SIMPLE PAIN RELIEF with Kathryn Merrow, the Pain Relief Coach

Tension headaches should more accurately be called Muscle Tension Headaches.  Muscles are the most common cause of head pain.  Almost always, in fact!

When your jaw gets tight or your head moves forward the muscles around your upper back, neck and face get strained and tight.  Tight muscles clamp down on nerves and blood vessels.  The result is a muscle tension headache.

What natural steps should you take to get rid of tension headaches?

1.  Watch your posture.  Try to keep it neutral and straight.  A strong back will help with this.

2.  Use a pillow or rolled towel behind your waist to help you sit upright.

3.  Ice the back of your neck.  Try to wrap your cold pack all the way down to the notch between your collar bones.  Some people find heat to be more beneficial.

That’s it in a nutshell:  Muscles cause painful tension headaches.

Tags: causes tension headaches, Kathryn Merrow, natural cure stress headaches, natural remedy for tension headaches, what causes muscle tension headaches

If you sit a lot during the day and your legs swell but the swelling goes down overnight try these suggestions.

When you are stuck at the desk do the same thing that is recommended during air travel:

I call them ‘butt-ups.’  Squeeze your buttocks; make the buttock muscles tight so that you get pushed up.

If you did this several times, you would look like you are bouncing.  Do it several times in a row.  The muscle contractions get the blood and lymph fluid moving.  You can do this with large or small squeezes.  You can also alternate sides–left, right.

Also, to help reduce the swelling in your legs, at other times, lift one Continue Reading »

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There are two sets of large muscles that can cause pain in your jaw and the area around your jaw joint:  the massater muscles and the temporalis muscles.  Check out the Category for Jaw Pain on the right hand side of this website for more articles on the massater and other muscles that can be involved.

You can feel the muscle that crosses your jaw joint if you place your fingers over the joint and pretend you are chewing.  That’s the massater.  You have two–one on each side.

You can also feel the temple muscles by placing your fingers on the sides of your head in line with your eyebrows and pretending to chew.   Again, this muscle is on each side of your head.  It the temporalis muscle.

There is a depression in your skull on each side and the temporalis muscle is packed in there.  It’s actually a pretty good sized muscle.

The red area in the picture is Continue Reading »

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Your computer mouse can cause pain around your shoulder blade and below your armpit.  Here are a few things to do that will help you prevent that.

1.  Stretch your arm up and slightly backward.

2.  Squeeze your shoulder blades toward your spine.  Or try to touch your elbows together behind your back.  You probably can’t really do that but it gets your muscles moving in the right direction.

3.  Place your mouse in Continue Reading »

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If you suffer from pain in your lower back and neck you can benefit from a lumbar support pillow.  It’s easy to make your own and it’s a good way to get natural back pain relief.

You can create Continue Reading »

Tags: cheap lumbar support, get rid of aching back muscles, how to make back muscles feel better when you drive, Kathryn Merrow, lower back pain natural remedy

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Feet hurt?  Feet take a beating all the time.  And if you are carrying a few extra pounds that creates a lot of stress on the joints, bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons in your feet.

A rheumatologist (a medical doctor who specializes in arthritis and similar diseases) said that if you lose just ten pounds–Just Ten Pounds!–a lot of your foot pain will be gone!

Gone!

She said you don’t have to get to normal weight to get rid of foot pain.  Just Continue Reading »

Tags: do shoes cause foot pain, foot pain natural relief, get rid of foot pain naturally, Kathryn Merrow, natural remedy for foot pain

Do you have a stiff neck?  Here are eight ways you can get that tight neck loosened up.

1.  Massage.  If you have massage does your massage therapist massage, warm and loosen the muscles on the front of your chest and arms and abdomen?  Does she or he or has anyone checked to see whether you have flat arches on your feet?  Did you know that flat feet can cause neck pain?

2.  Posture corrections.  Neck muscles can pull your head forward.  I hope your massage therapist works on the muscles in the front of your neck and on the sides of your neck and not just in the back?  Do you Continue Reading »

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Tension headaches should really be called Muscle Tension Headaches.  They happen when we do things that tighten the muscles that attach at the base of the head.  What are some of these things?

1.  Driving.  Most car seats tilt back too far or have headrests that push your head forward.  Either of these will strain the muscles that cause tension headaches.

2.  Couches (sofas) and chairs that have too much backward lean.

3.  Slouching or sitting on your tailbone with a rounded back.  Slouching or leaning sideways will do it, too.

4.  Forward head posture or holding your head in front of your body.

What’s the solution?

1.  Padding Continue Reading »

Tags: cause of tension headache, get rid of tension headaches, Kathryn Merrow, muscle tension headaches, pain relief coach

Bodies heal all the time.

Sometimes when you have pain or discomfort you think, “I’m getting old.”

Or maybe you (or your doctor) says, “It’s arthritis.”

Well, maybe it’s arthritis.  Maybe not.  But it’s probably muscles and muscles are fixable.

Joint pain is often really muscle pain.  We think Continue Reading »

Tags: cause of joint pain, is it arthritis, Kathryn Merrow, muscle pain relief, pain relief coach