Tag Archive for: migraine

Posture blood pressure causes headaches

Bad posture, Blood Pressure and Migraine headache connection?

Researchers at University of Leeds, UK, have found a direct neural connection between neck muscles and a part of the brain stem (called the nucleus tractus solitarius), which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure. (The Journal of Neuroscience)

This finding could explain why blood pressure and heart rate, sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured – through whiplash, for example. Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure.

Tense neck muscles also can be a cause of headaches and migraines.

If your neck muscles are tense, we urge you to address this:

1. Stretch regularly, observe your posture.
2. Get your partner to massage your shoulders frequently.
3. Acupuncture has long term effect relaxing neck muscles.
4. We can do a gentle manipulation to correct the posture and to prevent the muscles tensing up again.

Acupuncture helps chronic headaches. And in particular migraine.

Acupuncture and migraine: a new study from UK

According to a new study published in the British Medical Journal, Acupuncture helps to relieve the chronic headaches, migraine in particular. Such are the conclusions of a clinical study, carried out in England and in Wales.

The study aimed at evaluating if acupuncture could be effective, in the case of the headaches, to be integrated into the free care of the system of public health in England.

The researchers followed 401 patients suffering from chronic headaches, mainly from migraines for 12 months.

These patients had been divided in two groups: one received up to 12 treatments of acupuncture for three months, while the others were treated with a usual medication and were used as a reference group.

Researches measured the gravity of the headaches among patients after 3 and 12 months. They also evaluated, the need to take drugs or to consult a doctor.

After 12 months, the results showed that the headaches had decreased twice more in the group treated by acupuncture that in the group which received a medication (reduction of 34% against 16%).

The patients, who belonged to the group treated by acupuncture, counted on average 22 days fewer headaches per year. The acupuncture group had used less drugs, made less medical visits and taken less sick leave.

The researchers concluded that acupuncture produces beneficial and persisting effects among patients suffering from chronic headaches, especially from migraines.

My comment:

In my experience acupuncture combined with gentle mobilisation of neck muscles is the most effective way to treat migraines. Sometimes the researchers are so busy determining what exactly worked and how, that they stop seeing the bigger picture. And in the case of migraine, a combination of therapies is significantly more effective than either therapy on its own. It is important to relax the neck muscles and acupuncture alone is not as effective. There was another study on migraines, where they injected Botox into acupuncture points to relax the neck muscles and to stimulate the acupuncture points. The result was a long term relief. However, there are risks involved in using Botox, not to mention it is very expensive.

More about acupuncture, neck pain and headache here.

“My headaches would wake me several times a night” James Hardy

I was suffering from a severe headache that just wouldn’t go away. It felt as if it was moving around in my head, but would never stop. My headaches would wake me several times a night, and although pain killers would lighten the intensity, the headaches persisted.

Because of a lack of sleep, I felt extremely exhausted and depressed. It felt as if I was going mad. I couldn’t even have a normal conversation. This sudden, sharp pain in my head, would make me lose the train of thought.

I was desperate. I’ve consulted my regular GP several times to no avail. I’ve seen an osteopath several times as well. Osteopath seemed to help my neck problem, but it didn’t make a dent in the severe headaches. I was devastated, and no one could fix my headaches. My wife suggested that I see Vitalis, after witnessing a speedy recovery of a colleague at work.

After months of suffering, I am relieved from the headache. Its absolute bliss to have a good night’s rest. And this only after 3 sessions of acupuncture. Next time I won’t linger before consulting Vitalis, this experience was a real eye-opener.

I’d recommend Vitalis without hesitation to anyone suffering from headaches. Even if you are suffering from something else and haven’t yet tried acupuncture with Vitalis, my recommendation is pick up the phone and give him a ring now.

James Hardy, 42 yo