Headaches Are Not All In Your head
By Mary Jo Smiley CMTPT, LMT
Jane had been involved in a relatively minor motor vehicle accident causing a whiplash injury to her neck. She was hit from behind and suffered head and neck pain right away. Within days she was experiencing severe headaches or migraines and went to her doctor. Jane felt that she was not getting much relief with over the counter medications. She was reluctant to use prescription drugs, but accepted the prescription from her doctor for stronger pain meds, but still got very little relief from the headaches.
She asked about massage because she had heard a friend rave about how well having trigger point therapy helped! Her Doctor was skeptical, but agreed. Medical massage is covered by most auto insurance companies.
Lets look at why treating the trigger points is so effective, non-invasive, empowering and should be considered for the first line treatment and not “last resort”.
An in-depth evaluation including an extensive review of medical history, details of the accident and Range of Motion tests should be part of the first session. We look for specific tender areas and restriction in muscles indicating the presence of trigger points. Trigger points are a hypersensitive “knots” of pain in a muscle that restricts range of motion, referring pain in a predictable pattern (usually) away from the site of the trigger point.
Consistent with a whiplash injury, many upper back and neck muscles were involved, two most prominently. One, the trapezius (illustration A) refers a very familiar pain pattern up the back of the neck and into the temples. The sternocleidomastoid (SCM for short) was the other. (Illustration B) These muscles check-reins excessive forward and backward motion of the head, which often happens in a whiplash injury.
The Upper Trapezius muscle usually has trigger points in it. The common pain pattern is the classic tension headache, up the back of the neck and into the temples. Almost ALL tension headaches are the pain pattern of this muscle.
The SCM can produce pain but in addition, this muscle often mimics; the symptoms of a migraine headache including tearing of the eyes, runny nose, nausea, dizziness, loss of balance and blurring vision.
After appropriate treatment with Myofascial Trigger Point Therapy, Jane no longer had head and neck pain. All of the symptoms of the migraine headaches were resolved. In addition, she is no longer getting frequent “tension headaches” and knows what to do when she feel on coming on!
Trigger points are not always caused by trauma, most of the time they are caused by every day improper posture, repetitive motion, head forward postures while working or driving, old injuries (even 20 years ago or more), and a multitude other factors.
Have chronic headaches or migraines?
Tired of hearing it’s all in your head?
Call our office and set up a free consultation.
Mary Jo Smiley CMTPT, LMT at Advanced Bodywork, Massage and Yoga might be able to help!
724-494-1468
