How to Use Acupressure to Get Rid of Chronic Tension Headaches


by Paul Bacho - Date: 2006-12-12 - Word Count: 512 Share This!

If your headaches don't happen every day, or if your neck only tightens up at work, you may get relief from a technique called acupressure. It's sort of like acupuncture, but there are no needles involved and you don't need to know specific anatomical points. What you're going to do is stimulate muscle "trigger points." A trigger point is an area where you have or have had pain. If you stimulate that area, you'll cause more pain.

Yes, I know that sounds counterproductive, but bear with me; it'll make sense to you shortly.

First, you need to find a trigger point to stimulate. That's easy. Take your hand and run it over the muscles in the back of your neck and down the base of your neck to your shoulders. They're probably tight, so you may have to push into the muscles a little bit. Besides being sore and tight, you'll feel little lumps or knots. If you push these knots...WOW!

Sore, huh? That sore knot is a trigger point. Now comes the fun part. Using the tip of a finger - the one that's going to reach the trigger point and provide you with the most leverage - roll over the trigger point until you find the tip. Push your finger in as hard you can, right through to the trigger point. Yes, it's going to hurt - in fact, it's going to be extremely painful.

Nevertheless, I want you to continue pushing until:

you can't stand the pain, or you feel the trigger point "pop," or dissolve (you won't actually hear it pop, but you will feel a little explosion in your muscle) How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches

A tingling sensation may spread out from the trigger point. That's normal. Once the pain subsides, your headache will most likely either significantly decrease in intensity or disappear. If you have more than one knot, or trigger point (as is likely), you'll need to stimulate each one.

Sometimes, because of the position of the trigger points, you won't be able to get a good angle on them with your finger. This will prevent you from being able to apply enough force to dissolve them. If that happens, you need to enlist the help of a good, trustworthy friend, or your spouse/significant other.

When using acupressure on yourself to dissolve trigger points, don't worry about hurting yourself or, if someone's using acupressure on you, someone hurting you. The worst thing that can happen is you won't be able to "pop" the trigger point. In that case, wait until the area of the trigger point calms down, then repeat the procedure. While it doesn't work 100 percent of the time, I've gotten great results most of the times that I've used this technique on my patients.

If you suffer from daily tension headaches and are starting to have other, more serious symptoms - like tingling in your arms or weakness in your hands - acupressure isn't going to be very effective because you have too much spasm over too wide an area. Fortunately, there's a second technique for permanently getting rid of these spasms.


Related Tags: headaches, headache, tension headaches, chronic tension headaches, get rid of tension headaches

Paul Bacho is a certified athletic trainer in Cleveland, Ohio with over 28 years treating patients with chronic pain.

He's also co-author of "How to Get Permanent Relief From Chronic Tension Headaches," a holistic program that he's used to help hundreds of people get rid of tension headaches.

To get three free chapters of his program, go to http://www.tensionheadaches.org

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