Tension Headaches
Tension Headaches
Tension headaches are usually one of two types. In one, the pain circles the head like a hatband.
In the second, it comes from the back of the head up over the top and toward the eyes.
Both types may be associated with a pounding or throbbing sensation – more often, the hatband type. As the name implies, tension headaches are typically caused by emotional stress, which can result from an event as incidental as arriving late to work, getting stuck in traffic or getting angry with a family member.
This stress very often results in tight muscles in the neck and/or across the shoulders and upper back — the most common places to find emotionally-caused muscle tension. Now, if the tight muscles were attached to perfectly-positioned vertebral bones and perfectly-moving joints, you would simply have tight muscles. If, however, some of the vertebrae are out of position, the joints between them are also restricted in motion and the muscle tension has more of a negative effect on the spine.
If this abnormality results in a subluxation (a chiropractic term defined below), it puts uneven pressure on one of the spinal nerves. This causes the spinal nerves on one side to be either hyper- or hypo- active, while the other side may be normal. Now, given the increased muscle tension affecting this less-than-perfectly functioning spine and spinal nerve root complex, the affected joint is going to have more pull from the muscles on one side than from the muscles on the other side; worsening the subluxation. The two areas of the cervical spine typically associated with tension headaches are the upper cervical region and the mid-to-lower cervical region. If you or anyone you know suffers from tension headaches, chiropractic is a safe, effective and cost-effective method of treating this problem.
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