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Almost everyone will get a headache at some point in his or her life. They will range from slight discomfort to a migraine. Causes of headaches are many. They range from sinus blockage to nutritional deficiencies to stress. According to headache experts, 90% of all headaches are what we call tension headaches.
Many people use over the counter medicines such as aspirin to relieve their head pain. However there are a lot of people for whom these medicines are not appropriate due to either physiological or psychological reasons.
People are searching for more natural approaches to head pain relief. The following remedies have been used for hundreds of years. Check with your doctor to make sure that your headache is not caused by a serious medical condition.
Pain relieving herbs have been around for as long as man has. Some of the most commonly used are burdock root, fenugreek, feverfew (do not take during pregnancy or while nursing), goldenseal (do not take for more than one week at a time), lavender, lobelia, and marshmallow. If you chose to take any of these remedies, please read the labels before hand. Today you can find these herbs in the pharmacy section of your local grocery store or a store that specializes in herbs.
Some of the preventable causes of headaches may be a woman who takes a high dosage of estrogen birth control pills. Most doctors will recommend going off the pill for a couple of months (while using some other form of birth control) to see if the headaches are pill related.
Another way to prevent headaches is to eat several small meals a day. This will help stabilize your blood levels and reduce head pain.
Since some headaches are caused by intolerance to food, it would be helpful to keep a food and headache diary. List what you eat and when you get the headaches. Some of the most common food intolerance's are aged cheese and other dairy, dark alcohol such as red wine and dark beers, yeast products, aspartame, cold cuts, smoked fish, vinegar, peanut butter, chicken, chocolate and bananas.
These are products, which contain tyramine and the amino acid phenylalanine. What you will need to do is eliminate these foods from your diet. After one week reintroduce one of the trigger foods and keep a journal. Wait another two to three days and reintroduce another trigger food. Do this with any and all foods you think you may have trouble with. After finding the trigger foods, the key to preventing these types of headaches is to eliminate or almost eliminate these foods from your diet.
If you think your headache is the common tension headache, what you need to do is to apply a heating pack to your neck and shoulders. This helps the muscles relax and your headache will lessen or disappear.
Apply a cold pack to the direct area the pain is coming from. You can use a damp rag with cold water right from the tap or you could put this in the freezer for a few minutes.
Using steam inhalation can relieve sinus headaches. Bring water to a roaring boil, remove from a fire and take a towel and drape over your head and the pot. Inhale deeply, this will loosen your sinus passageways and help clear your head. Another cure for sinus head pain is to fill a bathtub with as hot as water as your body can stand and shut the door to the bathtub. Important to check the temperature before entering to the tub to prevent burns.
Aromatherapy is used as a headache reliever. Some of the most popular preparations use chamomile, lavender and eucalyptus oils. Use with the above steam distillation methods by putting two or three drops of the oil in your water to clear sinus cavities.
A popular method for some people to relieve or reduce headaches is relaxation. Go to a quiet room and dim the lights. Sit or lie down and close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Concentrate on your breathing. Inhale through your nose. Each time you inhale, it is a cleansing breath. Exhale forcefully through your mouth. Each time you exhale, visualize your pain leaving your body. This technique sometimes requires practice before being able to work for some people.
To push the pain out of your head. Put your hands around your head. Spread your fingers. Your thumbs should meet at the back in the middle. Put enough pressure (but do not hurt yourself) on your head and push the headache to the middle point on the top of your head and out. Do this over as many times as it takes to push the pain out of your head.
You can use one of more of these techniques to relieve the pain as necessary. If however your vision becomes blurry, you have loss of speech, start vomiting, have a fever that persists or pounding heartbeat which accompanies your headache, please consult a healthcare professional.
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