Preventing Tension Headaches
Headaches: everyone gets them and no one wants them. A headache can cause a variety of symptoms, but most headache sufferers complain of throbbing pain in the temples or top of the head, pain behind the eyes, or pressure and stabbing pain in the sinus cavities.
Common Tension Headaches
The most common kind of head pain for sure is the common tension headache. This condition is caused, as its name suggests, by clenching of the muscles around the head, neck, shoulders, and upper back. About 90% of headaches fall into this category.
This disorder can sometimes be avoided by interrupting long sessions of work on the computer with breaks spent stretching and relaxing the muscles. Once every hour, office workers should follow this simple routine:
Push your chair back away from the computer and relax the neck, letting your chin fall to your chest. Hold this position for 15 seconds, feeling the stretch in the muscles at the back of your neck.
Roll your head gently to the left, pressing your left ear downward toward the top of your left shoulder for 15 seconds, feeling the stretch down the right side of your neck. Straighten your right arm, flexing the heel of your hand toward the floor.
Bring your head back to a neutral position for ten seconds, and then drop the head slowly to the right, pressing the right ear downward toward the right shoulder. Hold this position for 15 seconds, feeling the stretch down the left side of your neck and lengthening your left arm, pressing the palm of your left hand toward the floor.
Roll the head forward and to the left, resting your chin on your chest and hold this relaxing stretch for 20 seconds. Slowly lift your head back to neutral position.
Do three repetitions of this exercise, then repeat the repetitions three times in the opposite direction. This simple routine will help relax the muscles that support the head and ease the tension that causes tension headaches.
Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches last longer and cause harder to treat symptoms than tension headaches. Migraines should be diagnosed and treated by a physician.
Most migraine sufferers need sensory deprivation to ease the pain of a migraine, so they retreat in to dark, quiet rooms and keep their eyes closed to reduce the pain and nausea until the symptoms pass. Recent research has shown promising progress toward treating migraines through herbal remedies, acupuncture, and massage, but much more research is needed before medical science can cure and prevent migraine headaches.
