3 Natural Ways To Relieve Chronic Headaches

As an athlete, one of the last things I expected was to develop arthritis. However, I did. To me, arthritis meant I had to slow down, get a cane, and keep my legs elevated at all times. My doctor helped me to understand that I could continue living my life with some simple modifications to my daily routine. I did not have to give up sports. I created this blog to help other athletes who have been newly diagnosed with arthritis. With proper nutrition and the right lifestyle changes, you do not have to give up the sports you love.

3 Natural Ways To Relieve Chronic Headaches

30 January 2015
 Categories: , Articles


According to Everyday Health, approximately 45 million Americans suffer from chronic headaches on a daily basis. If you have this problem and are tired of taking medication to treat the pain, you could look into alternative options. Here are three natural ways you can treat headaches, and a combination of all of these methods may bring you relief without having the side-effects of medication.

Posture

The first thing you may need to work on is your posture. Your posture may be a contributing factor to your headaches and learning better habits with your posture is a good place to start if you want to find relief.

Poor posture can lead to headaches because it causes you to use muscles in ways they are not designed, which places extra stress on them. If you continuously have poor posture, you will have a harder time breaking these habits and you may never get rid of your headaches. This includes posture when you sit, stand, or sleep.

To improve your posture, you can:

  • Try standing and sitting straight
  • Begin exercising to loosen your muscles
  • Design your workspace in a way that is ergonomically-friendly

In addition to finding ways to break bad posture habits, you could also get natural services that can help tremendously with headache pain.

Chiropractic Services

The first type of service to look into is chiropractic services. A chiropractor manipulates the spine by performing an adjustment. While this can be slightly scary the first time, you will get used to it after a while.

A chiropractic adjustment is designed to fix the subluxation that naturally forms with the muscles in your back and neck. Subluxation occurs when the tiny gaps between the vertebrae begin disappearing. These gaps are like cushions and are very important for living a pain-free life. When subluxation begins to form, it can pinch the nerves in your back and neck, and it can cause muscles in these areas to tighten. These factors often lead to headaches. Poor posture can cause subluxation, but this is also something that can happen from accidents, falls, and other types of injuries.

Visiting a chiropractor weekly may be necessary at first, but you can often reduce the visits to monthly once you begin experiencing relief from your headache pain. Chiropractic services can help with almost all types of headaches, including migraines. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, studies indicate that 49% of migraine sufferers found significant relief from their headaches by using chiropractic services. For more information, contact a clinic like Chiropractor Plus.

Massage Therapy

Finally, you could look into massage therapy for your headaches. Massage therapy is available in many forms, but you should try to aim for massages that target your upper back, neck, and back of head. If you tell your massage therapist that you have chronic headaches, he or she will know which muscles to focus on during the massages.

Most massage therapists will focus on working the suboccipitals, which are muscles found in the neck. These muscles are often the cause of tension headaches, and your massage therapist could teach you some techniques that you could perform yourself to help relieve the pain.  In addition to focusing on these muscles, the therapist may also massage muscles in your jaw. This too can often help diminish the pain caused by tension headaches.

Massage therapy helps by loosening tight muscles, stimulating blood flow to these muscles, and eliminating toxins from the body.

If you are ready to find natural relief, begin by working on posture. You can also make an appointment with a chiropractor to learn ways to improve your posture and to get an adjustment and massage therapy.

About Me
Tips for Athletes With Arthritis

As an athlete, one of the last things I expected was to develop arthritis. However, I did. To me, arthritis meant I had to slow down, get a cane, and keep my legs elevated at all times. My doctor helped me to understand that I could continue living my life with some simple modifications to my daily routine. I did not have to give up sports. I created this blog to help other athletes who have been newly diagnosed with arthritis. With proper nutrition and the right lifestyle changes, you do not have to give up the sports you love.

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