Why does my head hurt more often?

Why does my head hurt?

• For the past 5 days my head will start to hurt a lot in the back sides of my head. It'll hurt for like a minute or two and then stop. And then start again a half hour later and ...show more

• Answer:

  The muscles on the upper back attach to the back part of the skull where the skull suspends over the neck. This allows you to tip your head backward, for example if you were looking up in the sky. Those same muscles also attach to the spine and to the scapula, sometimes called the "wing" bones on your back. When you do activities that require you to hold your arms out in front of you, suspend them there, so that you can do whatever you are doing, it is the attachment to the scapula in back which provides the stable stationary ground that anchors the weight of your arms so that they can move freely. When you do a lot of work with your hands out in front of you, your upper back muscles have to contract a lot. If they contract more than they relax, then they can actually go back to a resting position that is shorter than originally was the case, and if this happens, then those muscles will naturally exert a pulling force on the base of your skull, causing the hurt that you are feeling. You can try asking someone to give you a shoulder massage, and if doing that feels good, then see if you can relax into it. (Some people seem to be able to massage well without any training, and others just don't have the touch, so be careful who you ask.) You can also place your hand at the side of your head, and use your thumb or fingertips to press into the tissues covering the skull behind your ears. It would be a similar motion, but much more slowly, as if you were going to flick something off your clothing by extending your fingers outward. In this case, your fingers are putting pressure into the skull tissues, and if your head were a ball of soft clay, you'd be making a little trench in the clay as the fingers moved outward. You can stretch the fascia there, which is like a broad sheet of tendon-type tissue that protects the skull bone. It doesn't matter what direction you do the stretching in. Fascia is connective tissue, and it can also contract uncomfortably if you have stress in your life. It isn't the most pleasant sensation to stretch it back out, but it will stretch out, and you will have more room for your head to be beneath it then, and chances are will have less frequent hurt on the back sides of your head. If you choose to try to stretch it out, just go slowly, because it really may not be entirely comfortable. You are stretching through the skin which covers the fascia, and the skin tissue should not give you any problem. If you go slow enough, your tissues will just give way to the pressure being put on them. If you go fast, they can tend to bounce back at you with resistance, as though they are becoming even tighter. There is a difference between feeling that the stretching is intense and feeling that it is painful. Pain signals you that harm is being done. Intensity just means that the movement you are causing on the tissues of your head exceed anything they are used to, and so they are letting you know that. Things can feel quite intense without signaling pain, that something is going wrong. If you pay attention to what you are doing, then it would be very difficult to harm yourself (like sinking your fingernails into your scalp so that they rip the tissue open---THAT would cause pain, and so you don't do it that way.) Every part of what surrounds your brain is made tough so that your brain has maximum protection. If you have access to a percussion vibrator, you can also use that on your upper back and shoulders to help those areas relax. You can also stretch the back neck muscles out, but if you do that, then bend your head forward until you feel the back neck muscles stretching out, and then RELAX into that forward position. Do not push into the forward position, just let your head hang out there a while. When you use your range of motion, it tends to lengthen. If you do not use your range of motion, it tends to contract. You can position your head forward and back, and to each side. Watch out if you choose to "roll" your head in a circle around the neck, because it is very easy to go too fast doing that. The purpose is to allow full range of motion without creating any muscular resistance, so you really have to go slow. You can play around with these techniques to see how they work for you. If you feel anything start to spasm, then you have to back off, and it may be helpful to take some supplementary magnesium, such as magnesium citrate, to help your tissues be able to relax better, or you can purchase magnesium oil to rub over areas of tension in your body, and the magnesium is absorbed through the skin. I hope something I've shared here will be helpful to you.