If you have frequent tension headaches

If you have frequent tension headaches (more often than once or twice a week), here are some strategies that can help you prevent them:

1. Pay attention to the basics. Don’t skip meals, get enough sleep, and pace yourself to avoid stress and fatigue.
2. Relaxation techniques. Physical and relaxation therapies can help stave off tension headaches, so long as you practice these techniques regularly. Physical approaches include applying a heating pad to your neck and shoulders to relax the muscles. Exercising these muscles also helps, by strengthening and stretching them. Relaxation exercises that focus your attention on various parts of your body in order to relax and release tension and stress can also help.
3. Biofeedback. This relaxation technique requires special training but can help people avoid recurrent tension headaches. Typically, a therapist will attach electrodes to your skin to detect electrical signals from your neck and shoulder muscles. You learn to recognize when you are becoming tense and then find ways to relax the muscles before they tighten so much you develop a tension headache.
4. Medical approaches. Some people with tension headaches have very sensitive areas, known as trigger points, at the back of the neck or in the shoulders. Injecting a local anesthetic into these areas may eliminate the pain and prevent the headache from occurring again. There are also a number of medications that can help keep tension headaches at bay. If non-drug therapies aren’t giving you the relief you need, talk with your doctor about the medication options that might be right for you.