Integrative Acupuncture Clinic

Just two nights of bad sleep can cut satiety hormone leptin levels by 20% and increase hunger hormone ghrelin levels by 30%. Just three nights of bad sleep can make your body 25% less sensitive to insulin, a decrease approximately equivalent to that brought on by gaining 20-30 pounds of body fat.

🔈 TIGHT HIP FLEXORS CAN GIVE YOU A HEADACHE

ℹ️ Can tight hip flexor muscles cause a headache? Certainly, tight myofascial tissue in one region of the body can cause pain and/or dysfunction locally, but as most manual therapists know, it can also cause pain and dysfunction elsewhere in the body. There are many ways that a problem in one region of the body can affect another distant region of the body, including myofascial meridian lines of tension and myofascial trigger point referral. But another way is through mechanical kinematic chains of myofascial pulls that result in postural distortion compensation patterns. So, with this in mind, let’s examine the kinematic chain of elements that can lead from tight hip flexor musculature to headaches.

💡 A kinematic chain of elements simply refers to the links in a chain that are interconnected that involve movement. So, for example, the movement of the lower extremity involves the following kinematic “links”: foot, leg, thigh, and pelvis. Similarly, the movement links of the upper extremity are the: hand, forearm, arm, and shoulder girdle. And the kinematic links of the axial body are the: pelvis, lumbar spine, thoracic spine, cervical spine, and head. The concept is that motion and posture at one link of the chain affects motion and posture at the other links along the chain.

So, here is how it is happening:

➡️ Tight hip flexor musculature causes excessive anterior tilt of the pelvis,
➡️ which causes hyperlordosis of the lumbar spine,
➡️ which causes hyperkyphosis of the thoracic spine,
➡️ which causes hypolordosis of the lower to middle cervical spine with hyperlordosis (hyperextension) of the head at the atlanto-occipital joint,
➡️ which causes forward head carriage,
➡️ which causes tight posterior neck muscles,
➡️ which causes a headache.

✔️ CONCLUSION

When working as a manual therapist, it is necessary not only have excellent hands-on skills, but also understand how the human body functions mechanically and learn to recognize patterns of mechanics and pathomechanics that travel through the body.

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