As you may know i suffer from Silent Migraines that bring on a Strained like Tension and Motion that is felt in and around my head but very little pain. My partner helps to give me head and neck massage and although it’s no cure it sure helps to relax my head for a little while and overall feels better. Does anyone here at the forum receive massage and does it give you some short-term relief? I’m certainly no doctor but sometimes i wonder if there is poor circulation to the brain and surrounding areas?
I’ve founf Head Massage to be effective in relieving that tightness feeling. Also face massage. I have an old yoga book that has a few pages devoted to migraine and headache relief via an ordered massage routine on the face. When I first had MAV in my teens, my mum used to do this for me.
Here in Europe you can get a metal head massager thing that looks like a spider. It is fantastic. You can even do it yourself but you really need someone to do it for you (i.e. hold the thing above your head and move it over your scalp). It costs the equivalent of $3 -$6.
I’ve always loved having my hair brushed and fiddled with. It sends me into a trance. Love it at the hairdressers when they massage your scalp. I think in my case it’s more to do with general relaxation and endorphin production in the brain than a circulation thing. I find having my feet massaged has the same effect! So can’t be directly affecting blood circulation in head then (although it’s obviously having a holistic effect somehow).
I wish I could buy a machine that will massage my head for me! This is an unwanted side effect of being separated fom one’s spouse!
I’m always asking my husband to rub my neck, shoulders, and face, and it really does make me feel better. The doctor I see because of my TMJ tells me that my neck muscles are unusually tight and that may be feeding into my headaches and other symptoms. He is encouraging me to try physical therapy for it, actually.
I see a massage therapist every month or two. He spends the whole hour on my neck, shoulders, face, upper back. It really helps. Also, I don’t move my head as much as normal people to prevent dizziness, and I look in a microscope all day at work. The massages are expensive but one of the things that help the most.
I used to perform massage and other somatotherapy professionally, and my wife’s learned a bit from me. When she massages my head/neck/shoulders, it can help quite a lot.
My friend is a shiatsu therapist and he does the migraine points on my head neck and face.It does help but sometimes I slap him as it hurts so much,but it’s worth it for me.
I’ve been having reflexology for a couple of months now. I think it does help and I can never understand how she can find tender spots in my feet and then say “oh thats your …” and thats where I’m suffering!!! I think its also helped with the stress - this may be because its the only time I truly relax and switch off!
In terms of massage, I suffer from neck and shoulder pain really bad - I’ve been nervous about having a massage though as when my lovely man has massaged my neck its made me unbalanced and light-headed!
Overall from the feedback sounds like Massage to the head, shoulders and face and probably an all around body massage helps us feel somewhat better even though it’s certainly not a cure. I’m wondering after a person gets a hour or so massage and alot of the toxins are moved out of our system…i’m wondering if that could be a reason why sometimes we feel a little more dizzy for a certain amount of time after the massage??
I"m getting my 2nd massage this coming Saturday and so looking forward to it! Maybe if we were to get them more often…we would begin to see some improvement in our condition??
I went for reflexology yesterday. I find it a mixture of relaxation and discomfort. Some areas of my feet she really digs into and it’s quite painful. Yesterday she said she could feel that I’m too much in my head and need to focus my energy all over my body, i.e. ‘ground myself’ more.
Afterwards I felt a bit achey all over, then about four hours later I felt utterly exhausted and quite dizzy. I went to sleep and slept for nearly 14 hours, waking up only to take my contact lenses out! Then this morning I awoke feeling fluey. My ears felt all blocked and I was quite dizzy still.
I reckoned I was either coming down with a cold or it was hayfever. Then a bit later in the day I wondered whether it was anything to do with the reflexology. Perhaps what I dismissed as mumbo jumbo about toxins being released in the body was actually the case and that’s why I felt so crap!
Dizzyizzy - the first time I have reflexology, the therapist said that you can feel quite ill after a session. For us that will probably more severe than ‘normal’ people! She did the first few sessions quite gently to see how my body responded. Also if I’m having a bad day again she’ll only do a gentle session. She said its due to the toxins leaving your body!
I was never a believer, but now I think it does make a difference, if only because its the only time I truly relax!
Hope you feel better soon
Tracey x
Me too, I’m trying similar, called “Alphabiotics” ( a combo of chiropractor, accupuncture, reflex, etc.) and he told me the same thing, and suggested to take 2 showers and scrub, scrub, scrub all the toxins off your skin because everything would be coming to surface and to drink tons of water. I don’t think we can comprehend how important it is and how many toxins it does get out of our system but I’d go lighter next time.
Had my follow-up Sweedish Massage (the last massage was two weeks ago) and it appears alot of the knots in my shoulder/back area are lessened because of my Previous massage a couple weeks ago… Some parts of the massage he really digs in but it’s important to clean it all out. I even told him about my Vestibular Migraine and some of my symptoms so he worked on my neck for quite some time. My body feels so much more Relaxed and less pain in my neck and shoulders. The place i’m having my massage done is where these people are becoming professional…it’s basically a Training School so the massages are much cheaper. I have scheduled yet another massage in about a month from now. If thefunds holds out i’m going to keep having these massages and see where it takes me.
