Is there a Natural Solution to Recurring Tension Headaches?

I sense that many of you reading this will have experienced ongoing headaches.

Sometimes you are able to discover a ‘trigger’. A way to explain to yourself why you are suffering.

o   Lack of sleep.

o   Had too much alcohol.

o   Slept in a weird position.

o   Used the wrong pillow.

o   Ate too much chocolate.

o   Spent too much time crouched over your laptop.

o   Noise, bright lights, too hot, too cold ………………the list goes on.

How common are tension headaches?

Tension headaches are the most common primary headache type. It’s estimated that 70% of people have tension headaches. Females are more likely to get them, in fact affect 50% more women than men.

Not another pain condition where women are the leaders!

Different types of tension headaches

1.     Infrequent headaches happen one day a month or fewer.

2.     Frequent headaches you have 1 to 14 headaches every month for at least three months.

3.     Chronic headaches you have more than 15 headaches every month for three months.

Which are you?

Luckily, I’m in or was for many years number two. It’s hard to image how life would be affected by a headache at least every other day. Though these figures omit the severity, from ‘slight pain’ to ‘I cannot move my head’.

What causes tension headaches?

Researchers are still seeking a single cause for tension headaches. We will often blame tightened muscles around our head or neck. Some believe tension headaches start when muscles between your head and neck tighten up, eventually titling your skull.

I remember years ago a physiotherapist friend told me to push my chin in towards my throat – obviously to stretch those tight muscles.

Do these tightened muscles happen because you're stressed or dealing with emotional conflict?

Could a recurring tension headache be caused by physical conditions such as muscle strain and poor posture?

One of the reasons that I've created this blog is because of the implications of living with tension headaches. Chronic tension headaches that last for weeks and months will certainly affect your quality of life. For example, a chronic tension headache may make it hard for you to focus on your work or family responsibilities because you're always dealing with pain.

How I learnt about rebound headaches

One of the solutions we use are medications, unfortunately they may actually cause headaches. These are called rebound headaches and are one common potential side effect of regularly taking over the counter or prescription pain relievers for tension headaches.

Rebound headaches or medication overuse headaches are headaches that can happen if you take medications too often. Health care providers recommend limiting pain relief use to 10 days in any given month.

This sounds challenging. Certainly, at times I’ve considerably exceeded this!

I remember an online webinar by the New Zealand pain society about migraines where pain specialist John Alchin explained rebound headaches due to over-the-counter medications. I listened, I realised that was me!

Unfortunately, his solution to this problem was to stop or certainly reduce the medications with the warning that I’d have to endure withdrawal symptoms – yep headaches, suffering through them without taking medication.

My experience of tension headaches

I know quite a bit about headaches. I've had headaches since a child that also could cause nausea. I also remember as a young adult headaches were one of the negative impacts of having too much fun at a party or sometimes maybe too many glasses of wine with my dinner.

Again, for most of my life my solution to recurring tension headaches has been aspirins and in the more recent decades ibuprofen. Always in my handbag or a necessary item to put in my suitcase when going on holiday.

It is generally accepted that children may grow out of headaches. And to some extent this was true for me. Though in hindsight I now remember that I would get many more headaches during term time than in the holidays. School was a place to avoid. I preferred to stay at home on the farm spending time with animals rather than a class full of children.

Are headaches a neuroplastic symptom?

With my present knowledge and training in neuroplastic symptoms I think that my “in term” time headaches, generally in the morning were due to the stress or the emotional reaction of going to school. Although perhaps there is also a genetic element, as my elder brother had much more severe headaches even into early adulthood.

As an adult there were times, I would be having headaches most days and at the time, I thought or knew they would be “cured” by taking ibuprofen tablets.

Again, in hindsight there must have been a very strong placebo element to curing my headache. To such an extent that my headache will be gone within 5 minutes! But if there was no medication available the headache would stay all day.

Apparently, the rebound headaches mentioned above are apparently quite common. This leads me to question whether my use of over-the-counter pain medication prolonged my suffering with tension headaches.

My tension headache could be at the top around my head like a brim of a hat or occipital headache and down towards the back of my head. Occasionally I’d get sinus headaches too.

Even today it's generally accepted that tension headaches have no known cause. Is it time to consider the action of the brain – as we now know the pain, we feel in our head is created by our brain?

The pain of my headache is not actually in my head but it's my brain telling me it's in my head – weird!

Does my laptop cause my pain?

Is my enduring sensitivity to pain in my head and neck a memory or a neural network that is too easy to switch on. After switching from using my desktop computer to a laptop for over a year I would regularly have occipital headaches (back of my head). I justified leaning over and looking down at my laptop creates muscle tension resulting in more than ten ibuprofen days in a month!

Recently I bought a stand for my laptop and miraculously I have a noticeable decline in my tension headaches because of changed posture.

Now if you were reading this article to get more clarity about your own headaches I feel as if I'm not helping you very much.

Can neuroplasticity be a solution to recurring tension headaches?

As I’m a neuroplastic practitioner in addition to being a naturopath it’s time to add hope to those in category three – headaches at least every other day.

I thought I'd do some research on mind body medicine and headaches. I consulted my Diagnostic Guide for Psychophysiological Disorders by Clarke, Schechter, and Schubiner.

In their definition headaches can be divided into either primary or secondary headache.

A secondary headache means that there is a specific cause for the pain such as a brain tumour, an infection, inflammatory condition, or perhaps dental problems. These can be treated medically as they are effectively causing the pain. If the conditions are rectified, then the secondary headache will not occur.

However primary headaches have no identifiable cause unlike the above secondary causes. Therefore, I suggest for chronic or persistent headaches that are affecting your life, your work, or your relationships it is worth considering neuroplasticity as a cause.

Primary headaches are likely to be neuroplastic symptoms. We need to look at the neural networks and the possibility that headaches are a way of the brain trying to communicate with us via its alarm system – creating pain.

So, if we look back, when I described a nervous little girl not wanting to go to school this emotional fear could certainly be the cause, the instigator of the many headaches I had as a child. Somewhat of a clincher that this was a neuroplastic symptom is I had much fewer headaches during the holidays.

Let's investigate solutions to your recurring tension headache.

Some questions to ask yourself.

o   Is your headache always in the same place?

o   Or is it sometimes frontal headache, or sinus headache, or back of head headache?

o   If you have a headache, then go out for a walk or perhaps meet a friend and have a laugh, do you come home without the headache, and it stays away?

o   Alternatively, if you are stressed and worried like the frightened little girl who didn't want to go to school does the headache get worse?

If you answered yes to some or even all of those it is worth considering seeing a neuroplastic practitioner there are now a number in New Zealand and Australia. If not available face to face, then online.

If your answers to the above were a little bit mixed here is another suggestion – let’s investigate!

1. What was happening in your life?

2. Think of when you have headaches or periods in your life when you previously suffered with recurring headaches.

3. Ask yourself what was happening at that time?

4. Were there any major changes in your life.

5. Maybe at your workplace, maybe more on the home front.

Check out ages where you can remember having headaches or other types of pain. When you remember them interfering with your life.

What was happening in your life that had been interfering with your happiness, your health, or your wellness.

Perhaps pain interfered with your relationships, or any trauma that you experienced or friends or family experienced.

It may be worth discussing with people who know you to see if there are occasions that they remember.

I call this discovering your pain story. It is something that I ask my clients to explore where we first meet.

The reason for this is that life events, past life events can be the cause of our headaches. When something small occurs today in our life it may cause our brain to remember or recognize a similarity to a previous more significant life event. The difficulty can be we have no awareness of this previous event because it is locked away in our subconscious mind.

However, with the knowledge that there is a link, and there is an awakening of a neural network the first step to reducing or eliminating headaches is to recognize this is the brain sending you a message.

So, one thing you could do is reply to that brain message and say "I got you".

"Right, I know what you're trying to do and I'm not going to have a bar of it thank you very much."

Check out my Chonic Pain Support Program

Jean Jordan – Pain Coach & Naturopathic Medicine Practitioner.

The information on this website is for education purposes only and should not be used for diagnosis. Consult your local healthcare practitioner.

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After over 20 years of owning pain clinics, I started Natural Pain Solutions to reach more people, rather than one person at a time.  After studying Postgraduate Pain Management & Freedom from Chronic Pain with Howard Schubiner, I want to spread the word about holistic self-help techniques people can use at home.