How your Osteopath can help with relief from painful Headaches and Migraines

Most people suffer headaches at some stage in their life. Thankfully, for most people they are few and far between, but others suffer on a more frequent basis with pain that lasts from minutes to days. Such pain ranges in intensity from being a slight inconvenience, causing little or no interruption to the daily routine, to being a dreadfully debilitating condition, ruining the life of the sufferer.

Many people who suffer quite severe headaches often accept their lot with little complaint and sometimes do not consider the possibility of treatment. Their suffering may not be inevitable as there are a variety of treatments that can reduce or eliminate headaches.

What causes headaches?

The causes of headaches are many and varied including muscle tension, migraine, sinus congestion, trauma, hypertension, pre-menstrual syndrome, and, very rarely, tumours or meningitis. The vast majority are due to muscle tension or migraine. A 28-year study found that 90% of patients complaining of head pain had either migraine or tension headaches or a combination of the two.

The pain sensitive structures of the head are the scalp, arteries, muscles, and mucous membranes of the sinuses, external and middle ear and the teeth. Interestingly the brain itself has little or no sensitivity to pain.

How can Ballam Park Osteopathy help?

Osteopaths are well placed to help the patient suffering from head pain. Increased tensions in the musculo-skeletal system can be both a symptom and a cause of headaches.

Peter is able to treat using cranial osteopathy which is particularly effective in relieving headaches and migraines.

Tense muscles are known to release chemicals that can be triggers for headaches and those of the head and neck are particularly implicated. The main nerves of the head responsible for pain are themselves closely related to the nerves that originate between the vertebrae of the neck.

Persistent tightness of the muscles of the neck will ultimately lead to compression of the joints of the neck, and so to dysfunction or increased degeneration and so pressure on these nerves.

Osteopaths are able to identify the areas of dysfunction and treat that area. Such treatment may consist of massage to the muscles of the neck and upper spine or of gentle manipulation of the joints. The aim is to stretch the muscles and supporting ligaments of the neck, to relax muscle spasm and ensure free movement that will allow better drainage through the blood vessels. In this way many headache sufferers find their pain is helped and often completely relieved.

Call (03) 9789 9946 to make an appointment now.