During the holiday season, it’s easy for our regular schedules, movement practices, and self-care practices to get disrupted. However, for those with migraine or persistent pain, one of the best things we can do for ourselves is work to stay ahead of our symptoms. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Often we think of this in an all-or-nothing mindset. I need to do two …
Migraines and Holidays
Some things to remember from a migraine & headache specialist this holiday season: You might know certain foods, drinks, travel, or changes in routine can contribute to a migraine attack or a flare in symptoms. This means you’re informed and have the autonomy to make decisions using this information. You are not a bad person or bad at caring for …
Injury Prone Runner and Strength Training
An Injury Prone Marathoner & ‘Finding’ Time for Strength training After struggling with chronic overuse injuries, I’m training for my first marathon in five years. Finally, after learning & growing a lot as an athlete and obsessive runner, I felt ready to tackle the marathon again. So, of course, I’m really diligent about my strength training every week. Except I …
Migraine and Veterans
How Migraine Affects Our Veterans and What We Can Do About It “We always say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ But it should be, ‘Thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice. What can I do to help you ease the pain you’ve suffered?'” says, John Feal, 9/11 First Responder & Army Veteran.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Feal elaborates that migraine …
Massage and Manual Therapy
What’s the difference between massage and manual therapy? At Momentum Physical Therapy in Bozeman, Montana, I’m often asked how manual therapy and massage are similar or different. At first glance, it may be easy to mistake certain types of manual therapy for massage therapy. However, there are significant differences between these two treatment methods. The American Medical Association defines the …
Injury and Nutrition
How does injury affect appetite? Many of my physical therapy patients in Bozeman, Montana lead pretty active lives. When injury strikes and forces their activity to stop or slow way down, sometimes their appetites drop off. We might assume this is due to decreased activity, but metabolically speaking it takes time for the metabolism to adjust to decreased activity. Pain …
Chronic Pain Treatment
A lot of patients come to me after being in pain for months or years. Some of them have sought help but not found answers and given up. Others felt like their pain wasn’t enough to reach out for help, so they just accepted their pain as part of their new normal. This is something I see far too often, …
Migraine or Chronic Migraine?
Have you heard the term chronic migraine? Do you wonder if you have chronic migraine? The term chronic does not refer to the severity of the migraine symptoms, but rather the number of migraine days in a given period of time. Doctors categorize the frequency of migraine attacks into three categories- episodic, high frequency episodic, and chronic. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ These categories …
Migraine and Diet
Have you noticed a relationship between diet and migraine? For many people, the foods they consume have a notable effect on their migraine frequency. Many different diets have been touted as the ideal “migraine diet” however, there have not been studies that demonstrate one specific diet being superior to another for migraine management. A recently published study showed that: “Adherence …
Disc Bulge and Back Pain
Many things that are diagnosed on imaging appear to be present in a large number of people without low back pain as well. In this study, 52% of 30-year-olds had disc degeneration (and had no pain or loss of function). And the percentage went up with each decade of life. This means we might need to reframe our thinking about …