Headache Center.

2 TRIGGER
SELF-TREATING YOUR HEAD PAIN

Taken too frequently (more than two or three times a week on a regular basis), the over-the-counter acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen you depend on to quell the throbbing may be hurting you instead of helping. It can cause rebound headaches, a condition estimated to affect 2 percent of all adults. “A woman may start taking pain relievers a few times a week to treat her tension headaches,” says Alan Rapoport, M.D., clinical professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Soon the headaches become more frequent, so she starts taking these medicines more often. Before long, she has headaches every day.”
These drugs affect the pain-control systems in the brain and can lower levels of the feel-good chemical serotonin, explains Rapoport. Young women also seem to be more susceptible showed that about 75 percent of rebound-headache sufferers are women, most commonly in their 30s.

Occasional use of OTC medicine is fine, but be sure to follow the label instructions exactly. Taking a higher than suggested dose increases the odds of getting a rebound headache.
If you suspect that your pain is related to self-medicating, ask your primary care physician to refer you to a headache specialist. The only solution is to stop taking your OTC pills, a remedy that may be painful at first. “I wean patients off them gradually,” says Merle Diamond, M.D., associate director of the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago. “For example, if a woman is taking eight pills a day, I’ll advise her to take six a day the following week, and four a day the week after that.”

To help you through this withdrawal period, your doctor may prescribe temporary measures like triptans, a class of powerful migraine drugs that stimulate serotonin receptors, resulting in reduced inflammation and constriction of blood vessels in the head. The frequency and intensity of your headaches should improve in one to three weeks, but it may take up to three months before your brain’s pain control system returns to normal.

3 TRIGGER
YOUR PERIOD

About 60 percent of all female migraine sufferers experience their migraines just before or at the start of their periods, according to the National Headache Foundation. “These hormonally driven headaches typically occur with the drop of estrogen levels right before menstruation, which affects your body’s serotonin levels,” explains Diamond. The frequency and severity usually improve during pregnancy, when hormone levels stabilize, and worsen during perimenopause, when estrogen levels start fluctuating even more.

Many doctors, including Rapoport, will treat menstrual-related headaches with a prescription triptan, such as Frova. Your doctor may recommend taking triptans either a couple of days before your period starts or continuously during your period, depending on the severity and frequency of your migraines.
A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory, such as ibuprofen, taken every day for the five to seven days around your period may also help reduce headache frequency. Experts used to believe that the birth control pill made migraines worse, but they’ve since concluded that the higher estrogen content of oral contraceptives a decade ago may have been to blame. Today’s pill may actually help. “Research shows that when female migraine sufferers take the pill, about one-third report an improvement in symptoms, one-third a worsening, and the other third no change,”says Mannix.

If you’re already on the pill,ask your doctor about taking it every day of the month (i.e.,skipping the placebo pills and starting a new pack immediately) to keep estrogen levels steady. A recent study published in the journal Headache found that women who used a continuous method had less severe headaches than those who stuck to the traditional 28-day pill cycle.

4 TRIGGER
HARBORING ANGER

Bottling up your feelings won’t do anyone—especially you—any favors. In fact, according to a study at Saint Louis University, this is the biggest emotional cause of headaches, even more so than depression or anxiety.

“When you’re angry, all your muscles tense up, including those in the back of your neck and scalp,” explains Allen Elkin, Ph.D., director of the Stress Management and Counseling Center in New York City. The prolonged contraction of the head and neck muscles causes a tight band-like sensation around your head, which is a classic sign of a tension headache.

The next time that you’re silently simmering, take in a larger than normal breath; hold it for three to five seconds while pressing together the thumb and index finger on one of your hands, suggests Elkin. Then exhale slowly through parted lips, until all the air has been drained from your lungs. Repeat two or three times. This soothing move stops you from tensing your neck and shoulder muscles, which has been shown to bring on a headache.

After you’ve cooled down, ask yourself how important the immediate issue is to you. Will you remember it in two months? Two days? The answer will help put the problem in perspective. “If you tell yourself to let it go for now, chances are even an hour later you’ll be able to deal with it better,” says Elkin. “Otherwise, you’ll just hold on to the anger all day and tense up even more.”
If you already feel a headache coming on, wrap a hot compress or a heating pad around your neck for a few minutes, making sure that it hits the base of your skull. This will relax your sternocleidomastoid muscles, which are key in tension headaches, says Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., medical director of the Fibromyalgia & Fatigue Centers, which have clinics throughout the United States.

5 TRIGGER
YOUR LUNCH

A turkey sandwich with a slice of cheddar, a diet soda, and a small piece of dark chocolate may make for a waistline- friendly meal, but for headache sufferers, it’s a decidedly unhealthy combo. All these foods contain chemicals with the potential to trigger migraines. (Cheddar, as well as other aged cheeses, like Brie and Stilton, contains tyramine, while chocolate has theobromine and phenylethylamine.) In diet sodas, the culprit is the sweetener aspartame. In a study of migraine sufferers conducted at the Montefiore Medical Center Headache Unit in the Bronx, New York, a little more than 8 percent of patients linked their head pain to aspartame. While researchers aren’t exactly sure why this chemical causes pain, one theory is that it alters neurotransmitter levels. “I’ve had patients whose migraines have decreased dramatically just by giving up their afternoon soda,” says Buchholz. Other possible food triggers:MSG (a preservative) and nitrate containing processed meats and fish.

Keeping a food diary can be helpful in identifying potential headache triggers. Once you suspect a food may be to blame, try eliminating it from your diet and see whether it alleviates your symptoms. But be sure to eat regularly. “I tell my patients it’s more important that they eat than what they eat,” says Mannix. “If you skip breakfast, for example, you’ll have a drop in blood sugar, which can bring on a migraine.”

6 TRIGGER
YOUR CO-WORKER’S PERFUME

Even if you think it smells nice, just a little whiff can bring on head-splitting pain. In one study from the Headache Center of Atlanta, almost 50 percent of migraine sufferers attributed strong scents, such as perfume or household cleaners, to an attack. “Odors reach the center of your brain via direct nerve pathways from your nose,” explains Siddhartha Nadkarni, M.D., a neurologist at the New York University Medical Center. For scent-sensitive individuals, this causes a cascade of neurotransmitters that can initiate a migraine.

Unfortunately, many scents are difficult to avoid. “You can’t live in a bubble,” says Buchholz. “No matter how hard you try to stay away from strong smells, you’ll still end up in an elevator next to someone wearing heavy cologne.” But there are a few ways to keep odors at bay. First, try to keep your home and work spaces as ventilated as possible. “A patient of mine who is a supermarket-deli manager got so fed up with her heavily perfumed customers that she set up a fan at the back of her work area so it would blow scent away from her,” says Buchholz. Also, in your own home, use fragrance-free cleaning supplies, such as EnviroRite, and keep all doors and windows open.

If these strategies don’t work, combat one odor with another. A German study found that applying a drop of peppermint oil to the forehead was as effective as OTC acetaminophen in relieving some headaches.

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