Chronic Headaches and Neck Pain Can Ruin Your Day!
Actually, chronic headaches will do more than ruin your day, it can cause you to slow down so much that you stop doing all the sports you enjoy, and can have a serious impact on your career.
Yet, when the medical profession is searching for solutions to chronic headaches and neck pain, muscles are rarely considered. This is a major oversight. In fact, muscles cause a high percentage of chronic headaches, and almost all neck pains. The good news is, they are relatively simple to self-treat successfully!
First let’s take a look at your neck so it will be clear why muscles can cause chronic headaches.
Your cervical vertebrae start at the base of your skull. C1 is called “the Atlas” because it holds up your skull just as Atlas held up the world.
C2 has a bone in it that comes through the center of C1. The bone is called the “dens” and your skull sits on the point of it. It is because of this arrangement that you can turn your head left and right.
These two vertebrae are key to chronic headaches that are so severe they can be blinding.
Take a look at the muscle that is labeled “levator scapulae.” Nicknamed “the shrug muscle,” because it lifts up your shoulders, it originates on C1-4, although the greatest problem is with the C1-2 points. As your levator scapulae muscle gets tight, it pulls the two vertebrae to the side and down. This causes the bone to press into your spinal cord at the very base of your skull where it exits from your brain and begins its journey down to your toes.
The bone pressing into your spinal cord will cause horrific chronic headaches. And, as the muscle is also putting a strain on your shoulder, you will feel pain and tension right where your neck meets the top of your shoulder.
Chronic Headaches Caused by Poor Posture
Chronic headaches are also caused by a posture that is common lately because of looking down at our cell phones and computers.
Notice the graphics on the left, and then imagine the 42 lb head on the right not only putting a strain on the entire cervical spine, but since you are looking down, it is also having the heavy skull putting a twist onto the first two cervical vertebrae.
You can imagine what is happening to your spinal cord under these circumstances. The pressure is severe, and a chronic headache will result.
Chronic Headache Treatment That Works!
The following treatments and pictures are found in Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living. This book is in eBook and printed book formats and covers treatments from your head to your feet.
Lean your head back and grasp the muscle at the back of your neck.
This is easier to do when you have a headache as it will be thick and tight, but if you want to work at preventing a chronic headache, you’ll need to move your head around so the muscle will even be felt.
If you don’t have a headache, just take your flat fingertips and press directly into the muscle fiber. Hold the pressure for 30 seconds, let go, and then press again.
This Julstro self-treatment can be done whether you have a chronic headache or not. Just take the three middle fingers of your opposite hand (ie: treating the left side of your neck so use the three fingers on your right hand and press directly into your tight muscle.
Hold the pressure for 30 seconds and then just move 1-finger width down the muscle and start over again.
Go from the base of your skull all the way to the top of your shoulder. If you have a chronic headache the muscle will stand out and you’ll have no problem finding it.
Work on both sides of your neck, even if the chronic headache pain is only on one side of your head.
Stretch the muscles by holding the pressure on the muscle and then bringing your head down toward your chest.
Wishing you well,
