Hey, El Paso!

I’m Dr. David Middaugh from El Paso Manual Physical Therapy.

I want to share with you today the “Top 5 Reasons For Tension Headaches.”

Now, many of our clients that have tension headaches or migraines or any kind of headache, the most common place that they’ll tell us that their head hurts is right back in here, at the base of the skull, where the neck meets the skull.

But, that’s not the only place that they tell us they have pain.

They’ll say that it will shoot up from there, or they may just get pain on the sides of their head.

Maybe just one side, on the front of the head, or also in their eyeball.

They’ll actually tell us they have pain behind their eyeball.

(That’s called a retro orbital pain)

If you’ve got any of these signs, pay close attention to these top 5 reasons, because they may be contributing to your headaches. Then you could know what NOT to do, so that you can get better.

Reason #1 – Not Moving

What I mean by “Not Moving” is if you’ve got a job where you’re going to work at a desk…

Maybe at a computer or you’re writing a lot and it requires you to be still for an hour or more to focus on whatever it is you’re doing.

And you do that day in and day out repeatedly several times a day, then there’s a high chance that that’s contributing to you getting the headaches.

What’s going on with “not moving” is your joints in your neck and the base of the skull, they just don’t get any movement at all, and they stay stuck for an hour, two hours, over and over again, and when you go to start to move, they don’t want to move as good.

The joints, literally, get stuck, and that could be causing some tension headaches.

Reason #2 – Weakness In The Neck & Shoulder Muscles

If you think of all the bones in the neck -> there’s a ton of muscles around the neck, and muscles from the shoulder that connect to the neck, that give it support and allow the joints to move around.

If you’ve got weakness in certain muscles around your neck and shoulders, that could definitely be causing the joints to not move right, get stuck, pinch nerves, and cause some muscle spasms.

That can also be setting off the tension headaches, the headaches in the forehead and, of course, the eye headaches.

Reason #3 – Posture

So many people, admittedly, have horrible posture.

Posture is a factor for sure.

It can definitely cause problems, but it’s not the whole picture.

There’s more to it than posture, but if you find yourself in the type of posture where you’re just slouched for long periods of time (especially if you work at a desk and you’re there for hours) and your chin is sticking out -> that can cause those neck joints to get stuck and not move very well.

This can set off muscle spasms, pinch the nerves to the top of the head and forehead, and set off the tension headaches in the back of the head as well.

That leads us into reason number four, that you might be getting headaches.

Reason #4 – Reading Glasses

What we find our clients are doing most of the time when they’ve got those glasses on is they tip their head like this.

Say they’re looking at their phone or a book or a computer screen, they’ll lean forward with their head and neck in order to look out of the reading glasses, the reading lens.

If they’re doing that on a regular basis for long periods of time, that can also set off those headaches.

What we recommend those people do is shove those glasses all the way up or get some bigger ones that are entirely for reading, so that you can keep a much better posture if you have to be there for long periods of time.

Reason #5 – Not Drinking Enough Water

This one goes completely unnoticed by a lot of people.

Now, here’s an interesting fact related to this: the nervous system in the body is only about 2% of our body weight, yet it requires 25% of the oxygen that’s going through our blood at any given moment.

Our nerves are super stingy, and because our brain is up here and there’s a ton of nerves in our head, if we are dehydrated, then our blood volume is lower than normal, and so that means there’s not enough nutrients, oxygen, because we don’t have enough blood volume to get to the head.

That can be a factor in also causing your headaches, so make sure you hydrate.

So, guys, if you’ve got any questions, comment below or direct message us.

We’ll be happy to answer them.

Check out our website, if you want to learn more about neck problems or headaches.

You can learn more on our blog.

If you’ve got a headache, I hope this helps you, and, guys, if you know of anybody else that is constantly complaining about their headaches, tag them on here or share this with them.

I’m sure they’d love the help.

Have a great day, guys! Bye-bye.