Quick, Safe, and Effective Relief of Head and Neck Pain

A trick that president John F. Kennedy swore by.

The following article shows benefit from using trigger point injections to treat head pain and neck pain. It also showed benefit in treating symptoms associated with migraines. Trigger point therapy was originally established with the research of Dr. Janet travell. Dr. Travell was the personal physician to John F. Kennedy and helped relieve his back pain. The therapy is based on the observation that tight or painful muscles can be released by touching or injecting a trigger point in the muscle. This resets the neuromuscular signaling and relaxes the muscle. This can produce a very relaxing effect immediately. The injections, when done appropriately, are safe and effective for releasing pain in many areas of the body. This study shows the benefit of trigger point injections in the neck muscles but trigger point injections have shown benefit in any muscle in the body. If you are having head pain, neck pain, facial pain, or migraines, trigger point injections may be a very effective treatment to give you relief from those symptoms.

In our office we often combine trigger point injections with muscle, nerve, joint, or ligament support. This gives our patients even more clinical advantage than just the typical injections used in basic trigger point injections.

“Regional Head Pain Relief Following Cervical Intramuscular injection”

Intramuscular injections (trigger point injections) is an effective and safe treatment for head, face and neck pain and migraine headaches. Headache.2003 Nov-Dec;43(10):1109-11. Regional head and face pain relief following lower cervical intramuscular anesthetic injection. Mellick GA, Mellick LB. Source: American Pain Specialists, Inc, Grafton, Ohio 44044, USA. Abstract BACKGROUND: Although cervical trigger point intramuscular injections are commonly used to relieve localized neck pain, regional head pain relief from lower cervical paravertebral injections has not been reported previously. PURPOSE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of such injections in a selected group of patients with intractable head or face pain. METHODS: In a series of patients with chronic head or face pain, local anesthetic was injected into the lower cervical spine paravertebral musculature approximately 1 to 2 inches lateral to the seventh cervical spinous process. RESULTS: In addition to producing rapid relief of palpable scalp or facial tenderness (mechanical hyperalgesia and allodynia pain), this lower cervical intramuscular injection technique alleviated associated symptoms of nausea, photophobia, and phonophobia in patients with migrainous headache. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that lower cervical intramuscular anesthetic injection may be an effective treatment for head or face pain. PMID: 14629248 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]