Skip to content

14 Comments

  1. Beth
    2 September 2008 @ 3:46 pm

    Very interesting. I’ve had experience (very limited) massaging the temples of people with bad headaches. Sometimes it’s given fairly quick relief. This gives me more information than I knew before.

    Reply

  2. Cory
    13 September 2008 @ 3:26 am

    Wow – these trigger points are the real deal. Sometimes the wrong pillow with not enough support under my neck can activate trigger points and then activate a migraine. Oh – as we all know: it’s not fun to wake up behind the eight ball with a full blown migraine raging. Then it is damage control for me like: migraine meds, anti-nausea meds, hot packs on upper back, ice on sub occipitals at base of skull, deep breathing and no lights in the room for the physical component. And listening to a quiet, soft mediation cd to shift the migraine mentally. Then once the migraine eases up a bit I use my miracle balls & a theracane to start pressing on those trigger points to release them. Do consult with a doctor or physical therapist that can teach you how to properly apply pressure on the trigger points so that it effectively releases and you don’t injure yourself. I am just a fellow migraine friend sharing what helps once it is in full swing from a bad pillow night. However I have not figured out how to avert the post dromal fatigue after the migraine.

    Reply

  3. jerry pritikin
    22 September 2008 @ 8:51 am

    For me, the main trigger has been great weather changes… a few years ago( looking for help) I went to the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, and was told that weather headaches were a “Red Herring”! Needless to say… I left. In the past, I had bad reactions to a medicine called TOPAMAX… at the time it was prescribed to me, it was not yet approved by the FDA for Migraine… and was a Epilepsy medicine… In a few days, I lost the feeling in my left hand and it made food and soft drinks taste terrible. I was told I would get back to norman after stopping the drug. Years later, I still have tingling in my hands and arms and my taste was never the same. Ironically, I have seen that drug touted for losing weight or for alcohol problems on mainstream national newscast… and I can understand why… it made food and drink taste like crap! I still get weather related headaches… but I try to cope with them without any prescribed drug.

    Reply

  4. pen
    22 September 2008 @ 9:57 am

    I have Fibromyalgia. I don’t know which is cause and which is effect.
    I have migraines every 5 days or so and they , or the aftermath can last up to 8 days. I have little quality of life, and cant plan for anything. I am out of ideas…Where am i going with this….
    Well I think some of my pain is myofascial. Today I cant turn my neck without pain, my husband had to park the car. I have almost constant pain in the right side of my head from the occipital on up.
    I would so like to find out if anyone can help with these trigger points.
    I live in England, no one seem to be very clued up o them.
    I feel sure if I could deal with these I would be a lot better.
    Most of my migraines come on in the night. I have tried every posture, amount of pillows etc, but still’they come.
    I cant help but feel this is a trigger point problem but cant prove it, nor find out how to deal with it.
    thanks for featuring this.

    Reply

  5. Kathy
    24 September 2008 @ 11:03 am

    Hi Pen,
    Your migraines may very well have to do with what you are unintentionally putting in your body in regards to food and drink. I have battled migraines for over 20 years and have done every elimination diet that I came across. Then a very nice girl from England (I live in Canada) that I met online through a migraine group on Face Book, urged me to go see a herbalist/natural healing consultant. That was the best advice and the best $75 I’ve spent in my life! The herbalist put me on a 30 day cleanse, which wasn’t hard to do but she aslo told me to get off of all Caffeine. Including tea, chocolate and colas. I had kicked the coffee habit before for a month but there was no change in my migraine patterns. When I elimanated all caffeine in my diet my migraines dissappeared!!!
    I started to feel considerably better within a week of the cleanse and thats when my migraines actually stopped. Hope this helps 🙂

    Reply

  6. James
    30 September 2008 @ 9:40 am

    Oops – thought I already commented here, but apparently not! 🙂

    Thanks for the input, Cory. Certainly one of the keys to keeping the post-migraine symptoms to a minimum is to do all you can early in the attack.

    Jerry- I’m convinced that weather changes do bring on migraine attacks. The reason the clinic may have told you it’s a “Red Herring” is because it’s so hard to use that knowledge to avert the attack. For me, migraine attacks from a change in barometric pressure are the hardest to treat.

    Pen – I think Trigger Points are worth looking into for you. You need a good massage therapist who has really studied them, and who also is familiar with fibromyalgia. I’ll try to get on with the series as soon as possible – hopefully that will help equip you to find someone!

    Kathy is also right about food and drink. I think this is one of the most important basic things you can do for migraine. Search around this site for more.

    There are lots of things to try – be patient and don’t give up!

    Reply

  7. Valerie DeLaune, LAc
    11 November 2009 @ 12:15 pm

    Wow, cool – getting quoted on the internet! The cumulative effect mentioned above is called “central sensitization” and there is a lot of research going on in that area right now in all pain syndromes – the central nervous system gets involved, and pain becomes a self-perpetuating process. And Paul I is correct – the existence of myofascial trigger points (that’s the correct spelling) is not controversial, the biggest problem is getting the word out. I don’t think any practioner can treat pain syndromes effectively without understanding trigger point referral patterns. And Pen – keep trying. I get almost as many book-on-CD ROM sales from the UK as I do from the U.S., and Lotus Publishing is located there and specializes in trigger point books, so I know there are practitioners who know about trigger points. Both of my books address Fibromyalgia. There are always trigger points concurrent with FM. And thanks to James for this website!
    Valerie DeLaune, LAc

    Reply

  8. Relieving and Preventing Headaches with Massage - East Bay Alternative Medicine
    28 June 2010 @ 6:15 pm

    […] James Cottrill notes that ignoring trigger points can create a cumulative effect and lead to more frequent and longer headaches.  He also quotes Paul Ingraham’s work that describes trigger points as important, scientifically documented information that remains mostly underrepresented and misunderstood by mainstream medical practitioners. […]

    Reply

  9. jessica pitt
    8 July 2012 @ 9:25 pm

    I have been getting cluster migraines for 35 years I am getting botox treatments plus some ()%”# medicine to take the edge off the pain. What is this new thing they are treating migraine with by massaging trigger points?

    Reply

  10. Valerie DeLaune, LAc
    10 July 2012 @ 2:24 pm

    Jessica – there is nothing new about trigger points. They have been researched since the 1930’s, and there are a lot of scientific studies. I have written a book on trigger points and headaches/migraines (see http://triggerpointrelief.com/). Chances are you can get a lot of or complete relief from treating trigger points and resolving the perpetuating factors.

    Reply

  11. Chris BeHanna
    3 November 2012 @ 3:32 pm

    I get triggerpoints all the time. They are usually located in the trapezius shoulder and neck area. They tend to be more painful on one side—typically my left; however, I find I also have some pretty bad ones on the right. I get a lot of relief from using a Ther – A – Cane to get at the triggerpoints in my shoulders and back. However, I find that it only provides temporary relief, and the exercise has to be repeated frequently throughout the day to postpone – not avoid – a migraine attack.

    Reply

  12. Valerie DeLaune, LAc
    5 November 2012 @ 5:00 pm

    Chris – there are likely additional trigger points in other muscles that are involved that you aren’t treating, like the sternocleidomastoid and the temporalis muscles. You also likely have perpetuating factors that need to be addressed for long-term relief.

    Reply

  13. Gail Falzon, RN
    2 May 2013 @ 7:49 am

    During my own traumatic life event, I discovered that my 24/7 headaches were indeed trigger point related. I was taught how to go INSIDE my mouth to inactivate the TPs. This changed my life in such a profound way, I’ve spent well over 10 years researching and treating. I had to find a way to help everyone out there so I developed the MyoFree Solution which is a self-help “kit” to teach you step-by-step how to treat yourself whether you have TMJ (jaw disorder), headaches or atypical face pain/neuralgias. If you have this knowledge along with Valerie DeLaune’s book, you can help yourself and…take back your life! See http://www.tmjpainsolutions.com for more information.

    Reply

  14. Trigger points: more than a pain in the neck! | The Body Works | BEXHILL
    29 September 2014 @ 7:47 pm

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *