Stopping Headaches the Easy Way

Almost everyone experiences a headache at one time or another. Sometimes we may take one of the many pills or nostrums displayed on the druggist's shelf or advertised with great conviction on television. Other times we may want to kick the pill habit and try to ignore it, and eventually the headache may disappear spontaneously. Headaches can vary tremendously in intensity from the barely noticeable to the real banger that can put you in bed for hours if not days. Often the most severe headaches are those most resistant to relief by "painkiller" pills, yet they respond quickly and easily to the techniques described below.

Most headaches are the result of unresolved tension in the body, either mental or muscular. The headache will quickly disappear once that tension is released. In most cases headaches can be released by a very simple exercise. This exercise is a simple acupressure technique that is taught in Touch for Health (originated by Dr. John F. Thie D.C.) and is described in our book Self-Help for Stress and Pain plus Learning Blocks. Our community was planning a Thanksgiving dinner in the clubhouse. As the day approached, one of our neighbors had been in bed for several days with a disabling headache and was not expecting to be able to attend. These attacks occurred from time to time and after a few days cleared up. We showed her how to do the Headache Release Exercise and in a few seconds the headache was gone. She was able to attend and enjoy the Thanksgiving dinner. When we saw her several months later, Elizabeth asked her, "Are you using the Headache Release exercise that we showed you?" She replied, "You know, I had completely forgotten about it. I haven't had a headache since then."

On another occasion we were walking back up the hill to our house from the mail boxes and met a neighboring couple headed down the hill for their mail. As we greeted them, the fellow covered both ears with his hands and backed away saying that he had a severe "migraine headache". Any sound intensified the pain. Elizabeth walked up to him and did the headache release exercise on him. To his great surprise in a few moments the pain was gone. Afterwards we learned that he had been sitting in a dark room with the headache for two days, and feeling the need for fresh air, had gone out for a walk with his wife, who was leading him by the hand while he kept his eyes closed. It is now two years later, and he has not had another headache.

The Tension Headache Release Exercise:
Standing erect, drop your hands to the sides of your legs and, pressing with your middle finger, look for a sore or tender point in that area. It may take a little searching, but the point will be there. Once you have found a sore or tender point on one or both sides massage these points with your finger tip with firm pressure until the headache goes away.

Concentrate on the headache disappearing while you do this. It is OK to rub on one side at a time. It may be sufficient to rub on one side only to get rid of the headache.

Sometimes the headache will disappear in just a few seconds. Other times you may have to rub one or both points for a minute or so. In our experience it is rare for this technique to fail to give substantial if not complete relief.

If the headache is still present but greatly reduced, this is usually an indication of residual muscle tension (especially in the neck and shoulders) that needs to be released by other muscle tension reduction exercises. The next exercise we would use is the Neck Stress Release exercise describe in our article titled "Repetitive Muscle Stress", published in the Fall 1993 issue of Massage and Bodywork Quarterly. Additional relief, if required, may be achieved using other Repetitive Muscle Stress balancing exercises described in our book Self-Help for Stress and Pain plus Learning Blocks, (See ad in this issue).

Most common headaches are caused by muscle tension and are eliminated by releasing the muscle tension through the exercises described above. Many people who say they have a migraine headache really have a severe tension headache. A true migraine headache is caused by vascular pressure and is often characterized by sensitivity to lights and the sensations of flashing lights even when resting in a darkened room. Realizing that different mechanisms may be at work in a migraine headache, we were curious to find what help if any these exercises would have on a true migraine headache.

Our first opportunity came at the National Health Federation Exhibit in Pasadena in 1992. A person who had attended our lecture-demonstration rushed out and returned with a young women who was in the third day of a migraine headache episode. She arrived wearing dark glasses and a head covering. In ten minutes, much to her surprise, her headache was gone, using the methods described above. She removed her dark glasses and scarf and dashed off into the crowd.

Since then we have helped quite a few additional people with the true migraine symptoms to successfully release their pain and light sensitivity using exactly the routines described above. Our experience with migraines, as well as with severe tension headaches, is that for many people after clearing the headache with these methods, their headaches simply do not recur.

We occasionally find someone that needs to have their headache for emotional reasons. In this case the psychological need for the headache must be eliminated before the headache can be successfully handled by this method. We teach such techniques in our class. If the pain persists without reduction, this is an indication that other possible pathological causes need to be investigated. Check with a medical doctor.

The common question is, "How can rubbing a point on the leg make a headache go away?" The answer is through the meridian system. The gall bladder meridians, one on each side of the body, start at the eyes, run back and forth across the side and top of the head, and then go down the shoulders behind the arms, the two sides of the body, and the outsides of the legs, ending at the feet. When the gall bladder acupuncture point GB-32, located on the side of the leg, is rubbed, the gall bladder meridian is activated to drain the tension from the head and shoulders, releasing the headache.

Next time you have a headache, before you reach for the pill bottle, try activating your gall bladder meridian by doing the simple exercise described above. Most likely you will never need to reach for the pill bottle.