Headaches Are Not All in Your Head

What if I told you that most headaches are not in your head? In fact the origin of most of the headaches that people experience is really in the muscles on the outside of the head, not inside the head.

The Most Common Type of Headache

By far the most common type of headache is the muscle tension headache. According to the National Institutes of Health 90% of all headaches are muscle tension type headaches. The remaining 10% of headaches include migraines, cluster headaches and others.

Muscle tension headaches are caused by “soft tissue” knots in the head that are called “trigger points”. Soft tissue refers to muscles and the covering of the muscles called fascia. At the right are the most common trigger point headache pain patterns.

The goal of trigger point treatment is to take active trigger points and turn them off, so that they don’t cause pain.

New Method for Reducing Headache Pain

In the 1990s a new way of treating soft tissue trigger points with stainless steel instruments with a blunt curved edge created a revolution in the treatment of soft tissue problems, especially in professional sports. This treatment is generally referred to as Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Manipulation (IASTM).

In our clinic we use IASTM instruments to gently “brush” the heads of headache sufferers. This gentle brushing motion looks like we are combing the patient’s hair with a light pressure.

I have never used this treatment on a patient with trigger points in the soft tissue of the head whose headaches did not decrease.

Headaches Are Serious Stuff

But as a doctor you must be wary because patients can have more than one type of headache, and it is important to refer the patient back to their family doctor or to a specialist for further testing and diagnosis if the headache persists.