Will Yoga help Control My Tension Headaches?

In today’s world of increasing medication usage, more and more people are realizing that drugs are not always the best answer to their headaches and are looking for effective drug free solutions.

Yoga is a popular drug free solution to many ills, including certain headache conditions, particularly, tension and migraine headaches.

A tension headache refers to a kind of mild to moderate dull headache accompanied by a feeling of tightness in the muscles of head, scalp, forehead, temples, shoulders and neck. Unlike a migraine headache, a tension headache involves both sides of the head, is pressing and steady instead of throbbing and is generally not incapacitating. Tension headaches can be classified as episodic or chronic, depending upon how often they occur (15 days a month or more often).

Like migraines, tension headaches are often times triggered by stress. Tension headaches can be triggered by:

1. physical stress and the accompanying muscle fatigue (e.g., due to poor posture, overexertion and inadequate rest)
2. mental stress (e.g., during exams, while meeting deadlines at work or when getting involved in too many things at a time)
3. emotional trauma (e.g., due to a death in the family or breaking of a relationship)
4. hunger
5. indigestion/gas and many more.

Tension-type headache, also known as ordinary headache, muscle contraction headache or stress headache, is the most commonly occurring headache in the general population. Prevention is considered the best treatment for tension headaches. Yoga works well in the prevention scheme because of it’s combination of stretching and relaxation (stress reduction).

The first sign of an impending tension headache is usually a feeling of tightness in the muscles of shoulders and neck. This muscle contraction causes a reduction in the blood flow to the vessels of the head, resulting in a headache. A tension-type headache rarely lasts more than a couple of hours and is, in most cases, relieved by over-the-counter painkillers like ibuprofen or aspirin. In fact, sometimes a 30–40 minute of snooze may be all you need to get rid of it.

Since stress headaches are basically due to muscle tension, yoga can offer a perfect solution to treat them because yoga exercises are meant to relieve physical muscle tension as well as mental tension. Especially if you are suffering from the chronic type of tension headaches, treating them with painkillers could lead to overdosing and, consequently, rebound headaches. So why poison your body if you can treat your headache without drugs or altogether prevent it from occurring with simple stress management techniques and correct body posture?

Yoga exercises that involve full stretching of the upper back, neck, shoulders and the chest are ideal. They help alleviate the pain by

1. releasing the muscular tension in the neck and shoulder regions,
2. increasing blood circulation to the head and
3. stimulating the nervous system.

The corpse posture can be practiced for total relaxation of the body. Yoga breathing exercises and meditation help alleviate tension headaches by calming the mind, reducing stress, negativity and anxiety and creating a positive mental attitude.

Some of the simple tension-relieving yoga exercises and breathing techniques can be learned on your own from books or yoga websites and can be done at home as well as at desk in your workplace. These exercises basically involve stretching with full expansion of the chest, shoulders and back muscles, neck rotation, etc. But a more elaborate and complete yoga program for tension headaches is best learned from a yoga teacher.

To sum up, a daily yoga program can definitely go a long way in controlling and preventing tension headaches.

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