Most Effective Treatment for Headaches
Headaches or migraines, defined as a throbbing headache, usually on 1 side of the head, are a common presentation that most of us have experienced or will experience several times in life. Headaches or migraines become a problem especially when they turn into a regular or constant presentation that affects our quality of life or our quality of sleep.
Causes for headaches
There are multiple causes for headaches:
- Hormonal changes
- Emotional triggers: stress and trauma
- Physical triggers: tiredness, poor quality of sleep, musculoskeletal imbalances (commonly referred to as bad posture), tightness from exercise, fatigue…
- Dietary triggers: poor diet, dehydration
- Environmental triggers
- Medication
Myofascial tissue as the direct cause for headaches & Migraines
In most of the above cases, these initial causes results in irritation or inflammation of the Myofascial tissue. The Myofascial tissue (we’ll explain more in detain further down) triggers pain, in this case a headache. It can also trigger accompanying symptoms, which in case of headaches these can be dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus, ear pain, etc.
We can therefore say that the Myofascial tissue is the more immediate or direct causes of headaches (as we mentioned we’ll explain this more in detail later down this post).
Classification of headaches depending in the location
Between the most common locations for headaches we come across in clinic:
Single sided headache
Question mark headaches or behind the eye headache
Headache at the back of the head
Headache at the top of the scalp
Headache across the forehead
Myofascial tissue as cause of headaches, explained
As we mentioned above, more times than not these headaches are a result of local or referred pain caused by Myofascial tissue irritation/inflammation or trigger points (also known as knots) within the muscle.
The myofascial tissue is the connective tissue of the musculoskeletal system. Like a spider web, it holds muscles and organs in place and it connects muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones together, making our body a continuous system. The Myofasicial tissue doesn’t run through these but it’s a component of these.
The myofascial tissue responds to pressure changes and to chemical changes within our body. These two categories encompass what happens biochemically in most of the “most common causes of headache” named above.
Let’s name two examples to better understand how the Myofascial tissue respond to pressure and chemical changes and how these are related to the list of common reasons for headaches.
How pressure changes affect the Myofascial tissue resulting in pain
From our list of the main causes for headaches (See above) we can pick “bad posture” or musculoskeletal imbalances to explain how pressure changes in this case affect the myofascial tissue and ultimately resulting in a headache.
Since the Myofascial tissue responds to pressure changes, a repeated postural pattern especially when held overtime, like for example slouching at the desk, produces changes in pressure within the body, which will cause changes in the distribution of the Myofascial tissue as it adapts to provide for the demand we are exerting.
This can be the cause of imbalances within the musculoskeletal system, which we can physically see and usually recognise as “bad posture”.
This changes in the balance of our myofascial system can result in some muscles and myofascial tissue getting irritated as they get loaded with pressure they’re naturally not designed to withstand, they get compressed, overstretched, compensate for the lack of activity in other structures and get overworked, etc.
This irritation of the Myofascial tissue can cause pain (either local or referred pain) and other symptoms.
How chemical changes affect the Myofascial tissue resulting in pain
We can pick “stress” from our list of “most common causes for headaches) as an example of a chemical change.
How?
Stress causes our body to be in a state of fight or flight.
We need the fight or flight response to act quick in situations of danger or of intense concentration for short periods of time, but when prolonged overtime it becomes a problem. The body doesn’t understand the difference between stress due to us seeing a lion right in front of us and us seeing and especially thinking about the bills, our boss, work, family issues etc.
Our body activates the fight or flight response when we are stressed. During fight or flight our body produces different enzimes and other elements needed to respond quick to whatever threat we’re facing. They’re amazing in short bursts but when their production is prolonged overtime it becomes toxic for our tissues.
Our Myofascial system is extremely sensitive to these chemical changes in our body and gets irritated as a result.
This irritated Myofascial tissue can trigger pain locally or referred to a different part of the body, in this case headaches or migraines.
These are just two examples of how the connection happens between “original cause” (posture and stress), the “Myofascial tissue” and the end result “headaches or migraines”.
We can connect each of the original causes from the list to the Myofascial system just as we did with “stress” and “posture”, which is the reason why we can say that most headaches are ultimately caused by inflation of the Myofascial Tissue and can be successfully treated by addressing this tissue.
A holistic approach to addressing the Myofascial tissue
By the two examples we mentioned above, we can understand how sensitive and complex the Myofascial tissue is, as well as how it responds to different stimuli.
For this reason and if we want the best possible results when treating the Myofascial tissue we must address or treat it from different angles and using a whole body approach, where the cause of the pain might be in a completely area of the body.
Two angles that we need to consider when treating the fascia:
- The fascia responds really positively when the body is in a restful state. We must assist the body to be in that state as much time as possible. This is a very skilful task that is usually underrated and ignored by many. This is also the reason why providing a calm nurturing treatment space over a cold and fast paced space is very important. Outside of the treatment room we can aid the health of our tissues by focusing on having a mindful life, meditation, good diet, proper rest, exercise, etc.
2. The more technical aspect, the manipulation of the tissue itself. We must look at the body as a whole interconnected unit where each element affects the whole and treat it according to that principle. Here we have the many techniques, skills and tools and different schools of knowledge for different therapists and you just need to find the one that works for you.
If you would like more information on the techniques that we use at INSIDE you can click HERE.
From the Myofascial tissue to a headache, recap
Let’s recap with the following,
Stressor (i.e. “Stress”, “posture” “diet”) ——cause——> Pressure and Chemical changes
Pressure and Chemical changes ——cause——> Myofascial irritation ——causes——>PAIN (in this case headache)
When the fascia gets irritated it can cause pain either locally or referred pain. Irritated fascia can also result in Trigger Points in the muscles fibres.
In the case of headaches and migraines the pain often originates in Myofascial structures and Trigger Points that are lower down the body, usually neck and shoulder area or face.
Trigger Points (or knots) are hyperirritable spots within a taut band of muscle. They can feel like a little knot to touch. Trigger Points cause pain when active, either locally or referred pain. In most cases of headaches and migraines the pain irradiates from Trigger Points located as we said in neck, shoulders and face muscles.
For this reason an effective assessment and treatment focused on addressing migraines or headaches will look at neck, shoulders and face as areas where important part of the work must happen.
Of course these are not the only areas that need addressing and even though it will differ in every person the whole body will need including in the treatment plan in order to obtain long lasting results.
Hoping this blog post is helpful to those experiencing headaches or migraines.