Migraine Headaches

Headaches-and-Massage

Migraine Headaches

Migraine Headache - Massage Paso RoblesMigraine headaches plague more people than one might imagine… certainly more than I imagined before I got into this field.

Some of my clients have found that a regular massage (every two weeks or every month) helps to stave off most of their migraines. I have other clients who come to me because they know their bodies and they can feel a migraine coming on. A good head and neck massage can often stave off an oncoming migraine for them.

Though I have never suffered from regular headaches, over the last six to nine months, I have had strange vibrating spells inside my head. That’s the best way I can describe them. After being checked by an opthalmologist (because it affected my eyesight), a neurologist (of course I thought I might have a brain tumor…) and then getting a CT scan, I came up empty-handed. Everyone said I was just fine and saw no evidence of anything wrong.

Finally, after months of living with this and finding it occurring more and more often, I went to my general practitioner. He himself has suffered all his life from migraines. He told me that migraines do not always feel like pain. Anything from flashing lights to vibrating to neck pain can all indicate an activation of the migraine system in the body. He directed me to a book called Heal Your Headache by Dr. David Buchholz. Dr. Buchholz has spent his entire career working with headache patients at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, researching the causes of headaches.

What he has found is fascinating and frankly, just makes sense. First of all, he explains the migraine system in the body and how it works. Then he goes on to show you how to avoid the things that trigger that system. One of the most important triggers is what you ingest into your body… what you eat and drink. And he says that his research has found that caffeine is one of the worst triggers. Ironic, of course, because many pain medications that you might take for a headache CONTAIN caffeine.

There is more to it, of course, than I can describe here. If you are interested, I suggest you get Heal Your Headache.

For me, I cut the two cups of coffee that I was drinking daily down to a quarter cup. And I have not had chocolate in a few weeks. Within days of cutting my caffeine consumption, my strange brain vibrations disappeared and have not (so far) returned.  I do not miss that coffee or chocolate nearly as much as I appreciate not having that brain vibration!!

I became a massage therapist because I want to help people feel better. If you need some relief from pain, stress, anxiety or depression, come get a massage. If everyone in the world got a regular massage, the world would be a much better place!

ABOUT AUTHOR

Ellen Fields is a California girl with one foot in Yucatan, Mexico. She is a massage therapist with a software/web/marketing background, a writer, artist, photographer and eminently distractable. About the only time she concentrates on one thing is when she is giving you a great massage...

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