If you’re one of the 47% of the global population who experiences regular headaches, you’ll know they’re no laughing matter. For some people, they’re just a minor inconvenience, for others they can be utterly debilitating, condemning you to a dark, quiet room for hours, and sometimes even days.
Massage has been shown to reduce stress and promote relaxation. It can activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers your heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones during a massage.
You can also simultaneously suffer one, two or more types of headache or a migraine at the same time, where one may cause another, or overlap with each other.
The most commonly diagnosed headaches are:
* Migraines (12%)
* Tension headache (75%)
* Cervicogenic headache (originating from the neck) (18%)
* Sinus headaches
If you only suffer from the occasional headache, this is often caused by lifestyle factors such as:
* Dehydration
* Stress
* Alcohol
* Caffeine
* Some foods
* Skipped meals
* Lack of sleep
* Posture
* Muscular tension
* Medications
* High blood pressure
* Infection
* Hormonal influences
However, if you suffer from headaches more regularly, there is some good news, because two of the most common headaches, tension-type headaches and cervicogenic headaches (which originate from musculoskeletal issues in and around the neck) can be significantly improved, and even cured by massage and physical therapy, both in the short term, as well as the long term.
Whether the root of the problem is hereditary, environmental or due to lifestyle factors, your clients with headache pain are looking for one thing—relief. And massage therapists are in a great position to help. Research suggests that even a short massage session of 30 minutes can improve headache pain.
Massage therapists use a variety of techniques to manipulate your muscles and soft tissues. It’s not uncommon to walk out after a session with slightly tender muscles, especially after deep tissue massage.
Deep Tissue Massage uses firm pressure accompanied with slow strokes to massage deeper muscle layers, deep-tissue massage can relax strained muscles that may be the root cause of headache pain.
