Finding Trigger Points for Instant Migraine Relief | Chiropractor for Migraines in Fairhaven, MA
This is Dr. Sheridan from Barley Wellness. And we’re going to talk about migraines and the role that trigger points play in your treatment of migraines. And we’re going to talk specifically about three muscle groups, the suboccipital oils, the SEM muscle, and the upper trapezius muscle, and how they play a role in treating your migraines.
How We Find Trigger Points to Relieve Your Migraines
Oftentimes, when you come to the chiropractor, we’re focusing on your whole body. But in particular, with migraines, we’re looking at the top part of your cervical spine, where the nerves go back up towards your head. And when those areas are misaligned, they cause some irritation, and those muscles tend to tighten up. And they will get knots in them, if you will, what we call trigger points. And we will be working on those as well as adjusting that area of your spine. But there’s some of these things that you can probably do at home. And we’re looking at the suboccipital muscles here, and this tiny little muscles that turn your head and position your head, and they can give you a presented with a headache in that shaded area that goes right behind your eye. And then that’s the SEM muscle where it goes down the side of your neck. And that can come up around your eye and into your into your face a little bit.
So muscle goes from behind here down to the collarbone. And then your upper trap muscle which is right around here would give you it’s tough to see the shaded area, but it gives you that area right up over your ear. And that’s often come with a headache or a migraine.
Instant Migraine Relief at Home
So these are areas that we would be working on. But you could do a little bit at home too, if you wanted to, you could just feel along and gently palpate that area. And if you had a tight spot, you could kind of squeeze it. Apply some pressure, try and breathe through it slowly. For 10 to 60 seconds, you would be putting some pressure there, what you’re looking for is for the tension or the discomfort to decrease a little bit. That would be for the SEM muscle.
A good way to do the suboccipital muscles would be to just take your thumbs like this, and feel for the back of your skull and follow it to yours. And if you find a tight spot, and if it recreated that feeling behind your eye, that’d be the spot to put some pressure on and just try and breathe through it and through your nose out through your mouth. And again, 10 to 60 seconds. If it releases a little bit, that’s great. Try and hydrate when you after you do these things to get fluids in your back into your muscles. And the upper trap is kind of tough, but you can kind of hang on it with your fingers here and just press breathe through it again 10 to 60 seconds if you want to tip your head away a little bit that might help also.
Those are just some simple things you can try and do while you’re at home. They’re also things that we would incorporate into your care here.
So if you’ve got migraines and you want to come in and get some help, come on in and we’ll try and help you out.
