Question
Hello Mr Gold
I occasionally experience sort of a burning sensation up the back of my head, especially after sudden physical exersion.  I can feel two lines of pain starting from either side of my cervical spine (at about c3)that shoot straight upwards to almost the top of my head.  I have other neuro symptons that I've had checked out lately. I don't know if there is any relation.  The most common is paresthesia in my arms, hands, legs, and feet. The other frequently occurring sympton is chestpain. I've also had some visual disturbances and muscle weakness.  I had a visual exam as well as a CT of head, Xray of chest, MRI of cervical,thoracic,and brain. All Negative.
They still cannot find the cause of these problems.  The issue about the burning sensation on the back of my head, seems to keep getting dropped.  For the past couple of days, I've been experiencing it almost around the clock.  That's by far the longest duration.  Also whats different, is that I wasn't involved in any physical activity prior to.  Any idea what it might be?  What is located up the back of the head that might be hurting?
Thanks for your time.
KEnny

Answer
Kenny,

Sounds like a significant amount of neck tension -- simple as that.  Neck tension pulls upon the connective tissue of the skull and causes pain when too tight.  Such tension would not show up on x-rays and would not necessarily by recognized as significant by radiologists.

I've had clients' paraesthesias disappear during sessions in which we freed the neck musculature.

There are a few Hanna somatic educators who know the techniques for dealing with neck tension.  I would contact someone near you and ask.  The list of practitioners is at <http://www.somatics.com/page6.htm>.

It is also possible that certain exercises in the book, The Magic of Somatics, would relieve some of your neck tension.  

Lawrence Gold
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