Tension Type Headaches

Nothing can put you down as fast as a headache of any type - but tension type headaches, which are also called stress headaches often keep us from accomplishing things that we have set out to do. Tension headaches commonly come on in the middle of the day - when we need to be at our best - making it difficult to get our work done or live our lives normally in many cases.

Most sufferer’s of tension headaches report a constant dull ache on both sides of their heads. These headaches come on slowly, and gradually increase in intensity. A tight feeling in the head and neck may also be experienced. Sometimes the pain is only mild, and sometimes they are severe. Some people report that their tension headaches are worse than a migraine headache. As with most headaches, sensitivity to light is often reported as well.

Tests are not usually required to diagnose a tension headache. Most doctors recognize the problem when the symptoms are reported. However, if you experience tension headaches on a regular basis, especially when there is nothing going on that might cause regular tension headaches, your doctor may order x-rays, a CT scan, an MRI, or blood tests just to rule out other, more serious, possibilities.

How tension headaches are treated is usually determined by the frequency of the headaches. For occasional tension headaches, over the counter pain relievers are often used. You should always read the labels of any type of headache pain relief medication you choose, and do not take it for an extended period of time. If the headaches are not occasional, see your doctor.

For frequent tension headaches, over the counter pain reliever may not work, or may eventually stop working as your body becomes accustomed to the medication. Stronger pain relief medication will most likely be prescribed. You may also need to take anti-anxiety medications as well. Again, this will be determined by your doctor based on the severity and frequency of the headaches.

Because light tends to make tension headaches worse, you should wear a pair of sunglasses to reduce light rays. Sunglasses can often even prevent the headaches. There are companies that offer sunglasses designed specifically for headache sufferers. These sunglasses not only help prevent headaches, they also prevent headache pain from becoming worse.

It is important to know that as headache pain increases it becomes harder to treat the pain. Tension headaches should be treated at the first sign, not when the pain becomes worse. You can treat the headache, from the onset, by putting on sunglasses to reduce the light, taking pain reliever - even though the pain isn’t very bad, and by getting away from a stressful situation that may have caused the headache.

You don’t have to completely forget about the stressful situation, but you can get away from it for just a little while and relax a bit. In more serious cases, a vacation may even be required. Sometimes, stress can become overwhelming it does more than cause a headache. It can make us very sick, and cause high blood pressure as well! This, in turn, can lead to even more serious health problems.

Other treatments include taking a hot bath or shower and/or using heat or ice on your neck or head. Tension headaches can be prevented, again, by wearing sunglasses in bright light, and also by making sure that you get plenty of sleep at night. Regular exercise will also reduce tension headaches. Avoiding stressful situations also helps.

Again, if you have tension headaches on a regular basis, you should really seek the advice of your health care provider. Over the counter medication won’t always help in these situations, and it may even signal a more serious problem.

Muscle Pain Relief: The Fastest Ways to Alleviate that Muscle Pain

Muscle pain is a normal experience for all of us; this could be blamed on a couple of reasons. Muscle pain can be due to overstretching the muscles or for some people, just because an advanced age. The muscle adjusts to the extended movement by causing microscopic tears in the tiny fibers of the ligaments and tendons. This is a natural response, but it requires that you give the muscles time to recover before the next session.

Most muscle pain is due to tension and overuse that may lead to inflammation. It is a severe condition that involves the connecting tissues that cover the muscles. For those in their prime, muscle pain may be because the muscles are weak already and can't withstand extended use.

Muscle pain syndrome could possibly affect either a single muscle or a muscle group. In select cases, the bodily location where a person senses the pain may not actually be where the pain generator is found. Professionals think that the actual location of the injury or the strain gives rise to the growth of a trigger point that, successively, causes pain in an alternate area. This particular pain feeling is regarded as referred pain.

A condition like this evolves from an injury or excessive strain on a certain muscle or muscle group, tendon or ligament. Other possible causes may include:

•Injury to inter vertebral disc•
•Injury
•Illness
•General fatigue/stress
•Repetitive motions
•Over usage of muscles
•Medical conditions such as heart attack and stomach irritation
•Some prescription medications

Because muscle pain has become a common problem for most everybody, the search for an effective and fast relief for muscle pain is common. An effective muscle pain remedy may come from a number of methods. A few methods include a hot shower or ice applied directly to the soreness, these usually are a great way to feel relief fast, albeit temporary. Somewhat helpful muscle relief comes from non-prescription drugs like ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, or even aspirin. Even stronger prescription medication could be used including Carisoprodol, Cyclobenzaprine, Soma and Skelaxin.

If you are looking for some great muscle pain relief methods every time you experience muscle pain, here are some useful tips which you can follow:

1. Do the RICE method (rest, ice, compression and elevation). Most athletes do this to avoid injury during practice. All you have to do is rest your sore muscles for 48 hours. During rest time wrap some ice cubes in a thin cloth and apply it to the affected area of your body for 20 minutes at a time.



2. muscle and also remove carted off lactic acid because muscle waste can be a great contribution to pain.

3. Seek some help from your medicine cabinet. Take aspirin or ibuprofen to reduce the pain for at least half an hour.

4. Massage the affected area. Rub some warm cloth to the affected area. Stop rubbing that location if it makes the pain worse. A massage usually is a fairly good method for relief; it can be very comforting and helpful if done by a knowledgeable masseuse.

5. Balm soreness. Use liniment containing menthol under heat pads on the painful area.

Also, here are list of effective pain relievers that can be of great help to you too.



1. MSM (Methyl Sulfonyl Methane)

This is used around the world for aching joint pain relief. Remember that most of these muscle pains are caused by inflammation. Inflammation is often a build up of toxins inside the joints, muscles and body fluids. MSM makes the walls of individual cells more permeable which makes it much easier for the cells to eject toxins and absorb nutrients.

2. EMU oil

This very closely associated to the natural oils found in the human body, which makes it easily absorbed into the skin. Since emu oil is so easily absorbed it will not leave a greasy feeling and goes quickly to the source of the pain. Emu oil also helps to relax the muscles.

3. Arthro-Pain Cream

This is especially effective when you are having trouble sleeping due to pain. This is odorless and will not stain your clothing. Arthro-Pain cream is specially formulated to be alkaline to help the nutrients be easily absorbed into the body and to help the body detoxify.

4. Muscle Relaxants

Muscle relaxants like Carisoprodol (Soma) (buy Soma at online pharmacy ) will remedy the stiffness and pain from strains, injuries, muscle spasms and sprains. These muscle relaxors will provide major comfort for soreness or pain from these conditions. Remember to consult with a doctor first.

If you have already tried many of the muscle pain relief methods mentioned above and nothing works, follow-up with your doctor. He or she may prescribe a temporary prescription medication similar to Carisoprodol or recommend another remedy suited especially for you. If left untreated, simple muscle pain can lead to a more serious injury, as in all things with your body, consulting a doctor is still the best idea.

Antidepressants for pain in rheumatic conditions

ain is the main symptom of many rheumatic and inflammatory conditions, and when it cannot be controlled effectively with analgesics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), or opioids, additional treatment with an antidepressant may be helpful, the authors comment. Although the use of antidepressants is increasing for conditions such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, spondylarthropathies, and osteoarthritis (OA), there are questions concerning the use of these drugs. For instance, does the analgesic effect depend on the antidepressant effect? When is such treatment appropriate and how long should it be continued?

In an attempt to answer some of these questions, the authors reviewed the medical literature (from 1996 to 2002) and also drew on expert opinion within the group. The panel comprised seven rheumatologists, one psychiatrist, and one neurologist; two of the members were also pharmacologists. They present the document as "a starting point for discussion" and designed it to be "flexible enough to gain practical acceptance in different countries."

Tricyclics are first choice for analgesia

The analgesic effects of antidepressants have been demonstrated most convincingly for tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), such as amitriptyline, but the evidence is "conflicting" for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine, the authors note. The analgesic effects appear to be independent of the effect on mood; pain relief is usually observed within one week of starting treatment, whereas the antidepressant effect usually occurs after the first two weeks. But side effects are similar whether the drugs are used to treat pain or depression.

Before initiating treatment with a TCA, the physician should check for orthostatic hypotension and perform an electrocardiogram, the group notes. In elderly patients starting TCAs, physicians should monitor blood pressure, cognition, and intestinal transit. No tests are necessary before initiation of treatment with an SSRI. Assessment of treatment efficacy should not be limited to pain evaluation but should also include functional evaluation, analgesic consumption, sleep evaluation (quality and duration), and psychological assessment. These should be started after one week of treatment.

The first choice of antidepressant for pain in patients who are not depressed is a TCA, initiated at low dose and then increased to the maximal-tolerated or minimal-effective dose. Antidepressant therapy should be integrated into a global management program along with nonpharmacological approaches, the experts write. There is no optimal duration, but treatment should last for at least four weeks before being stopped for lack of efficacy. After three to six months of remission, the dose may be gradually decreased; stopping abruptly may precipitate side effects (nausea, vomiting, trembling).

Rheumatic conditions

The experts also reviewed the clinical-trial data available for individual rheumatic conditions and add the following comments:

• In fibromyalgia, TCAs are used at doses lower than they are for depression, probably because of the side effects of these drugs. Despite their widespread use, TCAs have only a moderate effect, and only a minority of patients display sustained, marked improvement. SSRIs are better tolerated but less effective, making it necessary to increase the dose to obtain significant pain relief.
• For chronic low-back pain, tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants appear to moderately reduce symptoms independent of a patient's depression status. SSRIs do not appear to be beneficial.
• In rheumatoid arthritis, amitriptyline, trimipramine, dothiepine, and paroxetine may have analgesic effects. In ankylosing spondylitis, amitriptyline may be useful in reducing symptoms. Low doses of amitriptyline (10-30 mg) may be sufficient to produce an analgesic effect.

None of the studies included in the review dealt specifically with OA, but a large study of older patients with arthritis (mostly OA) and comorbid depression found benefits that extended beyond the reduction of depressive symptoms and included decreased pain and improved functional status and quality of life.

The authors conclude that antidepressants are recommended as analgesics for fibromyalgia, especially TCAs, but they should not be first-line analgesic treatment in low-back pain, osteoarthritis, or inflammatory rheumatic painful diseases.

Music for pain relief

The efficacy of music for the treatment of pain has not been established.

Objectives

To evaluate the effect of music on acute, chronic or cancer pain intensity, pain relief, and analgesic requirements.

Search strategy

We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, LILACS and the references in retrieved manuscripts. There was no language restriction.

Selection criteria

We included randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effect of music on any type of pain in children or adults. We excluded trials that reported results of concurrent non – pharmacological therapies.

Data collection and analysis

Data was extracted by two independent review authors. We calculated the mean difference in pain intensity levels, percentage of patients with at least 50% pain relief, and opioid requirements. We converted opioid consumption to morphine equivalents. To explore heterogeneity, studies that evaluated adults, children, acute, chronic, malignant, labor, procedural, or experimental pain were evaluated separately, as well as those studies in which patients chose the type of music.

Main results

Fifty – one studies involving 1867 subjects exposed to music and 1796 controls met inclusion criteria.

In the 31 studies evaluating mean pain intensity there was a considerable variation in the effect of music, indicating statistical heterogeneity ( I = 85.3%). After grouping the studies according to the pain model, this heterogeneity remained, with the exception of the studies that evaluated acute postoperative pain. In this last group, patients exposed to music had pain intensity that was 0.5 units lower on a zero to ten scale than unexposed subjects (95% CI: – 0.9 to – 0.2). Studies that permitted patients to select the music did not reveal a benefit from music; the decline in pain intensity was 0.2 units, 95% CI ( – 0.7 to 0.2).

Four studies reported the proportion of subjects with at least 50% pain relief; subjects exposed to music had a 70% higher likelihood of having pain relief than unexposed subjects (95% CI: 1.21 to 2.37). NNT = 5 (95% CI: 4 to 13).

Three studies evaluated opioid requirements two hours after surgery: subjects exposed to music required 1.0 mg (18.4%) less morphine (95% CI: – 2.0 to – 0.2) than unexposed subjects. Five studies assessed requirements 24 hours after surgery: the music group required 5.7 mg (15.4%) less morphine than the unexposed group (95% CI: – 8.8 to – 2.6). Five studies evaluated requirements during painful procedures: the difference in requirements showed a trend towards favoring the music group ( – 0.7 mg, 95% CI: – 1.8 to 0.4).

Listening to music reduces pain intensity levels and opioid requirements, but the magnitude of these benefits is small and, therefore, its clinical importance unclear.