Our Headache Neck Pain Release can help release neck muscles associated with headaches

One particular device I like to use is the Headache Neck Pain Release. It is an instrument designed to treat the muscles often involved in headache pain as we have discussed.

Headache Neck Pain Release There is a cushioned cradle for the head and adjustable soft tipped rods which treat the neck muscles involved.

It is easy to travel with or for use at work. I like to apply heat therapy before a twenty minute relaxing treatment lying with the neck on this device. By slowly rotating the head and/or performing the neck exercises while lying on this, a concentrated massage is delivered to the areas involved and when used in conjunction with the other methods described at necksolutions.com can be an effective way to relieve neck pain related headaches.

Features five adjustable contact points, four adjustable legs and an adjustable head cup. Begin at set level and lay on the device for 5-7 minutes. You should feel the muscles at the base of the skull begin to relax and pressure should be reduced. By adjusting the legs, headpiece and contact points, you can progress with different poistions. Ajust the legs longer in the front to increase the effects of the contact points. Raise the back legs for more traction through the contact points.

You should experiment with different positions, but always relax and let gravity do the work. Eventually, you can rotate the head slowly from side to side and do the neck retraction exercise as you bring your chin towards the contact points to work the area more deeply.

Headache and Neck Pain Release based on clinical technique

Release of Neck Related Headache Muscles Relevant to the management of neck pain and headache, the headache neck pain release is based on inhibitive distraction in which the therapist uses the fingertips of both hands to exert a sustained ventrocranial force on the occiput just caudal to the superior nuchal line. It has been proposed that this technique inhibits the muscles inserting into the nuchal line and that it could be used to apply a distraction to the cervical spine structures. The technique has its origin to cranial osteopathy. Indeed, this technique has been described within various manual medicine disciplines under various names such as cranial base release, suboccipital release, and trigger point pressure release. The proposed effects are mainly neurophysiological, perhaps circulatory, and mildly mechanical.

Myofascial trigger points in the suboccipital neck muscles constitute another potentially relevant muscle dysfunction leading to limited cervical spine mobility. These are defined as hyperirritable spots in muscles with a potential to give rise to characteristic referred pain, motor dysfunction, and autonomic phenomena involved in neck related headaches. Motor aspects of myofascial trigger points may include disturbed motor function, muscle weakness as a result of motor inhibition, neck muscle stiffness and restricted range of motion.

Trigger points in the head and neck region have been implicated in the reported headache and central sensitization in patients with tension headaches. Their referral patterns correspond to the pain characteristics and distribution reported by patients with cervicogenic headache, occipital neuralgia, and migraine headaches. Studies have reported significantly greater numbers of active myofascial trigger points in the suboccipital muscles of patients with tension type headache and in patients with migraine headache when compared to asymptomatic controls. Motor effects of these suboccipital myofascial trigger points in the sense of muscle shortening may explain the increased forward head posture and decreased cervical active range of motion reported in patients with chronic tension type headache or migraine headache as compared to asymptomatic controls.

Inhibitive Distraction For Headache and Neck Pain The manual form of this technique has the therapist place the fingertips onto the suboccipital musculotendinous structures just caudal to the superior nuchal line and induce a sustained force in a ventrocranial direction, thus exerting compressive forces as well as a distraction to the cervical and suboccipital structures. The pressure applied to achieve muscle inhibition during treatment is applied perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the muscles and tendons involved. The amount of applied pressure was adjusted to just less than that which would excite the muscle further, and as the pressure is maintained, the patient’s neck muscles relaxed, ideally the pressure was applied at an increasingly deeper level and this is achieved with the headache neck pain release by continuous relaxation.

Performing this technique, a trend has emerged for greater improvement in chronic neck pain patients with headaches including lower pain levels. The relevant suggested effects of inhibitive distraction on the cervical spine involve inhibition of local and general posterior muscle tone, inactivation of suboccipital muscle trigger points, and gentle joint mobilization.