Headaches are one of the conditions that could be suffered by anyone and cause could be serious or not. However, frequent headache is not only annoying but could be a warning of certain conditions that required further checkup. The treatment of headache is based on the causes and massage is one of the solutions to treat headache. Before you find out more about the benefits of massage for tension headaches, finding out more about symptoms, causes and types of headaches may help you understand more about this condition.
Symptoms, Causes and Types of Headaches
Generally headaches are just condition when people feel uncomfortable throbbing pain in their head or neck area. However, do you really know what the main cause of headache is? Based on the causes there are two types of headaches:
- Primary Headache
Primary headache is not dangerous because it occurs not caused by others health or structural problems. Migraine and tension headache are two examples of primary headache. The causes of primary headache are such as insomnia, stress, work pressure, dehydration and others things that related to daily problem. Once you could deal with the problem, the pain will be eased up naturally.
- Secondary Headache
Unlike primary headache, secondary headache may occur caused by underlying diseases. In other words, the headache may be the symptom of certain dangerous health condition such as head injury, infection, brain bleed and even tumor.
As mentioned above, tension headache is included in primary headache and one of the ways you could do to deal with this condition is massage. Most people may depend on the use of pain killer for their tension headache but if you know the benefits of massage for tension headaches you don’t need pain killer anymore.
Benefits of Massage for Tension Headaches
One of the benefits full body massage is to release muscle tension and pain commonly applied through fingers and hands, though there are some techniques that are using elbow, feet and specific massage device. In the matter or dealing with tension headaches, studies have found out about some amazing benefits of massage to help relieving the throbbing pain caused by headaches.
- Help Maintaining the Level of Relaxation
Massage has been claimed to be effective solution in maintaining relaxation. Tensed body and muscles may lead to headaches. That’s why taking massage regularly may help maintaining the level of relaxation in your body and as the result you could prevent tension headaches and migraine attack. So, instead of taking pain killer is better to spend some time to have your body massaged. Further studies also stated the possibility of massage in order reducing the symptoms of depression.
- Could Acts as Stress Relief
There are a lot of factors that could cause stress. Workload pressure, personal matter, unsupportive environment are just some examples of conditions that cause stress. However, stress is not only in your head but could be suffered by your body as well. When your body and mind could no longer able to deal with the stressful situation, condition like headache may occur. Massage will help releasing the tension and at the same time healing the headache and relieving the stress.
- Solution to Tensed Muscles
Most people may not know that headaches could be caused by tensed muscles or muscle spasm as well. When your muscles are tensed, your body will suffer stressful condition without you realize it. However, when your body is under pressure, headache is likely to occur. So, instead of taking pain killer to treat the headache is highly recommended for you to do massage and release the tension in the muscles. When your muscles are relaxed, headache will leave you naturally.
- Promotes Better Sleep Pattern
Among the causes of insomnia, stress and tensed muscles are the common causes. Insomnia is one of the conditions that could lead to headaches. If that happens will be difficult for you to concentrate and focus in the morning. There are a lot of health benefits of deep sleep but when you lose the chance to have a good night sleep, your mood will be in danger and you may lose your appetite. Massage has been well known to be the best solution that promotes better sleep pattern. So, if you have insomnia problem, it is probably the main reason why you have frequent headaches. Instead of taking pain killer as short term solution, massage is safer, healthier long term solution.
- Increases Serotonin Level
Some studies have stated that massage could help stimulating the production of certain hormones and one of them is serotonin. Serotonin is responsible in regulating your mood, appetite and sleep pattern. When serotonin in your body is in low level, stress is the first symptom that you will face before uncomfortable throbbing in your head well known as headaches.
- Help in Regulating Mood
As mentioned above, one of the natural ways to regulate your mood is by making sure the serotonin level in your body is in safe level. Massage is one of the solutions to help maintaining the serotonin level to help regulating your mood always in check. The using of aromatherapy could optimize the process because one of the health benefits of lavender oil is to improve mood.
- Improves Appetite
There are a lot of factors that could cause someone losing appetite. Losing appetite is mostly temporarily but if it is becoming a frequent problem, perhaps you should find the solution right away. When you lose your appetite, your body will lose some essential nutrients for metabolism. Unhealthy metabolism could lead to certain conditions like headache which is the indication when your body is suffering from certain nutrients deficiencies.
- Optimizes the Blood Flow
Massage is a technique that has been used to relieve the muscle tension and in the process also helping in optimizing the blood flow. When blood cannot flow normally, headache is the symptom that may occur because the head area is not getting enough oxygen because one of the benefits of oxygen is contributing optimal function of cognitive and brain function. In other words, when blood is flow optimally, condition like headache could be prevented.
- Reduces the Medication Usage
The easiest solution to deal with headache is by taking pain killers. However, medication or drug is not without side effect. That’s why finding natural alternative solution is highly recommended. As mentioned above, massage could help preventing headache and also treating headache by dealing with the root of the problem. In other words, there is no point anymore for you to take pain killers to treat headaches if you could do massage.
Massage is one of the alternative solutions to help dealing with headaches. However, there is one important thing you should note when relying your headache problem using massage technique, if the headache continues, becomes worse or turns into frequent headaches, meeting your doctor is highly recommended because there is always possibility that the headache is a symptom of underlying conditions which required immediate treatment.