Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening (AIS) treats migraine, cluster, tension, or chronic headaches as a muscular disorder. The source of headache pain is excessive muscular tension in the upper body, neck, and jaw muscles. Muscular tightness or weakness in these areas will refer pain into the head region. Night time teeth grinding can also play a role in causing pain in the head. Migraine treatment involves lengthening and rebuilding the numerous muscles that uphold the head. Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) has the best treatment plan for reducing inflammation in muscles that cause chronic pain in the head region.
AIS therapy is an alternative to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (nsaid's) and analgesic drugs. In the book Heal Joint Pain Naturally by Ellen Hodgson Brown, research found that "nsaid's and analgesic pain- relievers impede the body's ability to repair itself (page 20)." Nsaid's and analgesic drugs promote a cycle of dependence with detrimental consequences to the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract. Pain relieving drugs reduce inflammation temporarily as the solution to migraine, cluster, or tension head pain, without addressing the source of the pain. Active Isolated Stretching reduces inflammation by lengthening each tight muscle that is contributing to head pain. The long term solution to head pain involves rehabilitation to the muscles that support the head.
The textbook Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction written by Janet Travell, M.D. pioneered the concept of referred pain problems. This concept is also called trigger point theory. Dr. Travell discusses how inflexibility or trauma in specific muscles will cause pain to corresponding regions of the body. Dr. Travell's trigger point theory illuminated the finding that the area where pain is felt and the source of pain can be two separate regions.