Do you suffer from chronic headaches or migraines?
Patients tell us their headaches feel like someone is drilling a hole right through their frontal cortex, or using a pickaxe to excavate the back of their skull. Some say the throbbing is so intense it feels like their head is going to explode.
It might be a painful band of tightening pressure that’s centered around the middle of your forehead.
It could be a cluster headache with pain around one eye.
It might be a migraine on one side of your head or sinus, temporal or occipital (in the back of the head) headache.
If you are unlucky, it could be a combination of all four.
Every headache is different.
For those lucky enough not to have experienced the pounding intensity and compounding frequency of chronic headaches and migraines, it’s hard to comprehend the disruption they cause.
If you’re a sufferer, you know only too well.
“Ignore it and get on with your day?”
Yeah, right.
That’s impossible.
It’s not an exaggeration to say they’re debilitating. Headaches affect everything from your appetite to your relationships. They ruin your social life, sex life, interfere with sleep, and prevent regular exercise. They can also lead to extreme anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
According to the CDC, “Migraines can be severely debilitating and are considered one of the main causes of disability worldwide.”
They’re no fun at all.
Putting up with monthly, weekly, or worse still, daily headaches is all-consuming. And if you’re someone who suffers from migraines, you’ll know that it isn’t just the head pain that makes your life a misery. It’s the nausea, dizziness, sometimes terrifying visual disturbances, and vampire-like aversion to lights too.
Socializing is painful in every sense of the word.
It’s hard to take an interest in what people say when your head feels like someone is continuously hammering nails into your head.
Work and concentration are absolutely out of the question too. And it feels never-ending. The only option is to lie horizontally in a blacked-out room for hours on end, sometimes even days, until the pain and other symptoms dissipate.
After a while, you start to think you might as well stay in the darkened room forever because the next headache is probably ready to attack again as soon as you step out. It’s hard not to feel hopeless.
This hopelessness is especially true when your MD is all out of suggestions too, other than more expensive medication with unpleasant side effects.
But what if we told you there is an alternative therapy that offers a fresh approach to treat headaches and migraines? A therapy that pinpoints the root cause and works deep inside the body’s muscles to alleviate the persistent pain of headaches and migraines.
It might sound like a wonder treatment and too good to be true – if you’ve struggled to find relief for a long time. But many patients permanently cure their chronic headaches with Myofascial Release Therapy and go on to live happy, pain-free lives. Still, not many people know about it – or how it differs from traditional physical therapy or sports massage.
In this blog, we remove the mystery and provide a clear and straightforward explanation of myofascial release and how it works to cure chronic headaches and migraines.
What is myofascial release therapy?
Myofascial release therapy is an alternative treatment that works deep down in the connective tissues of the body. The treatment works to remove restrictions and relax and rehydrate these tissues in the back, neck, shoulders, and jaw – all the areas most commonly associated with headaches.
But it doesn’t stop there.
The sites already mentioned are not the only culprits with headaches. Fascinatingly, the human body interconnects from foot to forehead, so – for you – it could be an old ankle injury that is responsible for your headaches.
We find and rectify the root cause.
But what is fascia?
Fascia, or myofascia, is the powerful and super-sensitive connective tissue that encircles muscles and bones all over your body. It keeps your skin on, the blood flowing, the head upright, and the spine mobile. Without it, we’d be individual organs, muscles, and bones – with nothing holding us together.
Usually, this tissue is highly flexible. However, for several reasons, including chronic stress, illness, inflammation, or injury, it becomes tight and rigid, causing pain in specific areas of the body, such as your head.
We call these areas “restrictions”.
These restrictions are often responsible for causing the conditions ripe for yet another debilitating headache. Many practitioners focus on the idea of trigger points but they are not the primary cause. Trigger points are more tertiary.
During a Myofascial Release Therapy session, practitioners use a unique combination of movements to release tension and stress from the tight and inflamed fascia wherever it exists in your body. These complex movements feel a bit like massage – although they’re entirely different, and work on a much deeper level than traditional massage therapy.
We release and rehydrate (and unstiffen) the myofascia to alleviate the tension causing your headaches. The therapy also promotes better circulation, improved oxygen flow, and increased function in the lymphatic system, helping relieve chronic headaches and improve your overall sense of well-being.
Instead of just temporarily relaxing as in the case of massage, Myofascial Release Therapy returns your tense, tight myofascial tissues to their original state.
Will myofascial release cure my headaches?
Let’s look at the evidence:
We know that stress and muscle tension are keenly felt in our backs, frequently resulting in headaches or migraines. This feeling of pressure in our backs is muscle tension along our spine, involving our back, shoulders, neck, and head – hence the meaning of a tension headache. Myofascial Release Therapy works to reduce this tension and prevents further headaches.
The term Myofascial pain refers to chronic pain. This pain frequently connects to parts of the body involved in posture – such as the back and pelvis.
Some people may feel this myofascial pain or myofascial pain syndrome as pelvic pain, others as headaches. But the causes of headaches and more generalized myofascial pain and myofascial pain syndrome tend to be similar – such as stress and muscle tension, poor posture, accident, illness, or injury.
Of course, stress and poor posture are not the only causes of headaches. Recurring headaches can be a warning of something more serious. It is imperative you seek medical assistance first if you experience a problem with headaches.
Once you’ve ruled out more serious causes, Myofascial Release Therapy is incredibly successful in treating headaches and migraines that appear to have no apparent reason.
This form of hands-on therapy gets blood and oxygen to flow more freely throughout the body, which has numerous benefits and healing powers, specifically in headaches and migraines.
Myofascial Release Therapy isn’t a new procedure or way of treatment. The concept has been around for a while but there is a lack of published studies from mainstream western medicine. Scientific research on the benefits of Myofascial Release is therefore limited.
As such, common knowledge on the subject remains incredibly low. The therapy itself uniquely focuses on releasing tension and removing restrictions that cause internal jarring of the muscles and result in painful movement and chronic discomfort.
Is Myofascial Release Therapy Right For me?
“We Help People Slowed Down or Stopped By Headaches or Migraines Reclaim a Body That Feels Good and Moves Well… So They Can Live a Life of Joy”
If you’re thinking about myofascial release therapy as a treatment for your headache, you’re likely not in an emergency state and have likely exhausted other avenues, and you’re still suffering from headaches.
In that case, we’d say a resounding, 100% yes that Myofascial Release Therapy is right for you. We’re confident we can make a big difference in your quality of life.
However, we appreciate that you’ve probably tried numerous treatments and are hesitant about committing to further treatment. If that sounds like you, don’t worry. We offer all new patients a complimentary call to discuss their headaches and how myofascial release therapy can help.
This call is with one of our trained myofascial release therapy specialists, so you can ask all the questions you need to before booking an actual session.
If you prefer, you can choose to book a 30-minute Discovery Session at our Salt Lake City clinic instead of chatting to us on the telephone. This option allows you to view our facilities and talk to one of our therapists face to face. Just choose the option that works best for you. We’re always happy to accommodate.
For immediate relief from chronic headaches or migraines, download your free Headaches Guide written by myself.
“First Aid for Headaches and Migraines” is your guide to unclenching and easing the immediate crisis. It’s full of helpful tips on how to ease the pain and start getting your life back on track.
Like the sound of how we can help you? Get in touch with us through our contact page. We look forward to hearing from you, and welcoming you into the Myofascial Release Therapy way of life.
Michael Sudbury LMT
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