Waking Up With Head Pain? What Causes Morning Headaches?

Do most of your headaches occur during the night, or as soon as you start to get out of bed? Then it's possible that sleeping positions and movements that strain your neck are responsible for your head pain.

It always amazes me that we can hurt ourselves even in our sleep, but we do.

Sometimes it's a matter of sleeping with your head tilted (Your chin is tilted toward or away from the bed. Your neck is not in line with your spine.)

Check your neck position before you fall asleep. You may need a different pillow, or even a pile of small, flat pillows stacked to fit you better.

If you're a back sleeper, just use a small roll behind your neck to fill in the natural curve of your neck. Use as little as possible behind your head.

If you sleep on your tummy, that can cause a lot of strain for your neck muscles.

Some people tell me that they just cannot change their sleeping habits, or cannot fall asleep in a different position.

Perhaps practicing relaxation techniques laying flat on the floor would help their muscles get used to being in a different position. It's worth a try.

Perhaps deep breathing using their whole torso, chest and belly, would allow them to slip into sleep in a different position.

Perhaps a stretching or yoga class, to wake up all of their muscles and help get muscular balance, would be their ticket.

Sometimes we wake up feeling fine, but by the time we get out of bed, we have a headache or migraine. What's happening?

Here's one possibility.

I would wake up feeling well. Then I would twist my neck and stretch my head around to see the alarm clock. That twist and stretch aggravated my neck enough that I would get instant migraine!

It actually took me quite a long time to figure that out. It happened several times before I realized the cause of those migraines. When I quit doing that twist and stretch, of course the head pain quit also.

Could that be your possibility? Or, perhaps you can think of something else you may be doing to cause your headache to start when you woke up feeling fine.

If it feels like you're straining your neck by sitting straight up, try rolling to your side and push yourself up with your arms while keeping your neck in a straight, neutral position.

One of my clients always awoke feeling fine, but by the time she was in the kitchen with her coffee, her head pain started. Right after she took the first deep drags on her cigarette, her headache started. Every morning.

What do you suppose was the cause of her headache?

Because she was a smoker, and because she inhaled strongly, using the muscles in her jaw and temples (the temple muscles are related to the jaw muscles) she caused those muscles to become tight and restricted. That caused her morning headaches. Like many morning headaches, once they started, they tended to stay all day.

So the plan is to avoid your headache in the first place.

Pay attention to what's going on that may be creating head pain for you. Change the position, posture or movement you suspect and see if that makes a difference.

A simple change could make all the difference in the world. Awareness is the first step in the right direction.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better"

Got Pain? Sick? Is What You Eat Causing Problems For You?

Ever wondered whether food could cause your headaches, diabetes, overweight, body pain or other problems?

Years ago, when I suffered seriously from migraines, I became aware of the cause and effect that food can have. After I eliminated trigger foods, my migraine headaches became much less severe and frequent.

My brother recently gave me some packets of honey from a well-known fast-chicken place. (That's like fast food, but it's chicken.)

I was going to put some honey in my tea, until...

I noticed that the label said "Honey" in large letters and "sauce" in little letters.

So I flipped it over to read the ingredients. Now, wouldn't you think that something that says "honey" would actually be honey?

But, nooo...

Ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup, honey, caramel color.

Not honey.

Bad.

I don't know whether anyone has told you yet, but high fructose corn syrup is a killer. A slow killer.

Honey is a natural product. Sugar is a natural product. Sure, too much can cause problems, but a bit is fine.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is made by splitting corn syrup into parts. It is the sweetest part. It is extremely sweet. It is no longer a natural food.

Many, many manufacturers of "food products" use HFCS instead of honey, sugar or even whole corn syrup because it is cheaper to use.

It's one of the franken-foods.

Sounds scary, doesn't it? It is.

Because it is not real, and because it's so hyper-sweet, it messes with your pancreas and insulin level. HFCS is a primary cause of diabetes and obesity.

Don't think so?

How come we Americans are the ones with the most sugar diabetes and the fattest kids?

You know it's not "genetics" because we come from a huge gene pool from all over the world. Are the people where we came from fat and sick?

Only the ones who are starting to eat "Americanized" food are getting sick and fat.

Read the label on your bread, on your hotdogs, lunch meat, catsup...you're gonna find it all over the place.

You'll find it in places you'd never expect. Check out your ice cream, your kids' lunch foods, puddings, fruit roll ups, cereals, chocolate milk and syrup...

Some companies, like Meijers, have their own product lines and are putting good and real ingredients into many of their branded foods. Meijers has a Gold and an Organic line, both of which have pretty nice ingredients.

There are a few cereals with some sugar in them, and a few with no sweetners (hey, add your own if you need a little bit.)

Want to stop being a sucker for the food industry to make a profit from, at the expense of your health?

Read labels.

Buy food that is as close to real as you can. (Hint: Check out the fruit and vegetable aisles, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.)

Eventually, the food industry (it is a huge industry) will get the message.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Uncommon Migraine Pain Relief Tips

Your head may actually pound. Light hurts your eyes. Every sound is noise and the noise is all too loud. You might even throw up. You feel bad, and you look bad, too.

I really can't think of anything worse than a really bad migraine. A broken leg may keep you from moving, but a migraine headache keeps you from being!

Migraines come in variations. Some are worse than others and some are merely horrible. They affect every system in your body.

Some people believe that headaches and migraines are closely related. I'm one of those people. For years and years, I never had "just a headache." Each time I started with a headache, I ended up with a migraine.

The best way to avoid migraines is to have perfect posture. For those of us who are prone to headaches and migraines, any little strain on the muscles around our neck or head can, and will, cause pain.

Keeping a strong back, including the muscles in the back of your neck, helps hugely.

Learning how to have perfect posture will make a big difference in the frequency and severity of your head pain. It's really important that you have good posture when you sit, when you stand, and you even need your neck and head propped correctly when you sleep.

Avoiding the foods that cause migraine pain for you helps, too. I had a friend who would get instant migraine when she ate an orange. After a while, she started avoiding oranges. Other times, it is not an instant reaction.

A varied and healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables helps for many reasons. One of the reasons is that constipation can create conditions for a migraine. It may be the pressure from the packed intestines on the blood vessels in the abdomen that causes a migraine, because migraines are vascular headaches. That means they are related to what is happening with blood vessels.

"Keeping things moving" through your intestines with a good diet helps prevent migraine. You might consider taking additional fiber from a bottle to avoid constipation. Also, many headache and other medicines cause constipation.

Avoiding a migraine in the first place is a much better strategy than trying to get rid of it after you are already hurting.

But, when a migraine sneaks up, or flat out attacks, despite your best efforts, here are a few tips to help ward off or lessen your pain.

* Ice. Ice the base of your skull. Use a cold pack and put yourself in the most comfortable position you can. Use a thin towel between your skin and the cold pack. You can ice and use the next tip at the same time.

* Cold. Place a cold, almost dripping wet, cloth on your forehead and eyes. You can flip it over as it warms up from your heat. You can keep a pan of ice water next to the bed to re-wet and re-chill the cloth. You can use put a plastic bag under a towel behind your head. That will keep your bed dry.

* Compress. Wrap your head in a long towel so that it is like a turban. Cover your eyes and ears with the turban, too. The idea is to compress your head, to squeeze it. This is comforting, blocking out noise and light, and helps reduce the pain.

* Alka Seltzer. Aspirin does not touch a migraine, but...two tablets of Alka Seltzer, if taken at the beginning of a migraine attack, often knocks out the migraine. I suspect that this happens because it is a large dose of aspirin all at once, rather than gradual.

Check out my web site for help to fix your posture. Good posture will help reduce your headaches.

"Because you deserve to feel better!"

Choices, Headaches and Vintage People

Choices, choices, choices.

All of our lives we make choices. More than we would like to make. So many!

Some of our choices have been excellent, and some, well...maybe not so good. But we keep on going.

Jerry L. Old MD is a geriatric physician. I figure, with a name like that, how could he be anything else? But, he didn't intend to be a doctor with an elderly patient practice. It just worked out that way.

I loved reading his really cool book called Vintage People. Vintage People are elderly people who have aged well. Dr. Old calls them vintage because they are like fine wine. They are people who have become better over time.

Do they have aches and pains? Lots of them do. It's kind of hard to get older without something twinging somewhere at least occasionally.

Have they made choices? You bet. Were they all good choices? Not necessarily, but they kept on going, correcting the course as they went.

Dr. Old interviewed his vintage patients. Every one of them responded! In many areas, there was no common agreement. For instance, eating habits. They were all over the place! Some people ate very healthy, some not, some ate a very specific diet. But, they had all made choices and they all had opinions about why their eating habits were the best for them.

I found that I kept smiling as I read. Dr. Old told lots of interesting stories, good stories. He shared his own opinions and sometimes tells a joke on himself, too. His chapters cover such things as attitude, humor, religion, marriage. Often these are the words of his wise, vintage patients. You can imagine them talking directly to you.

Choosing to read a good book like this, or any good book that engages your mind, and that makes you smile or laugh is good medicine!

Laughing is like having a massage from the inside out. It creates feel-good hormones. It boosts our immune system!

Compare that to watching the evening news. Do you suppose that boosts your immune system? Did you realize that you can choose to watch the evening news...or not? Even when I had a television, I did not watch the news. I read the Sunday paper selectively, starting with the funnies. I prefer the local newspaper to the big city paper because the local news has good news, not just argumentive, depressing stuff.

Back to the Vintage People. Vintage people are active, as much as they are able. They are young for their age. They have friends of all ages, and even regard acquaintances as friends. They enjoy little pleasures, like the sunset or a flower brushed with dew, sparkling like diamonds. They find ways to help themselves feel better.

When we become absorbed with something beautiful or interesting, we forget about the aches and pain. Sometimes we forget about a great deal of pain. And, often, when we forget to focus on pain, it actually goes away.

My father lived in Missouri. We hadn't seen him in a few years. So, when we were traveling through Missouri, we decided to surprise him. His wife knew we were coming, but he had a migraine. When we walked in the door, my dad was laying in a recliner with a cold cloth over his eyes.

He was so surprised and pleased that we were there, that in about ten minutes he realized that his migraine headache was gone! We altered his vascular system.

Will your migraine or pain go complete away if you have a pleasant surprise? Maybe, or maybe not. But, when we focus on something other than the pain, often the pain does lessen or go completely away.

And sometimes pain goes away when we focus on it. Does that seem to be a contradiction?

Let's use head pain as an example. Sometimes it feels as if our whole head hurts. It's killing us. Where is the pain? Everywhere! It hurts all over.

But what if we pay attention to the pain? What if we direct all of our attention to the pain? Is it here? There? Where is it, really? You may even find that there are very specific areas where it hurts the most. When you pay attention to them, you may even find that the specific areas move. They are not constant. There is some ebb and flow. The most painful area changes location.

So, it's not your whole head, after all.

What if you breath into the pain? Does that change anything? What if you tilt your chin up, or down? What if you take deep breaths, moving your whole chest?

Paying attention is a choice. Breathing into the pain is a choice. Changing position to see if that helps is another choice. Focusing on something other than our pain is also a choice.

In my mind, there is nothing like a migraine headache. Not only does it hurt really bad, it reduces your ability to think. It reduces your ability to interact with others. It can strip away days of your life.

If migraines or bad headaches are a problem for you, there are choices you can make. No one but you can help you. Try the little suggestions above.

Pay attention to your posture. Not only does poor posture cause head pain, it causes us to be old before our time and to look old.

Watch your diet. Do certain foods cause your head to hurt? Do you still eat them? Why?

The more you understand about why you hurt, the more choices you can make to feel better.

We can choose to be Vintage People. Active, happy, healthy.

We can choose well.

Are You Taking Care of Yourself?

I recently went to a birthday celebration.

It gave me the opportunity to observe how some people take care of themselves...or don't.

The party was for a sixteen-year old boy. He has chronic headaches.

He has been treated by a neuromuscular massage therapist (not me,) which helped, but did not cure him. He is being treated by a headache pain clinic. The various treatments he receives (some of which are not very pleasant, involving shots in his head, and medicine with side effects) also help only temporarily.

Because I specialize in relieving head pain and correcting posture, I watched him "in motion."

He has been told about the connection between posture and his headaches. Someone told me that when his mother would say, "Sit up straight," he would respond, "You don't." (And she doesn't, but that's another story. And, she doesn't have constant headaches, either.)

So, over the course of several hours I watched the birthday boy. He slouched, he leaned back in his chair with his head pressed forward, he stood with a forward head/casual posture.

The thing is, when we do those things, those of us who are prone to headaches or migraines will get a headache or migraine. And, he does!

Those types of movements aggravate the muscles at the base of our skull and the front and sides of our neck. When those muscles get aggravated, they react by tightening up. They develop trigger points. The trigger points "trigger" pain in our head.

Another thing I noticed was that he was drinking an artificially sweetened drink. Can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure that the headache clinic would have told him that artificial sweetners can cause headaches.

So I wonder: why isn't he being proactive - taking an active role - in helping himself to get rid of his headaches? He already knows the reasons for his head pain.

Right now I am speculating that he doesn't know how to keep his head and body in neutral positions. Perhaps his back muscles and the muscles in back of his neck are too weak to hold him upright in neutral positions. Or, perhaps he thinks it wouldn't be cool to be straight. He is not a tall, lanky boy, so it's not concern that he is "too tall."

People who get headaches and migraines have no choice except to fix their posture. The best way to do that is to get a strong backside, from the base of your skull to the back of your thighs.

The second opportunity I had was to talk with a man who has been seeing various nutritionists and naturopaths. He is looking for advice and products to cure his various health issues, and is going to see a new doctor shortly.

He wants herbal remedies or supplements, or some type of magic, to cure his problems, a lot of which are caused by his diet. He wants a doctor to cure him.

He also wants to continue to eat cookies and goodies and big meals and two servings of birthday cake!

Hmmmph! I guess we can't have our cake and eat it, too, after all.

But, we can take care of ourselves. We can seek out the knowledge that will help us. We can take action. We can change old habits that are not good for us.

Because you deserve to feel better.

Does Your Pillow Cause Headaches?

Did you have a good night's sleep or did you wake up with another headache?

What could have caused your head pain? Could the culprit be, perhaps, your pillow?

Headaches don't happen for no reason. They happen because your neck, head or shoulder muscles get tight and cranky and complain. They let you know they are unhappy by creating head pain.

Muscles cause headaches. Pillows can help them be better or worse.

Do you sleep on your side or on your back?

If you are a stomach sleeper, we won't be addressing that much today. Stomach sleeping puts a lot of strain on a neck, and most stomach sleepers I have observed tell me they tend to sleep on the same side all the time. So, stomach sleeping isn't the best option for anyone. If you do that and can change it, your neck will thank you.

But, there is one benefit to stomach sleeping, especially if you could switch from side to side and not stay locked in one position. The benefit is it helps you maintain the slight curve in your low back that we are supposed to have. In order to keep our head over our shoulders without strain when we are upright, we need a slight low back curve. The curve goes in the direction of our abdomen or belly - forward, not rounded backward. The curve creates a hollow in our lower back.

So back to your headache and your pillow.

If you sleep on your back and your neck is pushed into a too-straight position during the night, either by your pillow or the lack of a pillow, that creates head pain. There are muscles on top of your shoulders, at the front/sides of your neck and at the base of your skull. If any of those get strained, a headache results. If you are prone to migraines, this is a good way to get one.

Also, if you sleep with a fat pillow pushing your head forward that causes two problems.

1. It can definitely cause head pain.
2. It perpetuates the "head forward" posture that we would like to eliminate.

I have found three pillows which are helpful in maintaining the curve in the back of your neck and preventing waking up with a headache.

1. The Tempurdic pillow or a similar memory-foam construction pillow. It softens and sinks under the weight of your head, but supports the backside of your neck. Warning: Most are way too big for back sleepers. Get a junior/child size or, at most, a medium size pillow.

2. Interestingly, a down "stomach sleeper" pillow is good for back sleepers. Fluff it up, punch to make a depression for your head, and enjoy. There should be enough down beneath your neck to keep a nice curve in it as you sleep. You can even pull up the wings, or bottom corners, of the pillow to stabilize your head. This is especially helpful if you get migraines during the night. It prevents you from tilting your head sideways and straining your neck muscles while sleeping.

3. You can make your own custom pillow from a fiberfill batt. This is similar to cotton batting, but it is made of polyester fiberfill, which is soft and cushy. You can buy a fiberfill batt (not the loose stuffing) at a fabric store or department. Take it out of the package and roll it into a neck roll which feels like the correct size to you, for your neck. If you feel you need a little more lift under your head, leave a tail on your roll. The flat tail will go under your head and the rounded neck roll goes under your neck. You can just place the part of the batt you are using into a pillow case and roll it up; no sewing necessary! You can always add more or take some away to be most comfortable. You can have two or three in different sizes around, and switch as desired. It's very inexpensive.

If you are a side sleeper and wake with a headache, the reason is most likely that your head (and therefor your neck) was tilted either up or down. Your pillow is too fat or too flat. Your neck and base-of-skull muscles get shortened or pulled on (strained) during the night and those muscles cause your head pain or migraine.

Side sleepers should use a pillow which allows their neck to be in neutral all night, not tipped chin to ceiling or floor. It's the tipping or tilting that causes neck and head pain. You may find it useful to stack two flatter pillows, or place a down pillow on top of a firmer pillow. You can also generate your own custom pillow, as discussed above, and place it on top of your bottom pillow. You may find a nice, expensive pillow especially designed for side sleepers which has a firmer core and cushy outer layer.

The idea for side sleepers it to support your head in a neutral position and to support your neck, also. That means slightly more cushioning under your neck.

When you buy a pillow, check on the store's return policy. If you try it for a night or two and it doesn't work out for you, some stores will let you return it. That way you won't end up with a bunch of unusable pillows that cost a lot of money.

Here's to a good night's sleep! Yours!

Does Massage Help Tension Headaches?

Massage definitely does help tension headaches. No question about it. There have been studies done which indicate that trigger point therapy and other forms of massage are beneficial for tension-type headaches.

I am a really big proponent of therapeutic massage. I'm really biased about the value of massage. I have seen, and experienced, tremendous relief at the hands of highly skilled massage therapists.

But I have a question. Or two.

Why treat something after it occurs? Why not prevent it from occurring in the first place?

Tension-type headaches, along with other types of head pain, are caused by making our muscles tense. How do we do this? Poor posture, working or walking with our head forward, instead of over our shoulders. Sitting in rolled-forward positions. Being out of balance.

How can we prevent tension headaches?

Sounds simple, but it takes a little effort. We have to get back in balance.

Do you remember (your body remembers) the great posture you had when you were a toddler, when your head was over your shoulders and everything was in alignment? Your ears were over your shoulders and your shoulders were directly in line over your ankles. That is the same posture we should all be in again.

Rather than use therapeutic massage only to treat the symptoms of being temporarily or generally out of balance (your headache is a symptom), take advantage of massage to help you get back into balance. Talk with your massage therapist about this. Not all massage therapists have the education or skill to help you get back into neutral.

Of course, he or she will want to help you get rid of your tension headache, and that's fine. But he or she will be doing much more for you if they can help you by straightening you up and helping you get into a strong, neutral position.

Avoiding headaches is possible a great deal of the time. All we have to know is why we get them and how to prevent getting them.

We get headaches because we are out of balance. We can avoid headaches by getting back into balance, into neutral posture, when we sit, stand or walk and yes, even when we sleep.

Pay attention to what you are doing when you start to hurt. That will give you clues as to what position you are in, which may be out of neutral. Sometimes a headache doesn't come on for a while after an activity, so look for a pattern. "After I do (blank) I get a headache." Ask yourself, "Why?" "What can I do to change my position, so I don't strain my neck and back muscles?" "What can I do so I don't clench my jaw muscles?"

Sometimes the (blank) can be as simple as watching tv. Why? Because most of our "comfortable" couches and chairs put our necks into forward positions, and that position strains our neck muscles. Our car seats are not so good most of the time, either.

If you pay attention and think about it, you may be able to pinpoint the activity or position which aggravates your muscles. Even though there are advertisements for pain relieving medicine which addresses "the common everyday headache", we are not supposed to have them. We are not designed to have them.

Let's work on getting you back into the position you were born to be in.

Let's work on getting you back to the neutral toddler you were.

Your body remembers; you can do it. A little time, a little work, but you can do it!

Simple headache prevention tips

Hello, again. Good to see you. I wish your head didn't hurt. Ever.

There are many causes for headaches. And some of us have sensitive neck muscles or nerves which make us prone to head pain.

Most of our pain problems are caused by muscles which are overstretched. They become taut, which is a type of tight. Trigger points develop. Trigger points are areas of tight muscle which cause pain elsewhere.

Common areas for trigger points which can cause headaches or head pain are in the muscles in the shoulders and neck. These muscles get overstretched because we spend ninety percent of our days with our heads and arms in front of us. The muscles in the front of our bodies shorten from this position. So the poor back and neck muscles get stretched all the time. They complain and ache. Sometimes they develop trigger points. Then we get head pain.

To avoid overstretching your shoulder and neck muscles, try these tips.

When standing, keep your head over your shoulders. Try not to let your head be in front of your body.

Don't force your head backward. That will probably aggravate your muscles and may cause a headache. Rather, work to develop a curve in your low back toward your abdomen, which will allow your head to move over your shoulders without effort.

When seated, sit upright. Tuck a pillow behind your low back if you need support. Many chairs and couches and car seats make us recline. Then our heads move forward and our necks get strained. We get head pain.

Much of our pain can be eliminated when we understand how our wonderful bodies work, and when we understand what we can do to help ourselves. Be well.