A New Treatment for Headaches

Ask Yourself:
Do you experience headaches accompanied by stiffness and tightness in your neck and shoulders?
Do recurrent headaches interfere with your productivity and concentration?
Do you commonly experience tightness and pressure at the back of your head or along your temples?

If you answered YES to one or more of the above questions you may be suffering from one of the many headache conditions caused by excessive tightness of neck and shoulders. Unfortunately, results using traditional treatments for these types of headaches can be limited and often provide only temporary relief. But now, thanks to a new soft tissue treatment technique known as Active Release Techniques® (ART®), many headache sufferers are finally finding relief for their recurrent symptoms.

The head, neck, and shoulder region is a complex area that consists of many joints, muscles, and nerves. Continued health of these regions requires a complex balance and interaction of these structures to ensure proper movement and to protect the areas from injury. Unfortunately, as a result of poor posture, prolonged sitting, muscle tightness, muscle imbalance, or previous injury, the muscles, joints, and nerves can become strained and irritated. As a result inflammation develops within the tissues and in an attempt to stabilize the area the body will lay down scar tissue. Eventually this scar tissue builds-up and forms “adhesions” between and within the muscles, joints, and nerves. Once formed, these adhesions can lead to pain, tightness, stiffness, weakness, and a lack of blood flow to the area. The main reason that many traditional approaches are often ineffective is that they fail to address the underlying scar tissue adhesions that develop within the muscles and surrounding soft tissues.

ART® stands for Active Release Techniques®. It is a new and highly successful hands-on treatment method to address problems in the soft tissues of the body. ART® treatment is highly successful in dealing with many types of headaches because it is specifically designed to locate and treat scar tissue adhesions that accumulate in and around the muscles, joints, and nerves of the head, neck, and shoulder. At Fall River Chiropractic we commonly use ART® to treat many different types of headaches. We find that with using ART®, especially when combined with simple home stretches and exercises, we are able to quickly and effectively help relieve many common headache conditions.