Headaches and Migraines are not being treated the right way. If you are relying on medication, supplements or “posture correction”, you aren’t going to get any Headache Relief.

This post outlines what is really behind 80-90% of headaches and gives you the self-treatment that helps or cures 80% of neck-related headaches and migraines!

Headaches have become a normal thing for people to have due to how common they are but don’t need to be. They are often put down as caused by dilated blood vessels, tight muscles at the base of the head, hormones etc. This often means the underlying cause is missed and the problem isn’t resolved long term. Head pain can be debilitating at times and at others just simply niggly and annoying but covering that up with pain medication won’t solve things long term.

Actually, a huge 97% of those affected by headaches and migraines, still don’t know the cause, even after scans and tests etc.

Luckily we may have the headache Relief you are after,

What causes Headache and Migraines

The good news is that there has been some great new research done over the last 10 years.

This research has found that the cause behind the majority of headaches and migraines is sensitization to the brainstem. A number of recent studies have determined that the one underlying common factor in tension-type headache and migraine sufferers is a sensitized trigemino-cervical nucleus – the lower part of your brainstem.

What causes this sensitization

Dysfunction in the upper part of your neck, specifically the upper three vertebrae is the first stage. This can be caused by a number of things, including stress, head posture, trauma or injury. This then causes pain signals to be sent to your brainstem over and over again, leading to the brainstem becoming more sensitized.

When the brainstem becomes sensitized, it is essentially hypersensitive and can handle less and less negative input before it becomes irritated, which manifests as pain felt in the head. Once your brainstem is sensitized, it is then easier for different stimuli to cause a headache, such as hormones, sustained posture, stress and poor nutrition (or even coffee and chocolate!).

How can headaches and migraines be cured

The Waston Headache Approach and some good recent studies have recognized a previously unrecognized underlying cause of headaches and migraines. These studies (1,2) show that:

• 90% of headache and migraine sufferers do have shortened muscles at the top of their neck (base of the skull) which act to create joint stiffness
• Most important: If a patients head pain can be reproduced through specific palpation on points over the top 3 vertebrae in the neck then the neck in most likely involved.
• If the head pain can then be eased or resolved with sustained treatment on that area, then that confirms the neck involvement.

Basically treatment that gives great headache relief and helps fix them for good eases the tension in the sub-occipital muscles AND helps desensitize the brainstem. The treatment is sustained pressure on the area that brings on your head pain – this done regularly over 4-6 weeks has awesome results.

The best Self-Treatment for Headache relief

Sustained pressure on the upper cervical vertrebrae is the answer to a lot of head pain and the great thing is – you can treat yourself!

Sustained pressure can be applied through a few different ways, but the easiest way to do yourself is to use a headache relief tool such as:

These tools are designed to apply sustained pressure on the upper 2-3 vertebrae and muscles overlying them. This improves mobility, releases tight muscle AND helps de-sensitize the brain-stem

Addressing the cause. Not just the symptoms

Lie on your back and place the headache relief tool at the very top of your neck (at the base of your skull). Adjust the position until you get a point where the pressure brings on your head pain.

Hold this position until the pain has eased, which typically takes 1-2 minutes.

You can then rest in that position for longer or move position slightly to find another spot.

Give it a go and immediate relief is often felt!

Note: A cheaper option for a self-treatment tool that still gives great relief is a Peanut

Headache Relief that doesn’t break the bank, is effective AND doesn’t need medication – How could you not give it a try?

Enjoy.

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