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Treating Tension Headaches Naturally

August 15, 2023 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Which Muscles Cause Tension Headaches?

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

The snowbirds are long gone! The plus is that it’s easier to get into restaurants, and the roads aren’t as crowded. Of course, the minus is the weather. August is the hottest month of the year.

August is definitely a s-l-o-w month in Florida. The temperature is in the mid-upper 90’s, which isn’t really too bad for a Floridian, but the humidity feels like it’s 120°!

You walk out of your cool house, and it hits you like a wet washcloth, immediately making you sweat from your hair to your toes.

So, it’s time to just relax, enjoy the beach and read a good book. And thank heaven for air-conditioning!

Topic Of The Month – Tension Headaches

Lately a lot of people have been coming to my office complaining of headaches that have plagued them for a long time…in one case for years!

This woman has been everywhere and had every test that the medical world could offer. Nothing showed why she had these terrible headaches. At one point she told me the pain was a 10 on a scale of 1-10. Imagine how terrible it was for her to suffer every day from such a crippling condition. My heart went out to her!

Fortunately, her problem was caused by muscles, the one thing that most of the medical world doesn’t consider when looking for a solution to pain.

In fact, if you watched my TED talk: The Pain Question No One is Asking, you may have already heard me talk about this missing link. (If you haven’t heard my TED talk, go to YouTube and enter: Julie Donnelly, Pain and I’ll pop up.)

Let’s talk about muscles and why they will cause headaches (and a whole lot more!).

Which Muscles Cause Tension Headaches?

While there are many causes for headaches, such as stress, anxiety, depression, head injury, or anxiety, and life-threatening causes we won’t go into here, one type of headache that is caused by muscular tension is known as a muscle contraction tension headache.

As shown in the graphics above, muscle spasms (colored circles) will refer pain to your head, even when you don’t feel any discomfort where the spasm is actually occurring (as seen in the graphic on the bottom, the Sternocleidomastoid muscle).

(Please don’t get confused with the Posterior Deltoid showing in the right graphic, or the jaw muscles on the left graphic…I just didn’t know how to delete them from the graphic)

Muscles in the neck and scalp can become tense or contract in response to stress, depression, or anxiety, leading to tension headaches. Fortunately, in many cases, simply pressing on the trigger points (the colored circles) will release the tension being felt in your head.

To prevent tension headaches, it is important to maintain good posture, practice relaxation techniques, and use a pillow that keeps your head, neck, and spine in a horizontal plane while you sleep.

Treating Tension Headaches Naturally

There are too many treatments for headaches to include all of them in this newsletter. If you want to know them, I suggest you get one of my books, especially Pain-Free Living or The Pain-Free Athlete.

Meanwhile, I want to share an important Julstro self-treatment that you may find works well for tension headaches:

Place a ball such as the Perfect Ball (shown in picture) or a tennis ball, on the top of your shoulder.

Lean into the corner of a wall, as shown.

Keep your head close to the wall to prevent the ball from slipping and landing on the floor.

Bend at your hips so your upper body goes up and down, causing the ball to roll along the top of your shoulder. This will treat both the levator scapulae and trapezius muscles – both are key muscles for tension headaches.

Be gentle with this treatment as it will cause pain to be felt in your head as you are doing the treatment. Only use enough pressure that it “hurts so good.”

Do 5-6 passes on each side. It can be repeated often during the day but give a little time between each session to allow the muscle to relax.

Drink a LOT of water so the acid that you’re pressing out of the muscle will get flushed out of your body.

This may look a bit confusing, but it’s simple when you follow the directions. And the best part is, IT WORKS!

How to Learn the Other Treatments for Headaches

If you go to www.FlexibleAthlete.com you can read a lot more about muscles and pain. You will also find my books and other self-treatment tools by pressing on Shop.

Have a Happy Summer! Please remember to drink a lot of water to keep yourself hydrated. 😊

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

www.FlexibleAthlete.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Stress Headaches

November 29, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Thanksgiving. A Time To Count Our Blessings

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are upon us, this year just flew by!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. But this is still a great time of year to recap what has happened and be grateful for all the good that has come your way. It’s the perfect opportunity before the real hectic season that December brings our way. I hope you will enjoy revisiting your year and looking forward to the upcoming holiday season.

Relief From Stress Headaches

There is bad stress and good stress. There has been a lot of bad stress this year-inflation, worries about recession, a heated political season, just to name a few.

And then there is “good” stress. It’s wonderful to have the holiday season before us, so many fun events to attend, time with family and friends, and delicious foods that are special for this time of year.

On the other hand, the holidays can also bring stress … and headaches!

You can read what seems like hundreds of articles about handling holiday stress, so we won’t go into that here. What we will focus on is a quick treatment you can do for yourself when you are having a headache.

In my book, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living I share several techniques to stop headache pain, and I’d like to share one with you right now. This is one of my favorite techniques because it brings relief quickly.

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

If your headache pain is in your temples, it is likely that your temporalis muscles are the culprits. The temporalis muscle is the cause of the throbbing you get in your temples when you have a headache. Fortunately, it’s easy to find, and easy to self-treat.

Place your fingers as shown in this picture. If you clench your teeth, you will feel the muscle “pop out.” Then move your fingers up a little bit toward the top of your head and repeat the clenching movement.

To treat the muscle, just press your finger into a painful point and stay there without moving. After a minute or so, continue pressing on the spot but move your fingers up and down on the same point.

To find other points, simply move your fingers and clench your teeth. If you feel the muscle bulge, that’s a point to treat.

Coming In December

Foot pain can stop you in your tracks, regardless of whether you are a runner, or you just like to stroll along a garden path.

The discussion in December will be about foot pain that is diagnosed as plantar fasciitis.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Holiday Stress Headaches

November 16, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Thanksgiving. A Time To Count Our Blessings

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are upon us, this year just flew by! I imagine we have all had ups and downs this year. COVID is still here, albeit changing form and intensity.

Fortunately, many of us are vaccinated and the stats are showing that these people are having a milder case of the new variant.

I like to keep my vision on the idea that ultimately this will end, and we’ll be back to a semblance of normality again. Let’s pray it’s happening sooner, rather than later!

2021 – A Year Of Vision And Determination For Me

For me, this time of COVID gave me the opportunity to focus more time on creating a course to teach my techniques to licensed massage therapists (LMTs). It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for many years, but I was so busy with therapy clients that I only dabbled in teaching. Now I’m moving full speed ahead, with a goal of teaching nationwide to as many LMT’s as are willing to learn.

I’m also working with a golfer-client to edit a book I wrote several years ago. If it wasn’t for his curiosity about the book, and his excellent suggestions, this book would have lived it life out in my computer. The title is “The Secret to Your Best Golf Game EVER!” If you aren’t flexible, your golf game will suffer. But, if you release the knots in your joints, you’ll enjoy the game more, and your score will improve. What a double-headed benefit!

There are other incredible projects that are in various stages of creation. I know they will all materialize eventually. While 2021 has been a very trying year, it is also looking like an extremely productive and creative year!

What Do You Have To Be Grateful For This Year?

November is a great time of year to start to recap what has happened and be grateful for all the good that has come your way. It’s the perfect opportunity before the real hectic season that December brings our way. I hope you will enjoy revisiting your year, even if the primary gratitude you have is that it’s almost over!

Relief From Holiday Stress Headaches

It’s wonderful to have the holiday season before us, so many fun events to attend, time with family and friends, and delicious foods that are special for this time of year.

On the other hand, the holidays can also bring stress … and headaches!

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

To find other points, simply move your fingers and clench your teeth. If you feel the muscle bulge, that’s a point to treat.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Is Stress Causing My Headaches?

July 21, 2020 by Dr. Steve Chaney

“It’s Summertime, and the Living Is…Stressful”

It’s hot out, the birds are chirping, the air is pretty still, and the rains are often torrential. It’s summer and under normal circumstances things slow down as people take vacations or just go to sit at the beach or pool. Normally, we would be singing that old favorite, “It’s summertime and the living is easy”.

But this year is different! This summer’s song could be, “It’s summertime and the living is stressful.

We’ve all been affected by COVID19 in some manner, life is more complicated for most of us, and stress-levels have increased for a lot of people. Since stress often causes headache pain, today’s newsletter is going to focus on relieving stress headaches.

Stress Can Tighten Your Muscles

Constant stress can tie your muscles into knots. It is important to do things to relieve the stress that the current events are placing on your body. Maybe you aren’t going to the gym, but you can go out for a long, fast walk. You could even bring some light hand weights and be pumping your arms as you walk. If you have access to a pool, swimming is a great way to get exercise without stressing the body – with social distancing, of course.

There are several muscles that cause headaches. Unfortunately, it’s rare that anyone in the medical field will check out muscles while looking for the source of headache pain.

Is Stress Causing My Headaches?

As I said above, chronic stress can cause your muscles to tighten, and tight muscles can cause headaches. I will discuss two of the main offenders today.

One muscle that causes headaches is called the Temporalis. This muscle is the shape of a fan and is at the temples of your skull, behind your eyes and above your ears. It not only causes headaches. It also causes pain into your top teeth!

To treat your Temporalis muscle, take your three middle fingers and press on the muscle as shown in the picture to the left.

Find the tender point, only pressing enough to feel it, but not so much that you want to faint. Hold the pressure for a minute and then move your fingers slightly up and down, without sliding on your skin.

Release the pressure for about 15 seconds and repeat this sequence until the pain is gone.

Do this treatment on both sides of your skull. Stay still on any “hot spots” as they are the actual spasm that is causing the problem. You’ll be surprised at how the pain and tenderness will diminish as you continue to do the whole treatment for just a few minutes.

Another key headache muscle is the Levator Scapulae, a muscle that originates on your cervical vertebrae and inserts into your shoulder blade. When this muscle is in spasm it will pull your cervical vertebrae to the side and down and press the bone into your spinal cord at the base of your brain.

Looking at how the levator scapulae muscle attaches to the vertebrae in your neck will explain why it is an important cause of stress headaches.

The levator scapulae originates on the top four cervical vertebrae (see small box) and inserts into the top of your shoulder blade. When the muscle contracts normally you lift up your shoulders. The nickname for this muscle is “the shrug muscle” because of its action.

However, when it gets tight it will pull the insertions at your neck to the side and down. This causes the bones to press into your spinal cord, right at the base of your brain, and you get a severe headache!

Fortunately, you can treat the levator scapulae muscle, release the tension on the cervical vertebrae, and by treating the muscles in the back of your neck that become involved as the vertebrae move, you can stop the headache. It usually takes a while, maybe even two days. I wish I could tell you it’s immediate, but the important thing is you can stop the pain.

If you have suffered from headaches and your doctor has tested you to be sure it isn’t something more serious, then you’ll be pleased with the results of the Julstro™ self-treatments.

Relief From Stress Headaches Caused By A Tight Levator Scapula Muscle

Let me take you through the treatment step by step.

Step 1: Relaxing the Spasms in Your Shoulders

You start by relaxing the spasms in your shoulders. While it can be awkward at first, you can very effectively treat your levator scapulae muscle by using a ball and pressing into the corner of a wall.

Put the Julstro Perfect ball directly on the top of your shoulder. Then lean straight into the corner of a wall.

Move slightly until you feel the pressure being focused on the knot at the top of your shoulder.

This treatment is for both your levator scapulae muscle and your trapezius muscle.

Step 2: Treating Your Levator Scapulae Muscle.

Once you have loosened up the spasms in your shoulders, continue working on the levator scapulae muscle. You can also treat both by squeezing them with your fingers. We’ll demonstrate by treating your right shoulder. Naturally, you can do the same treatment on the opposite shoulder.

Bend your left arm and support you elbow with your right hand. Put your left three middle fingers on your right shoulder at the point where the shoulder and neck meet. It helps if you place it so your thumb and pointer finger are close to your neck with the middle finger being the working finger right on the junction, just a bit toward the back. Your four fingers should be crooked at each joint of the hand and your palm should be flat against your body.

Staying in the same spot, relax your arm with your elbow close to the middle of your chest. In this position you will probably have your middle finger directly on the spasm point. All the strength from this move is coming from your upper arm, not from your fingers. To do that you will simply make sure that your middle finger is on the sore spot and then pull your elbow down toward the floor. Your finger will be like a hook that presses into the spasm.

If you feel your fingers getting tired, you are using your hand to give strength and not your arm. Once you feel the difference, it will be easy to do again. After you have found the trigger point and you are adding pressure to it, continue pressing into the knot.

Next, keep your hand in the same spot, still pressing on the knot. Take your thumb, flip over onto the front of your shoulder, and push it straight into the muscle. This will move your thumb to a place that will now cause you to be pinching the knot.

You’ll feel if you have it right. You should have a fairly thick piece of muscle between the middle finger and the thumb. You can inch your three middle fingers back a bit if you find you aren’t gripping the entire thickness of the muscle.

If all you are feeling is skin between your fingertips, go back and try again. When you know you have a thick piece of muscle, grip tightly and release. Do this four times for 15 seconds each time.

Step 3: Stretching the Muscles in Your Shoulder

Now that you have worked out the knots, you are ready to stretch your shoulder muscles. Rotate your head a bit so your ear is angled toward the front of your chest. By doing this you will be adding additional stretch to the trigger point and releasing it at the same time.

Finally, continue holding the muscle and move your head as shown. Hold this for 15 seconds and release the pressure. When you finish, release your grip and shake out your shoulders. Then do it again, three more times, holding each stretch for 15 seconds.

You will really feel a great deal of relief when you ease the tension in this muscle. This process will become easy after you play with it for a while and get the hang of squeezing the ball of knots that are on the top of your shoulder.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Relieve Stress Headaches Naturally

January 21, 2020 by Dr. Steve Chaney

What Causes Stress Headaches?

Stress is an unfortunate byproduct of the festivities of the holiday season. The holidays are supposed to be fun. But you are adding all the festive gatherings, Christmas shopping, and family drama to an already crowded schedule.

Then the New Year comes. This should be a time you can relax. But no, the holiday bills start rolling in, and you have the stress of figuring out how to pay them. Then, there are New Year’s resolutions. You know you should be making resolutions, but you also know you’ve never successfully kept them in the past. Now, that is real stress.

That stress often shows up as tight muscles and muscle spasms that can cause headache pain. If you already have one of my books, especially either Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living, or The Pain-Free Athlete, you have the tools necessary to get relief. You can look at the colorful charts and find the area where you are feeling pain or stiffness. Then look for the muscle name that is in the same color as the shaded area of your discomfort. Then, follow the arrow and it will bring you directly to the spasm(s) that cause the pain. The figures above show some of the muscles that can cause headache pain when stress causes them to get tight and spasm.

Relief From Stress Headaches

As you see in the charts above there are multiple places where spasms will cause headaches. Actually, there are a lot more than this, but that’s why I wrote my “Pain-Free Living” book. It’s just too much for a newsletter.

Each of the spasms noted in these two charts can be treated by applying direct pressure onto the spasm and then holding it for 15-30 seconds. Use as much pressure as you can, but it must always be in the tolerable range, this is NOT a “no pain-no gain” situation. It is going to hurt because you are forcing toxins out of the muscle fibers, and the toxin is an acid (from lactic acid) so it burns. However, you’ll find that as you continue holding the pressure it will lessen.

After 30 seconds, keep your fingers in the same place but take off the pressure. Wait for 5 seconds and then re-apply the pressure. It won’t hurt as much this time because blood has filled the void and it’s already starting to heal the muscle.

Keep doing this until you don’t feel pain anymore, and then look for another point. I call these points “hot spots” because that’s exactly what they remind me of.

Feel around your head, your neck, and your shoulders and apply pressure on each painful point. You’ll be pleased when you feel the results! If it’s stress related, your headache pain will be gone.