Tension headaches affect up to 78 percent of the population, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. They are rarely serious, but can become chronic. They can be caused by a variety of factors, including stress, overwork, sleeping in an awkward position or sitting in one position for a long time as well as head or neck injury.
Symptoms
Tension headache pain starts at the base of your skull and the back of your neck. It moves over your head to affect your scalp and forehead. It feels like a band around the head. The scalp has a layer of connective tissue under the skin, but not much muscle. In the back the scalp is pulled down by the occipitalis muscle. In the front, it is anchored by the frontalis muscle in your forehead. When those muscles are too tight, often due to stress, they pull the scalp tightly against your skull, causing pain.
Reflexology
Reflexology is hand and foot massage. It is based on the belief that massage on specific areas of the foot or hand can affect other parts of the body in a positive way. Although there is no evidence that reflexology can cure any disease, there is evidence that reflexology can help people with chronic pain, according to two articles in "Oncology Nursing Forum." Both articles report that reflexology massage produced significant improvement in pain and anxiety in patients suffering from cancer. A study published in "Professioni Infermieristiche" in 2000 said that 63 percent of a group of patients with lumbar-sacral disc hernia reported a reduction in pain following three sessions of Reflexology massage.
Technique
Reflexologists massage the toes, especially the big toes, to treat headaches, mainly using their thumbs. Starting at the side of your big toe, press in the tip of your thumb, then rock your thumb tip back and forth in short little movements. Move to another spot and press in and rock with your thumb tip again. Walk your thumb along the outline of your big toe, up the side, across the top and down the other side, in half-inch steps. Rock your thumb tip at each spot. When you find a particularly sore spot, stay there, rubbing gently, until the pain goes away. Repeat this on each toe.
Procedure
After marching with your thumb tip along the outline of your toes, press your foot between each pair of toes. Put your thumb on the nail of your big toe and your index finger tip on the bottom of the toe, as if pinching your toe.Use your index finger to press into the ball of the toe, looking for tender spots. Repeat on each toe. Massage the "neck" of each toe, using the tip of the thumb and marching in tiny steps around the toe.
Finishing
If the toes represent your head and neck, the ball of your foot near the toes represents the shoulders. Muscle tension in your shoulders can contribute to tension headache. Use your thumb to massage the ball of your foot, along the bottom of the toes. Rub in circles and work your way from one side of your foot to the other. When you find sore areas, spend time massaging those areas until the soreness recedes.
Consideration
Alert your doctor to any change in the pattern of your headache due to the possibility of complications that cannot be treated with massage. For instance, if the location, intensity or duration of the headache changes significantly, let your doctor know.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Tension Headache
- MassageTherapy.com; Holding Headaches at Bay; Cathy Ulrich
- MassageTherapy.com; Reflexology and Headaches; Paula S. Stone; July/August 2011
- "Annals of the Indian Academy of Neurology"; An Interesting Case of Headache; V. R. Dangra, et al.; April 2011
- "Reflexology: A Practical Approach"; Vicki Pitman and Kay MacKenzie; 2002
- "Oncology Nursing Forum"; The Effects of Foot Reflexology on Anxiety and Pain in Patients with Breast and Lung Cancer; N. L. Stephenson, et al.; January/February 2000
