Headaches and Migraines and Sinus Problems, oh my!

Now that we’re entering cold and flu season, many people also deal with headaches and sinus issues.  Recently I had my own encounter with a migraine.  Luckily I don’t get them often, but unfortunately many people have to deal with headache pain on a regular basis.  Headaches affect so much more than your head, they can cause distress throughout the entire body.  The American Migraine Foundation claims one in four households have a member who regularly suffers from debilitating headaches.  It’s also estimated that 30% of women will deal migraines in their lifetimes, so the “not now, I have a headache” should carry some weight.    The leading cause of headache pain can be attributed to stress but we can’t discount other significant causes such as muscle tension, dehydration, irregular sleep or poor eating habits.

One of the side effects of migraine headaches is tension on muscles on or near the base of the head where your neck meets the skull, known as the suboccipital region.   Many people are familiar with deep tissue massage for addressing pain in the body.  However, Trigger Point massage can be an even more effective treatment in addressing headache pain.  This particular type of massage focuses on specific areas of contracted muscles that can be origins of cranial pain.  Even physicians are starting to use injections to help release trigger points.   Focused trigger point work on the suboccipital lobe, combined with full body massage, can be very effective to address headache pain.  I can speak from personal experience, trigger point massage helped immediately relieve my intense pain.  So if you do deal with migraine or severe headache pain, instead of reaching for an aspirin bottle or other medication, try a trigger point massage to relieve your pain and tension.

– Toni Stolze, Spa Director

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