Get Rid of Your Constant Stress-Related Headaches With Physical Therapy

We all do it – we feel that all-too-familiar twinge of a headache coming on, and we pop in the Ibuprofen or Advil or Tylenol. However, sometimes a pill just doesn’t cut it when it comes to stress headaches. The sensation of a stress headache is described as a band of pressure around your head, in addition to a generalized aching and tenderness.

Fortunately, physical therapy treatments can provide relaxation and posture correction, in order to relieve your pain. You’ll not only experience relief of your current headache, but the probability of sustaining future stress headaches will likely decrease. To find out more about how Rehab Advantage & Sports Medicine can help relieve your stress-related headaches, contact our Dublin, GA office today.

A hands-on approach to headaches:

There are some headache prevention techniques that are simple enough to do at home. However, a physical therapist can provide a much more targeted approach to treating the symptoms of a headache. For example, alternating between ice and heat therapies is a simple but effective strategy. The specialized compresses and gentle electronic pulse wands provide soothing relief, in addition to easing muscle strain.

Manual therapy also includes massage for stress-related headache treatment, because the soft tissue mobilization relaxes tense muscles. Because of this effect, massage can provide immediate pain relief and can even prevent future headaches. PT massage treatments help to relax the muscles in your jaw, temples, neck, and shoulders, in order to lessen your symptoms.

In addition, patients with chronic tension headaches report decreased incidents of head pain when undergoing regular massage therapy. It is believed that relaxing the muscles in and around the head helps in preventing the contractions that result in pain.

Physical therapy massage also helps ease the emotional stress that causes you to tense those trigger muscles. People who get regular therapeutic massages also report getting better rest, which leads to less stress during the day, and therefore a lowered likelihood of sustaining a stress-related headache.

Correcting your posture:

It is no secret that the ways in which we stand and sit can greatly influence how much pressure is put on our muscles. Poor posture compresses muscles and nerves, and for many people, these overworked muscles and nerves in the shoulder, chest, and neck area can lead to a triggered tension headache.

Your physical therapist can help evaluate your posture for areas that may need improvement. He or she will also demonstrate the correct way to move, sit, and stand, in order to avoid unwanted compression.

In addition to demonstrating chest, back, and shoulder positions, a physical therapist can also recommend helpful lifestyle changes. Modifications to certain areas in the home and workplace often have a big effect on posture. This might include a telephone headset, a raised computer monitor, a specialized chair, or even a rubber mat to stand on while doing kitchen tasks.

Strengthening your muscles:

You do a lot of “heavy lifting” throughout the day with your shoulders, back, and neck – even when you are simply carrying out daily tasks. If the muscles in those areas are too weak, they can easily get overworked. Physical therapy work on neck and upper back muscles involves resistance training, in order to build up the muscles.

For many people, stronger upper body muscles also equate to fewer – and less intense – stress-related headaches. Exercises might start with simple chin-to-chest nods to build neck strength, and may become more intensive as your treatment plan progresses. Free weights and resistance bands also help to build up shoulder and back muscles.

Improving your flexibility:

The more that you’re able to move your neck and shoulders as you move through your day, the less pressure you put on the major muscle groups in those areas. This may also alleviate some of your undesirable stress-related headache symptoms. By participating in physical therapy treatments, you will learn specific moves to stretch your neck, in addition to loosening up your chest, shoulder muscle, and tendon groups. Doing these regularly can help relieve chronic stress headaches.

Contact us for relief:

If you’d like to learn more about relieving the frequency and severity of your chronic stress-related headaches, contact our Dublin, GA office today. We’ll set up an evaluation to examine and discuss your specific challenges. From there, one of our physical therapists will design an individualized course of treatment that is specific to your needs, in order to help you relax your muscles, get better sleep, and fight off some of those debilitating stress headaches.

How Physical Therapy can Put an End to Nagging Headaches

Hobbled by Chronic Headaches? Physical Therapy May Hold Your Answers

The minute you feel that familiar pain and pressure coming on, you know you’re in for a bad time. Headaches are regrettable commonplace in today’s world, with 80 to 90 percent of Americans enduring a tension headache at some point or other. But while some headaches are caused by biochemical imbalances, hypertension, tumors or other causes, many of them are the direct result of musculoskeletal problems. Fortunately, physical therapy is tailor-made to address and correct musculoskeletal problems, including the issues behind chronic headache pain. Let’s examine how our physical therapist can help you get rid of those nagging headaches the natural way.

The Musculoskeletal Causes of Headaches

You’ve probably heard of tension headaches, but you may not realize that the tension refers, not to emotional tension, but to muscular tension in the neck. Although emotional tension can certainly promote this muscular tension, so can underlying physical imbalances, weaknesses or damage. A traumatic injury to the neck such as whiplash is a prime example, with torn neck muscles and strained connective tissues referring agonizing pain to the head, face and shoulders as well as the neck.

Tension Headaches and the Dura Mater

But the classic tension headache is caused by a more subtle form of strain. Repetitive motions or poor neck/head posture that place the neck muscles under constant strain may also pull upon a sensitive membrane known as the dura mater. The dura mater envelops the brain, and at the base of the skull, it lies in close proximity to small muscles such as the RCPM muscle. When these muscles go into spasm, the dura mater gets tugged – and it reacts by sending pain messages into the head.

Cervicogenic Headaches

Cervicogenic headaches are another kind of neck-related head pain. These headaches involve the topmost three vertebrae of the neck. Some cervicogenic headaches are caused by concussions or arthritis, but work-related strain is another potential trigger. People who typically droop their heads downward for many hours a day (hairdressers, long-haul drivers, smartphone addicts, etc.) are prone to these headaches.

Our Physical Therapist Can Provide Natural Headache Pain Relief

Drugs can’t do much more than offer pain relief for an isolated headache, which isn’t good enough if you suffer from chronic headache pain. Our physical therapist will start by evaluating your posture, asking you about your symptoms and medical history, and study X-rays or other diagnostic data from your primary care physician to figure out the biomechanical origins of your chronic headache problem. A detailed physical therapy program can then be formulated to address your specific musculoskeletal issues.

Physical therapy can relieve chronic headaches in a number of ways. Exercises to loosen, lengthen and relax the muscles of the neck can be highly effective at easing the spasms that set off tension headaches. You may also benefit from exercises such as the supra-clavicle release, which strengthens neck muscles weakened by postural imbalances. If tension in the fascia of the jaw or face are contributing to your neck tension and headaches, a lying-down posture with the relevant trigger points resting on a tennis ball can release that tension.

Exercises are only one aspect of physical therapy to relieve headaches. Our physical therapist may also prescribe massage therapy, ultrasound and lifestyle recommendations to help you stop sabotaging your neck and head in your everyday activities. This holistic approach can free you from your headache problem – as well as freeing you from a reliance on pain-relieving drugs.

Start Feeling Better – Talk to Our Physical Therapist

If you’re ready to enjoy serious, lasting headache pain relief, it’s time to talk to our physical therapist. Contact Rehab Advantage & Sports Medicine today!

Stress is nothing more than our reaction to a provocation that upsets our physical and/or mental equilibrium. Therefore, stress is an inevitable part of life. Nevertheless, when we are faced with stress, our “fight or flight” response can be triggered; this causes the production of hormones including adrenaline and cortisol to increase and rush through your body.

Stress is nothing more than our reaction to a provocation that upsets our physical and/or mental equilibrium. Therefore, stress is an inevitable part of life. Nevertheless, when we are faced with stress, our “fight or flight” response can be triggered; this causes the production of hormones including adrenaline and cortisol to increase and rush through your body.

Ached by Lower Back Pain? Stand up Straighter with Physical Therapy

You have more options than ever for the day to day aches and pains of arthritis inå the current generation of medicine. When combined with professionally monitored physical therapy, you can use all of the following tips to relieve the symptoms of arthritis while improving the strength and the mobility of your muscles.

Lower back pain is a sensation all too familiar to millions of people. This ache can hinder many aspects of your life: working, spending time with friends and family, partaking in the activities you enjoy, and even just relaxing. The World Health Organization estimates that in the United States, 149 million days of work are lost due to low back pain. It is the leading cause of inactivity among adults, and it can result in other health issues if left untreated. It is also extremely common, appearing in 60-70% of people across industrialized nations.

If lower back pain is plaguing your everyday life, it is important that you find relief as soon as you can. For more information on how we can help get you back to a pain-free life, call our office today.

How can physical therapy help?

Physical therapists focus specifically on pain and injury to help their patients regain function, comfort, and mobility. Physical therapy treatments are used to alleviate pain, promote healing, and bring restored function and movement to the painful area. When you come in for a consultation, your physical therapist will provide you with an extensive evaluation, discovering what form of treatment will be best for whatever orthopedic, neurologic, or cardiovascular condition you are facing.

Physical therapy also consists of two categorized types of treatments: passive physical therapy and active physical therapy:

  • Passive physical therapy

The purpose of passive physical therapy is to help pain become more manageable, and hopefully to alleviate it altogether. Lower back pain can be a debilitating condition, impeding your physical abilities. Because of this, physical therapists work hard to reduce pain as much as possible. Passive physical therapy can include any combination of these specialty treatments, as deemed fit by your physical therapist:

Some of these methods are used to reduce pain and swelling, such as heat/ice packs and massage therapy. Electrical stimulation, while it sounds intimidating, is a painless treatment that delivers minuscule waves of electricity throughout your nervous system. This also helps with pain relief, and it can also help in decreasing muscle spasms, as well as encouraging your body to produce pain-relieving hormones. Hydrotherapy is an aquatic-based treatment, in which patients will perform low-intensity movements in water, thus relieving any muscle pressure they may be experiencing and allowing their joints to move freely and comfortably. These techniques are more commonly used for the treatment of lower back pain than others, although any could be prescribed based on your physical therapist’s discretion.

  • Active physical therapy

The purpose of active physical therapy is to provide exercises that the patient can do on their own in the later stages of their physical therapy treatment. Once your lower back pain has subsided enough that your physical therapist believes you are ready for active physical therapy, he or she will set up and exercise schedule specific to your needs. This can include any combination of stretching, strength training, and stability training, and it is all geared toward helping you gain back your flexibility, range of motion, and muscle strength. These exercises will help provide support to the painful area and will guide you further in your recovery process.

What will my visits look like?

At your initial consultation, your physical therapist will ask you several questions regarding your medical history, lifestyle, and painful area(s). This information will assist your physical therapist in creating the best treatment plan for you and your specific needs, so you can be provided with long-term results.

After your consultation, your evaluation process will begin. Your physical therapist will examine you by assessing your posture, coordination, strength, balance, flexibility, blood pressure, and/or heart rate, depending on your pain and symptoms. This evaluation will be both manual and visual.

When you’ve completed your thorough evaluation, your physical therapist will then create your treatment plan, beginning with passive physical therapy and leading into active physical therapy. You may also be given exercises to do at home, during your time away from treatments. This is all done in order to reduce pain, avoid further injury, and provide you with the quickest recovery time possible.

If you believe your lower back pain could benefit from our physical therapy services, give our office a call today to schedule your initial consultation. We’ll help you stand up to your back pain!

Sources:

https://www.webmd.com/back-pain/guide/physical-therapy-and-back-pain

https://www.moveforwardpt.com/LowBackPain