Why We Prefer Talk Therapy
Our mental and emotional wellbeing plays into our physical health. Your anxiety can manifest in other ailments, disorders, and illness down the road.
Talk therapy treats the cause of the headache. This allows the patient to fully heal.
Because we are focusing on the cause, you may minimize the risk of further complications.
Anxiety is a difficult mental illness that is prevalent throughout the population. It is nothing to be ashamed of, even though it can feel like a difficult mountain to climb.
We support long-term coping methods that can provide relief for the mind, body, and soul.
If you suffer from anxiety headaches we urge you to take the proper steps to provide relief.
Implement soothing methods and if you arent seeing results, consider seeking a therapist.
Level 3 / Oxygen Multistep Therapy
Please see our OMST protocol support page for more information.
This protocol supports hypotension which results from:
- Systemic hypoxia blood pressure is low because the whole body lacks oxygen and the vascular system does not constrict
- Endothelial Dysfunction where oxygen delivery to parts of the body which control blood pressure is inhibited limited because blood flow is limited by inflammation of the endothelium.
For Hypotension, consider these options:
Please visit our product site for OMST systems and nutrients. You will need to join the site to access pricing information.
What Is A Stress Headache
Stress headaches arent an official classification of headaches in the International Classification of Headache Disorders , but are more accurately known as tension-type or tension headaches, Ellen Drexler, MD, a board-certified neurologist based in New York, tells Health.
Tension-type headaches are defined by the absence of migraine features, so they tend to appear on both sides of the head, feeling like a pressure pain, without the usual migraine accompaniments of nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, and worsened by head movement, says Dr. Drexler. They’d be the sort of run-of-the-mill pressure in the front of your head kind of headache of mild to moderate severity.
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According to the US National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus database, tension headaches are the most common type of headache and are described as pain or discomfort in the head, scalp, or neck, often associated with muscle tightness. Tension headaches affect roughly 70% of people, and can last for 30 minutes to 72 hours, Susan Broner, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College, tells Health, and in order to be properly diagnosed with tension headaches, you need to have a history of them. To make the diagnosis, you’ve had to have had at least 10 of these ,” Dr. Broner says.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Migraines
There are four different phases of migraines. You may not always go through every phase each time you have a migraine.:
- Prodome. This phase starts up to 24 hours before you get the migraine. You have early signs and symptoms, such as food cravings, unexplained mood changes, uncontrollable yawning, fluid retention, and increased urination.
- Aura. If you have this phase, you might see flashing or bright lights or zig-zag lines. You may have muscle weakness or feel like you are being touched or grabbed. An aura can happen just before or during a migraine.
- Headache. A migraine usually starts gradually and then becomes more severe. It typically causes throbbing or pulsing pain, which is often on one side of your head. But sometimes you can have a migraine without a headache. Other migraine symptoms may include
- Increased sensitivity to light, noise, and odors
- Nausea and vomiting
- Worsened pain when you move, cough, or sneeze
- Postdrome . You may feel exhausted, weak, and confused after a migraine. This can last up to a day.
Migraines are more common in the morning people often wake up with them. Some people have migraines at predictable times, such as before menstruation or on weekends following a stressful week of work.
Can You Get Headaches From Stress
Can you get headaches from stress
- How to Get Rid of a Stress Headache
- http://www.ehow.com/topic_357_headache-relief.html
- There are those days in every ones life when it seems nothing can go right. Usually in the midst of all of this stress, you will get a stress headache. The pounding of your Read More
- Is this related to the headaches that I get in the morning and wh?
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- Typical problems include headaches in the morning, while you are under increased stress, sore muscles in your temple area, and a sore neck. You do not need to live with this type of discomfort.
- What is a good way to relieve stress, I have so much that I get h?
- http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090505172523AAHspGf
- When youre sad: Exercise! This releases stress and makes your brain produce endorphins that lift your mood. Plus the long term effects will make you happier as you will feel healthier and look fitter. When you sweat it will also release to
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What Happens In The Brain
Repeated stressors can reorder the brains natural physiological systems, including the allostatic load.
In the case of the brain, the effects of repeated stress may lead to alteration in brain networks both functionally and structurally. As a result the brain responds abnormally to environmental conditions .
In other words, when our brains are routinely subjected to stressors, they develop maladaptive coping mechanisms that can lead to chronic migraines.
In order to keep that from happening, we must disrupt the cycle.
Understanding What Causes Headaches And Finding Treatments To Relieve The Pain
Nearly everyone has had headache pain, and most of us have had it many times. A minor headache is little more than a nuisance thats relieved by an over-the-counter pain reliever, some food or coffee, or a short rest. But if your headache is severe or unusual, you might worry about stroke, a tumor, or a blood clot. Fortunately, such problems are rare. Still, you should know when a headache needs urgent care and how to control the vast majority of headaches that are not threatening to your health.
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How Are Migraines Diagnosed
Your doctor can diagnose migraines by the symptoms you describe. If the diagnosis is not clear, your doctor will perform a physical exam. Your doctor might want to do blood tests or imaging tests, such as an MRI or CAT scan of the brain. These tests can help ensure there are no other causes for the headache. You may also be asked to keep a headache journal. This can help your doctor identify the things that might cause your migraines.
If headache pain is getting in the way of your daily activities, its time to see your family doctor. Read More
The Migraine Connection / Hypotension
Hypotension or low blood pressure is caused by loss of vascular tone and usually results from one or more of the following conditions:
- Insufficient oxygen to arterial smooth muscle to maintain tone
- Toxic Shock where one or more toxins disrupt tissue oxygen delivery
- Traumatic Shock where one or more events disable metabolism
- Acute dehydration which results in blood volume loss or excess salts which prevent oxygen solubility and oxygen delivery
- Severe blood loss
The body uses two mechanical processes to control blood pressure:
- Heart Rate and Force to force blood to move blood
- Vascular tone to direct blood where needed through vascular system.
Hypotension from a weak heart is rare because usually diagnosed as heart disease. Low blood pressure usually results from failure in vascular tone maintenance.
You dont have to have low blood pressure for low brain oxygen but its typical. If you have normal or high blood pressure, then it means something else is causing your brain NOT to get enough oxygen to work right.
Even if you dont have low blood pressure your brain can not get enough oxygen from:
- Not enough oxygen in your blood
- Blood cannot transfer oxygen to brain
- Deficiency in transfer nutrients
- Deficiency in CO2 from fatigue
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Other Potential Headache Triggers At Work
According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, other possible triggers for your headache at work include:
- Psychological and social triggers like role conflict
- A work environment that is not very social
- Bullying from your boss or co-workers
It’s also interesting to note that people who have overall lower job satisfaction, and people who experience a lack of decision control or control over their work intensity, have more severe headaches.
What Medicines Help Relieve Migraine Pain
For mild to moderate migraines, over-the-counter medicines that may help relieve migraine pain include:
- aspirin
- acetaminophen
- an acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine combination
- ibuprofen
- naproxen
- ketoprofen
People who have more severe migraines may need to try abortive prescription medicines. A medicine called ergotamine can be effective alone or combined with other medicines. Dihydroergotamine is related to ergotamine and can be helpful. Other prescription medicines for migraines include sumatriptan, zolmitriptan, naratriptan, rizatriptan, almotriptan, eletriptan, and frovatriptan.
If the pain wont go away, stronger pain medicine may be needed, such as a narcotic, or medicines that contain a barbiturate . These medicines can be habit-forming and should be used cautiously. Your doctor may prescribe these only if they are needed and only for a short period of time.
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Effects Of Repeated Migraines On The Brain
Are there any biological consequences in the brain as a result of migraine attacks? While there is no clear answer to this question yet, there are multiple lines of evidence that suggest that the migraine brain is different compared to normal brain . The migraine brain is hyperexcitable during the migraine-free periods between the attacks ,. During the attacks the brains response to some stimuli is abnormal. For example, in many patients light, smell or noise could exacerbate the migraine pain when they are experiencing an attack. Hyperexcitablity of the brain could be due to a decrease in inhibitory neurotransmitters , or an increase in excitatory neuortransmitters in the cortical regions. Impaired or diminished habituatation to stimuli in the interictal period in migraineurs , is another characteristic of migraine, which also supports maladaptive brain changes. Increasingly, evidence suggests abnormal inhibitory control of pain with migraine that may result from deficiencies in inhibition or increased facilitation . A variety of stressful stimuli have been shown to affect pain sensitivity suggesting altered higher centers have a significant influence on pain modulation. Neural substrates mediating active versus passive emotional coping have been identified within distinct, longitudinal neuronal columns of the midbrain periaqueductal gray region . In addition to pain modulation ., the PAG has been implicated in responses to defensive and autonomic regulation .
Why Does Stress Trigger Migraines
With my patients, I always work to bring it back to understanding the different stressors in their lives. We already know that stress goes beyond what we deal with on a daily basis, or that of sudden life changes. In fact, stress, as it relates to migraines, is often caused by environmental stressors, such as: toxins food sensitivities and mold.
Specifically, when our bodies are stressed and considered under attack, the brain increases production of a hormone which triggers the adrenal glands to increase cortisol levels, thereby altering the messages it sends to our main systems. When this happens, four main areas are affected:
- Digestion: Decreased digestive enzymes and motility, Leaky gut, imbalanced gut bacteria, and the gut-brain axis are all known to cause migraines when mixed signals are sent to the nervous system.
- Neurotransmitters: When neurotransmitters the messengers in our nervous system are imbalanced, it again affects our nervous system as serotonin , GABA, and dopamine levels are too high or too low, making migraines more likely .
- Hormones:Hypothyroidism, blood sugar and insulin imbalances, estrogen, and progesterone imbalances can all cause migraines.
- Immune System: Allergies or Histamine Intolerance, inflammation in the body, and autoimmunity are often the underlying reason for continuous migraines.
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How Stress Triggers Migraines
The fact is multiple stressors can lead to migraine attacks. Sometimes it is the accumulation of multiple difficult situations or activities other times it is tied to specific life-changing events. Generally, there are a few different categories of stressors of which people with migraine should be aware:3
- Physical, environmental and other external stressors
- Psychological stressors such as trauma , socioeconomic and/or social stressors
- Physiological stressors
Many patients report that they experience a migraine after a stressful situation. Although post-stress migraine attacks can occur within minutes or hours, they more often manifest within a few days. Specifically, migraineurs have cited an increase in daily hassles 1-3 days prior to attacks.5 Not only does this lead to greater feelings of stress and anxiety, but it also enhances mood swings, irritability, and fatigue. This supports other findings that daily challenges are one of the leading causes of stress-triggered migraines.
Treatment Options For Tension
Over-the-counter painkillers such as ibuprofen, aspirin, and paracetamol are commonly used to treat tension-type headache. It shouldnt be necessary to take stronger medications.
Its important to discuss use of any drugs with your doctor if you are pregnant. Using painkillers more than twice a week can increase the risk of tension-type developing into chronic daily headache, and you should also speak to your doctor if you are regularly getting headaches.
As stress is a cause of tension-type headache, you may find it helpful to learn relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises, avoid stressful situations as much as possible, and consider speaking to a counsellor or therapist.
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The Migraine Hypotension Connection
Ever wonder why migraines, or cluster headaches, happen?
Well, youre not alone, 30+ million others get bad headaches too. The search for why your head hurts, and what to do about it, yields nearly zilch, until you read this article
Few, if any sources, offer explanation of why migraines happen. Our goal here was to connect the dots your headache, your stress and your probable low blood pressure:
Believe it or not there are two mature publications that when taken together explain why most people get migraines and suggest a nutrient and oxygen therapy model to address the cause. If you like to study you will need to dig up:
The analysis that follows interprets these two seminal references into a functional explanation of migraines and low blood pressure that leads to a method for fixing the causes.
How To Cope When One Of Your Migraine Triggers Is Stress
To say that dealing with the chronic pain of migraine is a challenge is an understatement. Those challenges are magnified when stress is one of your migraine triggers. Stress can cause migraine, chronic pain creates more stressand so the cycle continues. And, to add insult to injury, if your body is accustomed to constant stress, a weekend off can result in a let down migraine when your stress abruptly lowers. Not exactly a win-win for those living with migraine.
The migraine brain is vulnerable to change such as sleep and stress, and is, therefore, best kept stable, says Peter Goadsby, M.D., Ph.D., who specializes in the treatment of headache disorders at UC San Francisco Medical Center.
In addition to finding a doctor, keeping a headache diary, and finding the proper medication, one of the most effective things you can do to control migraine is to reduce your stress, which sounds easy, right? Wrong. So, in our busy lives, how can we better manage the stress associated with migraine? Here are a few tips on how to do this.
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How Do You Stop Stress Headaches
Try some of the following:Manage your stress level. One way to help reduce stress is by planning ahead and organizing your day. Go hot or cold. Applying heat or ice whichever you prefer to sore muscles may ease a tension headache. Perfect your posture. Good posture can help keep your muscles from tensing.
Make Time For Relationships And Personal Growth
Studies show that talking with other people relieves stress. Schedule together time with your partner, and deliberately get off the couch and do something fun. Reach out to your support network, and offer support to others. By increasing personal interaction and prioritizing the things that make you happy, stress will instantly be minimized.
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Two Most Common Types Of Anxiety Headaches
Research suggests that anxiety headaches manifest in one of two common headache disorders.
Tension headaches and migraines cause the patient severe discomfort. Each headache type has two differing sets of common symptoms.
Tension headaches are a pressure-like sensation of a tight band wound around the head.
Tension headaches feel like a dull pressure. The pain will resolve itself within few hours. Advil can be used to help the pain during a tension headache episode.
Tension headaches are a common type of headache and may be episodic or chronic.
For episodic headaches, pain will occur less than 15 days a month.
For chronic headaches, pain will occur more than 15 days a month.
Unlike migraines, tension headaches dont affect everyday life. Sufferers from tension headaches can usually continue with daily activities.
Migraine headaches are throbbing or pulsing pain on one side of the head. Migraines are severe headaches and often cannot be treated with Advil or Tylenol. A migraine headache can last up to days without proper treatment.
Migraines may disrupt daily activities. Proper treatment is necessary to lower the frequency and severity of migraines. If medical intervention is not supplied at the onset, a migraine can last for days.
Chronic headaches and chronic pain demand further testing to rule out additional contributors.
