Lets talk about tension headaches
We all get headaches from time to time. Tension headaches are characterised by
- Dull, aching head pain.
- Sensation of tightness or pressure across your forehead or on the sides and back of your head.
- Tenderness on your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles.
Tension headaches are the most common form of headaches and can last anywhere between 30 minutes to a week. If they occurr more than 15 days in a month for 3 months you have chronic tension headaches.
People are more susceptible to tension headaches when they have
- their period (women only)
- under pressure or stress
- poor posture
I know that peole find tension headaches are annoying and sometimes headache tablets either don’t work or work initially and then less helpful. Here in clinic we find that deep tissue massage on the couch allows us to identify which muscles in the neck, shoulders, upper back and chest are tight and release them. We frequently find this either release the tension headache or at least lessens it. If you are prone to tension headaches, then a series of massages may assist especially if you have poor posture, under pressure or highly stressed.
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Oops I did it again?
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Hypertension – Dietary Factors
Following on from my introduction to hypertension and lifestyle factors, I want to explore the link between diet and hypertension in this blog. Optimise your Gut Flora Compared to a placebo, people with high blood pressure who consumed probiotics lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number) by 3.56 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) by 2.38 mm Hg1. Including taking probiotics, its is helpful to avoid sugar and processed foods. I should mention that naturally fermented foods in your diet, may contain about 100 times the amount of bacteria than found in a bottle of high potency probiotics. But I appreciate form a practical point of view, buying probiotics is much easier! Eat a Healthy Diet I appreciate this is very common advice. In 1998 in the journal of Diabetes reported that nearly two-thirds of the test subjects who were insulin resistant also high high blood pressure. Insulin resistance is directly attributed to a high sugar, high carbohydrate diet especially if combined with inadequate exercise. Avoiding processed foods (due to their being high in sugar/fructose, grains, trans fat, and other damaged fats) is my number one recommendation if you have high blood pressure2. Instead, make whole, ideally organic, foods the focus of your diet. As you reduce processed foods, and other sources of non-vegetable carbs, from your diet, you’ll want to replace them with healthy fat. Read Part 4 References 1 Hypertension July 21, 2014 2 Metabolism. 2012 May;61(5):641-51.

