Throbbing pain. Vice-like pinching. Pressure. Tension. There are lots of ways to explain a headache and up to date research has shown headaches to be greater than only a mere annoyance. Headaches are, well, a significant headache for america where 157 million workdays – accounting for nearly $13 billion! – are lost every year as a consequence of missed work brought on by headaches. Fortunately, recent research has also shown that regular massage therapy may help ease the intensity, duration, and variety of tension-type headaches, a pain that 78 percent of American will experience of their lifetime.
The effectiveness of massage for stopping and lessening the pain brought on by headaches is another excuse why people should use massage to enhance their health and quality of life. But this research could develop into a Godsend for individuals who don’t just suffer from infrequent headaches, but, as a substitute, chronic tension-type headaches.
There are three kinds of tension-type headaches: episodic, a stress-induced headache that may be treated with over-the-counter medicines and frequently only occurs once a month, or less; frequent, which occurs 2 – 15 times a month and is often related to symptoms of migraine and might’t be effectively alleviated through medication; and chronic, where headaches occur greater than 15 times a month and might even be each day or continuous over many days. Researchers showed that massage was very helpful in alleviating the seemingly limitless pain of those affected by this last type, chronic tension-type headache.
While the precise reason behind these chronic, tension-type headaches has not been scientifically proven, researchers consider that chemical imbalances and muscles tightening within the scalp and neck are primary causes. Massage already has been proven to spice up the immune system, relieve stress, and loosen muscles, so it seems evident that massage would have the ability to alleviate these symptoms and thus reduce chronic headaches.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t until 2002, in an article published within the American Journal of Public Health, that researchers actually conducted a scientific study on the results of massage on chronic tension-type headaches. Those affected by the condition were first monitored for a four-week period to gauge the duration, strength, and frequency of their headaches. They were then treated with two, thirty-minute massages each week over the next 4 weeks. The massages focused on specific areas of the neck and head, and their headache symptoms were monitored during this era. The outcomes were staggering.
Patients who were experiencing headaches 5, 6, 7 times per week began to see the frequency of their headaches decrease to 2 and three times per week. The duration of the patients’ headaches, which had averaged 8 hours before massages were administered, fell to 4 hours. And while one patient experienced a rise in headache intensity within the period after massages got, the opposite participants within the study saw the intensity of their headaches decrease, some nearly 50 percent.
The researchers noted that more study is required with a view to increase the quantity of participants and strength of the outcomes, in addition to determine what effect stretching and rest techniques also used in the course of the study had on the improved conditions of the chronic headache victims.
Nonetheless, the outcomes of the study were dramatic, especially given the intense conditions that chronic tension-type headache victims can develop if their pain goes unrelieved. These conditions include: insomnia, depression, weight reduction, dizziness, nausea, and other emotional problems. Victims of chronic, tension-type headaches can even turn into hooked on painkillers and antidepressants. If the research from this study holds true, massage would offer them a drug-free alternative to cope with their pain.
President Barack Obama recently noted that acupuncture has been shown to alleviate chronic headaches and might be used as an alternative choice to more invasive, and dear, surgery/medication. He said he would let science guide him when it got here to deciding what types of therapy to incorporate in a national health care plan. If alternative forms, akin to acupuncture and massage, showed scientific, therapeutic results, he would pursue them. Currently thousands and thousands of Americans miss work and lose money as a consequence of chronic tension-type headaches; perhaps pursuing massage would get them the therapeutic result they’re little question in search of.
