Topic of the Month:
HEADACHES
Headaches affect just about everyone at some point and they can present themselves in many different ways. Fortunately, very few headaches have serious underlying causes, but those that do, require urgent medical attention. Usually headaches of more serious origins are constant throughout the day and are not made better by sleep. Headaches can have a variety of causes such as drug reactions, low blood sugar or high blood pressure; however an aggravating factor or primary cause is usually muscle tightness in the neck.
Tension Headaches (Stress or Cervicogenic Headaches) Tension type headaches are the most common, affecting upwards of 75% of all headache sufferers. Most people describe a tension headache as a constant dull, achy feeling either on one side or both sides of the head, often described as a feeling of a tight band or dull ache around the head or behind the eyes. These headaches usually begin slowly and gradually and can last for minutes or days, and tend to begin in the middle or end of the day. Tension headaches are often the result of stress or bad posture, which stresses the spine and muscles in the upper back and neck. Although the pain can at times be severe, tension headaches are usually not associated with other symptoms, such as nausea, throbbing or vomiting.  As one might guess, tension headaches are primarily caused by tension, muscular tension actually. Usually the muscles of the upper neck are involved the most, although you may feel pain in your shoulders as well. One muscle is thought to cause pain more than the rest is known as the rectus capitis posterior minor. This tiny muscle, which about the size of the nail on your index finger, has a direct attachment to the sheath of your spinal cord and essentially to your brain. So after a long day at the computer, this muscle will tighten up and will pull on the sheath, causing pain in your head. Other muscles of your neck are involved with tension headaches and it is common to have adhesions in all of these muscles at the time, causing a "migraine-like" headache. Many patients experience pain "behind their eye." The patient may also experience balance problems, visual disturbances, dizziness, and nausea; these can be caused by SCM involvement.
Migraine Headaches
Each year, about 25 million people in the U.S. experience migraine headaches, about 75% are women. Migraines are intense and throbbing headaches that are often associated with nausea and sensitivity to noise or light. Many of those who suffer from migraines experience visual symptoms called an "aura" just prior to an attack that is often described as seeing flashing lights or that everything takes on a dream-like appearance. Migraine sufferers usually have their first attack before age 30 and they tend to run in families. Migraine headaches are caused by a constriction of the blood vessels in the brain, followed by a dilation of blood vessels. The constriction of the blood vessels causes a decrease in blood flow, leading to the visual changes. Even in people who don't experience the classic migraine aura, most of them can tell that an attack is imminent. Blood vessels dilatation, causes a rapid increase in blood pressure inside the head; yielding the pounding effect. Each time the heart beats it sends another shock wave of pain into the head.
There are a number of things that can trigger migraines, such as lack of sleep, stress, flickering lights, strong odors, changing weather patterns and several foods; especially foods that are high in an amino acid called 'tyramine.'
Cluster Headaches
Cluster headaches are typically very short-duration, excruciating, almost "suicidal" headaches, usually felt on one side of the head behind the eyes. Cluster headaches affect about 1 million people in the United States and, unlike migraines, are much more common in men. This is the only type of headache that tends to occur at night. The reason that they are called 'cluster' headaches is that they tend to occur one to four times per day over a period of several days. After one cluster of headaches is over, it may be months or even years, before they occur again. Like migraines, cluster headaches are likely to be related to a dilation of the blood vessels in the brain, causing a localized increase in pressure.
How can Active Release Techniques® help with Headaches?
Many headaches are commonly misdiagnosed and most of the time patients have tension headaches, which can be managed with soft tissue treatments as well as chiropractic manipulation. Active Release Techniques® (ART®) is considered the gold standard of soft tissue treatments and for this reason it the most efficient form of treatment for tension headaches. ART® is the only soft tissue technique which takes into account each individual muscle's orientation and action, making treatment specific to each and every involved muscle in the neck. ART® breaks up adhesions within the muscle causing them to return to their proper length. These adhesions or fibrous tissue are the normal way the body repairs itself, however if an injury is not treated early on, chronic conditions occur. Once the muscles are returned to their proper length, tension headaches will subside.
Recipe of the Month:
PALEO CANDY BARS-- skip the sugar and enjoy these!
Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. raw honey (remove for Whole 30 compliance)
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 c. roughly chopped raw nuts (I used almonds and walnuts) 
3/4 c. unsweetened coconut flakes
Parchment paper
Method:
1. Melt coconut oil and honey over medium heat in a small sauté pan.
2. Stir in cocoa powder, nuts and coconut flakes.
3. Pour mixture over piece of parchment paper and use spatula to form into a square. Fold parchment paper over mixture and refrigerate until hard (appx. 4 hours). Cut into pieces and serve!
Prep time: 10 minutes
Total time: 4 hours
Yield: 4-6 candy bars
Optical Illusion of the Month:
Do you see anything odd in this picture?
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