Relief for tension headaches

Novocur Pain Management Clinics is a paid advertiser of Sonoran Living Live

Tension Headache

The most common type of headache, Tension Headache, can be a real pain! You know - that headache pain that feels like your head is in a vice? That is a probably a tension type headache versus a migraine. Tension headaches can cause extreme head pain and sometimes nausea. Tension headaches are often brought on by physical or emotional stress or tension - thus the name tension headache.  Often these types of headaches can be avoided once the mechanism that causes the pain is understood.

Many of our neck, mid-back and shoulder muscles attach to those ridges and that mid-line bump on the back of your head.  If there is excessive tension in those muscles that attach to the back of your head, then those muscles can pull excessively at their attachment to the bone.  Since the outer layer of bone is very pain sensitive, this muscular tension can create pain that usually begins in the back of the head, and often manifests in the temple area and/or forehead with a vice-like grip of pain.

Women often develop tension headaches when they experience PMS with their monthly cycle because of the muscle tension that goes along with PMS.  Poor posture is a common culprit that can cause enough tension in the neck muscles to cause a headache.  Poor posture can often result from poor computer ergonomics, reading at night in bed or sleeping on excessively large pillows, or simply from many years of inattention to standing straight… so your mother's admonishments to stand straight when you were a kid really were for a good reason!

Of course, understanding how to cope with emotional stress, which causes muscle tension, is one of the harder challenges for many of us in an effort to help with headaches. Count to ten, take some deep breaths, and try to put your specific situation in perspective. Those individuals who meditate and pray daily are often able to cope better than others.

Arthritis or disc problems in the neck can also cause tension headaches.  For those who suffer from headaches as a result of these issues will need to consult with one of the pain doctors at Novocur Pain Management Clinics. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly and easily your headache problem can be resolved!

For a free consultation with a Board Certified Pain Doctor call 480.855.6686 or visit us on the web at www.novocur.com  

Novocur Pain Management Clinics is a paid advertiser of Sonoran Living Live