Whether you suffer from chronic headaches, or are simply faced with a particularly bad one, consider turning to your RMT for relief.
Types of Headaches and How Massage Therapy Can Help
Headaches can develop for any number of reasons: injury, fatigue, anxiety, stress, and illness are just a few. When people have headaches, they have a tendency to take over the counter medications and try to ride it out. A registered massage therapist can help you skip the pills and relieve your symptoms in a calm and inviting environment, helping to dissolve that headache away and get you ready to face your day.
Depending on the reason for your headache, your therapist will choose techniques tailored to your unique situation, to make sure you get the most out of your session.
- Sinus headaches have many causes, but generally speaking they are a result of congestion, blockage or infection. It’s important to see your family doctor to get to the root of your problem, but adding in a massage can help symptomatically, alleviate pain and help you to relax.
- Tension headaches can be tricky to manage. Most people get them from time to time as a result of the regular stresses of day to day life and work. For some, tension headaches can be a frequent occurrence and can last for days or even weeks on end. The benefit of massage therapy for these patients is that they can get a reprieve from their pain and hopefully reduce severity of symptoms as well, without taking more medication than necessary.
- Migraine headaches are often hereditary, and they are one of the greatest challenges when it comes to managing headache pain. They often do not respond to pain medications, and can be completely debilitating. Frequent migraine sufferers can benefit from massage therapy for pain relief, easing tension that has built up throughout their episode and helping to alleviate the anxiety that often goes hand in hand with migraine.
Medication Rebound
People who are frequently saddled with headaches are often in danger of over medicating and ending up with a rebound headache. Chronic Tension Headache and Migraine patients are often told to take their pain meds at the first sign of a headache, but they are also reminded not to take too much medication or to rely on it too heavily. Once your body gets used to that dose of pain reliever, it gives you a brand new headache to remind you to take it again and again. For those patients who need to rely on medication to manage their pain, it’s important to find alternative methods, like massage therapy, to help find relief.
Regular massage therapy for chronic tension or migraine sufferers
If you are an individual coping with chronic tension headaches or frequent migraines, you probably already have a protocol of vitamins, minerals and pain medications to help you manage your pain. Introducing regular massage therapy into your routine is a great way to reduce tension and help to give you relief. Regular massage may help to reduce the number of headaches you experience, and their severity.
Chronic pain can relate to depression and anxiety which may further exacerbate the problem and lead to uncomfortable levels of tension in your upper back, neck and shoulder areas. What started out as a headache might now feel like pain has spread everywhere. A professional massage can help manage those symptoms at the time and provide some relief, but we find that those with more serious headaches benefit from preventative or management therapies to help reduce intensity and duration of symptoms. Speak to your RMT about what program is best for you for treatment and prevention of your headaches.
If you are struggling with headache pain, struggle no more. Our professional RMT’s are here to help.