While we have all had headaches come and go, some people experience chronic headaches that never seem to go away. They’ve tried it all, ibuprofein, a warm shower, icepack. But nothing puts a dent in the headaches and all that leaning into the computer monitor scouring the internet for a home-remedy isn’t helping the situation.
The causes of a headache are many. Some are brought on by dehydration, missed meals, stress, and food sensitivities, to name a few. Most of the headaches we see in practice however, are brought on by tension in the small neck muscles at the base of your skull.
These small muscles, named the sub occipital muscles, bare the brunt of the load on your neck. While you are slouching over your desk staring at your monitor, these small neck muscles have to work overtime to keep your head up and eyes looking forward. Worse yet, we’re now spending countless hours staring down at our cell phones, putting these small muscles under load that they can’t handle.
When you overuse a muscle, you cut off the blood supply to it. The body responds chemically the same as if you had torn that muscle, and it is tricked into producing adhesion to repair.
When you have adhesion in your upper neck muscles it will impact the posture and load on your neck. Adhesion acts like glue in muscles, not allowing it to stretch or contract, producing unwanted tension. This tension from adhesion is what commonly leads to headaches.
The next step in identifying whether or not you have adhesion is to take the sub occipital muscles through a range of motion. To do this you are going to stand against a wall, with your heels, butt, shoulder blades, and the back of your head in contact with the wall. If you are unable to contact the back of your head with the wall this test is already positive, and you can be sure that there is some adhesion present.
If the back of your head is in contact with the wall the next step is to slowly tuck your chin, while the back of your head slides up the wall. If you can’t perform this movement without pain or tightness, this test is positive for adhesion.
If you are able to perform that movement pain free, continue the movement by tucking your chin into the top of your chest. If you are able to perform that movement without any symptoms there is a pretty good chance at this point that adhesion is not causing your headaches.
If any of these movements produced pain or tightness and you are experiencing headaches it is imperative you get treatment by an expert in finding and fixing adhesion. Adhesion will not go away on its own and those headaches may in fact get worse.
Contact us for further information.
Scott King, DC
Novo Soft Tissue
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