Lockdown reminders to help keep your headaches and migraines at bay

Hey everyone! For those joining us from Melbourne like myself, then we are in lockdown number five! We’re used to this song already.

Just a couple of COVID reminders and lockdown reminders that can help you keep your headaches and migraines at bay during this lockdown.

Hello, I’m Dr Beth, osteopath here at Melbourne Headache Solutions.

Number one, first and foremost, you want to keep your body active and moving. During lockdowns, we tend to stay really still, really stagnant, and we don't move anywhere near as much as we normally would. Make sure that you're going outside and getting that regular walking. Get everything moving, get those muscles loose. Get those joints moving. It's going to help to decrease those headaches and migraines and help to keep them at bay. So fabulous.

Second, we want to make sure that the neck itself is moving. We're spending a lot more time with screen time, sitting, watching TV, reading books, in front of computers, those sorts of things. So, make sure that you're doing specific neck movements. My favourite is doing a nice gentle neck roll.

You can go from side to side. I like doing TikToks as well. Also, don't forget your forwards and backwards head motions like you're a pecking bird. Okay. Great head movements. We want to keep the neck specifically mobile again, to help try to keep those headaches and migraines at bay.

I know a lot of people have been working from home just consistently. But for a lot of people, they were at the office and now they're back at home again. So, make sure that your work set up is as ergonomically set up or as ergonomically set up as possible. Make sure that your computer is not, down so that you're not looking down at the screen –it needs to be at eye level for you. Make sure that things aren't too far away from you so that you're not reaching for them and those sorts of things. These are gonna, again, help to make sure that your headaches and migraines are staying at bay and not increasing.

Usually, during a lockdown, people see that they have an increase in stress and anxiety. Even if you don't acknowledge it yourself, feeling stressed or anxious, your body can certainly present it. Sometimes, people see an increasing clenching either nighttime or daytime clenching, you feel an increasing shoulder tension or neck tension and those sorts of things. If you're seeing that this is happening, then please listen to your body, acknowledge it, and do something to help it. So, with your shoulders, you can do shoulder rolls, shrugging your shoulders up and down and with your jaw, massage it. You can always do an internal release to try to release your jaw, doing some jaw jiggles just to help get it released. With your neck, do a little bit of a gentle massage, just from halfway down your neck. As I said, some neck rolls, keeping it mobile and healthy. All these sorts of things will help as well.

Also, make sure that you're making some time consciously for you to relax and decrease that stress or anxiety response. Things like breathing exercises, mindfulness, going out for a walk, and those sorts of things can help. Remember that it is also cold so if you are going outside, make sure that your neck is supported with something like a scarf so that you're not also doing that shrugging up response to make sure that you're staying warm.

If you’re feeling stiff and sore around your upper body because you are stressed, you are feeling anxious, ergonomic postures or you are just cold and you've been shrugging up, heat packs across the shoulders are always a great thing. Make sure it's more around the shoulders and not the back of the neck because if it's around the back of the neck, you'll be poking forwards. And again, you're more likely to see a bit of an increase in your headaches and your migraines. Okay.

You are also more likely to eat junk food when you're staying indoors. So, don’t forget to add some healthy fruit and vegetables to your diet as well. Make sure that we're not getting those sugar spikes happening as well. Electrolytes are fantastic, as well as drinking water, of course.

These are all my top tips regarding making sure that the lockdown is more working for your headaches and migraines rather than against your headaches and migraines.

If you have any additional top tips, then please feel free to comment and let me know. And if you've got any specific questions regarding yourself or lockdown, again, please feel free to let me know. Thanks, guys. Good luck and fingers crossed this lockdown will end in a week!