How To Cope With Muscle Contraction Headaches
Muscle contraction headache pain is usually described as a tight vise-like pressure band around your head. The pain is splitting, steady and constant and usually felt on both sides of the head, and is accompanied by a sore scalp. This type of headache is caused or aggravated by muscle spasms of the shoulder and the neck. When your muscles are in spasm, they become very painful and they will irritate the nerves that produce pain at the base of the skull and the scalp. Other symptoms associated with muscle contraction headaches may include nausea and vomiting, a sore scalp, neck ache, and blurred vision, but every person who experiences a muscle contraction headache has their own unique experience with some of the symptoms. The symptoms accompanying a muscular contraction headache may be similar to other medical problems or conditions, so your healthcare provider should be consulted if you experience them on a regular basis. Many believe that the key cause of pain with these types of bad headaches is sustained muscle tension, other researchers and healthcare professionals believe that restricted blood flow can cause or contribute ot the pain. There are many triggers linked to muscle contraction headaches. While everyone who experiences these may have their own unique causes, the main ones seem to be depression, anxiety, degenerative arthritis of the neck, and temporomandibular disorder (TMD). For many their daily physical postures of the neck or spine, such as reading with your chin up or down for extended periods of time, sleeping in a car, long car rides, sitting and working at a computer, or holding a telephone between your ear and shoulder can trigger a muscle contraction headache. There doesn’t seem to be a hereditary link for these headaches, and the triggers are generally not linked to hormones or foods. One form of muscle contraction headaches is a tension headache. A tension headache is severe, with the muscles contracting or tensing in the neck, face and scalp, and pressure around your head and neck. Tension headaches affect about 80% of adults, and they are the most common type of headache. These headaches occur frequently, sometimes every day in response to stressful events or demanding days. Treatment for muscle contraction headaches usually involves a program utilizing medications, diet control, stress reduction and manipulative therapy. Many headache sufferers prefer a more natural approach with less medication, focusing on stress reduction and more manipulative therapy. Several options for this line of treatment could be consulting a chiropractor, an osteopathic physician, or a physiatrist. These doctors can all help you to focus on the stretching and relaxation of the stressed muscles. |