3 Benefits of Massage Therapy For People Suffering From Migraines

Have you ever experienced nausea and increased sensitivity to light? How about coupling this with vomiting, and, most especially, pulsing and throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head? If you answered yes to most of these conditions, then you’ve most likely suffered from episodes of migraine. Now, recall what are your go-to ways to manage each migraine attack. Does it include massage therapy?

Well, if you haven’t added massage (whether done by a licensed therapist or through a convenient massage chair at home) to your migraine management regimen, this list might help you reconsider. Want to know more about how massage therapy benefits people suffering from migraines? Read on and discover a few things worth noting.

Lessen The Pain You Feel In Each Migraine Attack

What’s one of the worst things you have had to deal with whenever migraine strikes? Most people would answer pain and we bet you would totally agree with this. Because migraine-associated pain is not your usual dose of irritating headaches. It can get so intense and severe that your daily life can get completely affected and altered.

So, how can massage help lessen the pain and help you deal with the inconvenience of migraines?

Massage therapy addresses the muscles, tendons, and joints, from which the pain is coming from. In most cases, this is done by applying just the right amount of pressure needed in specific concerned areas. At the same time, massage therapy paves way for stretching targeted points in your body. In this manner, relaxation is induced and migraine-associated pain gets significantly reduced.

And do you know what else makes massage feel so therapeutic? It’s because it can also divert your brain’s focus away from the migraine attack‘s pain signals. Curious about how this happens? Keep reading.

RELATED: Bodyfriend Massage Chairs and their "Brain Massage" Technology

Remember the friction and soothing sensation that your body notably experiences whenever you are in a spa or chair massage session? Well, it’s that exact same sensation that catches your nerve fibers’ attention. The same nerve fibers, mind you, that are being bombarded with signals telling you that you are experiencing pain from migraines. Basically, nerve signals delivering relief from massage compete with the migraine pain signals carried by your nerves.

And guess which one wins? If your answer is relief, you’re correct. And you probably won’t be surprised why massage chair therapy is recognized as an effective manual and non-pharmacological therapy for migraines. But that’s not all.

Deal with Migraine-associated Nausea

Have you heard of the Traditional Chinese technique called acupressure? Certain points in your body are pressed and stimulated to trigger a corresponding physiological response in your system. Does that sound or better yet feel familiar? That’s because, at one point or another, your massage therapist (or your trusty old massaging chair) has applied this very popular technique while you enjoy a relaxing massage session.

If you’ve ever felt gentle yet firm pressing sensations on certain points on your body, most likely your acupoints are being targeted to bring you holistic relief and relaxation. Now, how exactly can nausea that you feel during a migraine attack get relieved by this? For migraine, a study shows that the acupoint PC6, when stimulated with acupressure, can be effective in the control and treatment of migraine-induced nausea.

Looking for more benefits? How about this:

Manage Migraine Attacks By Reducing Stress Levels and Promoting Better Sleep

Let’s break it down one by one.

One beneficial effect of massage therapy is that it brings down levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your body. It relaxes your tensed muscles and calms down your body’s “fight or flight response”. Now, are stress and migraine related? Definitely. Stress can trigger your migraine attack at any second. So, when you manage stress by getting a massage, you reduce your chances of suffering from another painful migraine attack.

And how about better sleep, should you address that, too? If you want to prevent further migraine attacks, improving the quality of sleep that you get should be your aim, too. Why? Because sleep and migraine headaches have a common chemical factor: serotonin. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter responsible for various sending messages to your brain, one of which is for the body function we know as sleep.

Surprisingly, when there is a decrease in the levels of serotonin in your body, migraine happens. And what role does massage therapy play in this? It improves your quality of sleep. Apparently, aside from lowering the levels of the stress hormone, massage therapy also increases the levels of certain neurotransmitters in your body. And have you figured out which neurotransmitter is included in the list? Yes, it’s serotonin.

The bottom line? A regular massage chair therapy, complemented with "brain massage" especially in these difficult and disturbing times may also help keep migraine episodes at bay since it can help you sleep better.