The Doctor and Captain Janeway (Star Trek Voyager)

In a scene on the episode of Star Trek Voyager called "Scientific Method" we see the doctor making a .......cabin call with his massage table....let's look in:

The Doctor: "Your trapezius is as hard as a rock! You haven't been following the relaxation regiment I prescribed for you"
Captain:"I've been too busy"
The Doctor: "The usual story, have you been getting enough sleep?"
Captain:"More or less, mostly less"
The Doctor: "....and have your headaches been getting any worse?"
Captain:" No, but they haven't been getting any better they're like hot needles driving into my skull"
The Doctor:" Your symptoms are hardly surprising captain you work absurdly long hours, under constant stress, eating on the run without sufficient exercise or rest; your body is crying out for mercy!"
Captain: "It certaintly is right now!  There must be some easier way to do this doctor, a hypo spray maybe?"
The Doctor: "Always looking for the simple fix, sometimes there's no substitute for intensive osteopathic pressure therapy.  You're fortunate enough to have a masseur who can work all day without tiring!

Sound familiar?  Now granted, the crew of Voyager had invisible aliens that were conducting science experiments on  them and Janeway did indeed have needles coming out of her head but the symptoms are real, common, and plague us today.  Unfortunately, there are no "masseurs" who can work all day without tiring but wouldn't that be lovely?  We do however have wonderful massage therapists who are always looking to relieve their clients of the inconvenience that we all share of...well.....living......especially in this cutthroat economy. 

Now the trapezius muscle as seen here is a great culprit of severe headaches.  Notice how the upper traps go all the way to the occiput (base of the skull).  This muscle is responsible for helping you to remain erect, hold your head from drooping, pulling your arms back and down.  Now imagine if you are always doing that, all the time like sitting at a computer all day, or hunched over a desk.  What great headaches will occur then if the muscle never has a chance to relax.  On the right side of the picture we have rhomboids and levator scapula which also assist in the retraction and rasing of the scapula.  It is no wonder that while getting the back massaged you can feel it in the head.  The "relaxation regiments" the doctor thus prescribed can be incredibly useful to clients in between their massage sessions which, I might add, should be regular (once a week to once a month max)  We silence our body when it tries to tell us of its need because we feel we need to work more or workout more to the point of damaging it with cancer or unreparable tissue damage, bone splints, seized musculature and driving it to the point of being useless to us before a normal age.  When all one needs to do is get a massage! I'll talk about some relaxation and stress management tips in my next blog.  In the meantime........get a massage!