What Is Headache?

 

Headache is a very common condition that most people will experience many times in their lives.

And according to the World Health Organization, nearly everyone has a headache occasionally.

1 in 20 people suffers from headaches daily and that could be quite debilitating.

 

Headaches come in many different sizes, many different forms.

 

Today, what I would like to do with you is discuss the six most common forms of headaches with you, and natural remedies for those headaches.

 

I’m not saying don’t take the pills that are normally been prescribed by doctors for migraines or stuff that will help you with tension headaches, but something that you can use in addition to that medication.

 

Or maybe, the natural remedies will help you all together and you don’t need to take the other ones.

 

But I’ll leave that up to you.

 

Types Of Headaches:

• Sinus
• Migraine
• Headache Caused By Digestive Problems
• Cluster
• Stress
• Tension
• Anxiety

 

So the type of headaches that we’re going to discuss today are given above and the last three I’m gonna wrap up all in one ’cause they’re quite similar.

 

So starting with the sinus headache.

 

Sinus Headache:

A sinus headache is a headache caused by inflammation of your sinuses.

 

Your sinuses are cavities in your skull, and the cavities are located, your forehead, behind your nose, and underneath your eyes, and they become inflamed.

 

And the typical pain patterns, obviously forehead, behind the nose, and underneath your eyes.

 

It causes a deep, dull ache, a chronic ache around the eyes, the nose, and the head.

 

Telltale signs of a sinus headache.

 

It’s tender to touch, so tapping it brings pain, and it’s aggravated by movement.

 

Two-movement especially:

 

Bending your head forwards aggravates the pain, and laying on your back will aggravate the pain.

 

So those are two telltale signs.

 

We often have some associated symptoms with it as well. So you cough, are cold, or you feel a bit nasally.

 

Those are all signs that are associated with sinus headaches.

 

And we got some remedies, thankfully, for it as well.

 

You can use some decongestants that will help to free up those sinuses.

 

You can syringe your nose and sinuses using salt water.

 

You can buy some pre-made solutions at any supermarket or make them yourself.

 

Use some boiled water so you make sure all the bacteria are dead in it, add some salt in it, let it cool off, and then syringe your sinuses using saltwater.

 

Or something which might help as well is to cut up an onion and leave it next to your bed, and the onion helps to relieve the pressure in your nose and that helps to create a gateway for the sinuses to empty themselves.

 

So that’s something you can do for sinus headaches.

 

The second headache we’re going to discuss with you is migraines. Now, they’re extremely common.

 

Migraine:

It’s estimated that one in seven people suffer from migraines from time to time.

 

The location of the migraines is often one side of your skull.

 

So either there or there.

 

It could be behind the eyes, but often it’s one side behind the scull. It’s extremely painful. It’s often associated with photophobia. So you have a sensitivity to light, sensitivity to sound.

 

Some people have an aura where their visual field constricts, and it almost looks like they look through a keyhole.

 

That’s the type of visual field that they have, sometimes accompanied by nausea or vomiting.

 

It’s very, very extreme. It could take several days to get over it.

 

We know some triggers for this. We know there are some food triggers.

 

So you talk about alcohol, you talk about cheese, you talk about some chocolate, unfortunately, sometimes.

 

Stress can cause it.

 

Especially, we know that the neck can cause a problem and create stress. Shoulders up, that can trigger a migraine as well.

 

So if you wanna combat stress or if you are in a stressful period, make sure you do some either meditation, take a hot bath, do some breathing exercises, control the stress, and you might be able to control your migraine.

 

There is recently a study was published about the link between digestive conditions and migraine. So for example, IBS or celiac disease, there’s a link between the two and migraine.

 

So again, control your food and you could control your migraine.

 

Hormones can play a big role in this as well, especially imbalance of hormones when you’re oestrogen dominant.

 

That can cause a migraine.

 

When your onset of the migraine is around your menstrual cycle, that’s a telltale sign as well.

 

When you have a headache, a migraine during your pregnancy, or postpartum after your pregnancy, again, a telltale sign.

 

Or, if your migraine began or it stopped even taking birth control pills, another thing.

 

Now, a natural thing, you can eat foods that contain oestrogen.

 

And examples of these foods are tofu, flax seeds, sesame seeds, soybeans, hummus, and garlic.

 

So those are the six foods you can eat, the top six foods that contain the highest level of oestrogen in foods out there.

 

Then go back to the causes.

 

Another cause of migraines can be idiopathic, which is unfortunate, but it means we just don’t know what’s causing your migraine.

 

And the last thing is the neck. As I mentioned before, the tension in your neck can trigger a migraine.

 

So releasing the tension, something we can help with as chiropractors, by adjusting your neck, loosening things off, using medical dry needling, getting rid of tension in the neck in the muscles that connects your skull to your spine, releasing some tension in there, which will help some soft tissue work on top.

 

We can do some breathing exercises with you.

 

Often what we see, especially in stressful times, people tend to breathe shallowly on the chest, (audibly inhaling) here, and not through the tummy, (audibly inhaling) there.

 

So that’s something we can help you with. So those things will help with migraines.

 

Two other foods you can take, generally natural remedies for migraines.

 

Vitamin B12, i.e. riboflavin, preferably for three months to see the full result of taking vitamin B12.

 

That’s something you can try.

 

And ginger, about 1,000 milligrams a day. And ginger has the additional benefit that it can help with nausea and vomiting as well.

 

So those are another two natural remedies you can try when you’re struggling and suffering from migraines.

 

The third type of headache I’d like to discuss with you are:

Headaches caused by digestive problems:

So you can see here, the pattern of digestive problems is around the forehead and the eyes.

 

Now, there are often some associated symptoms with it as well.

 

So you’ve got some stomach problems, some kidney or gallbladder, and intestinal ailments, that come with it.

 

And generally, people are sensitive to food.

 

The best thing to do for this is to keep a food diary.

 

So if you have a headache one day, go back to your food diary, see if you can discover a pattern, what have you had the day before and maybe you can see a pattern, and avoid the kind of foods and therefore avoid the headaches caused by digestive problems.

The last three headaches.

Stress Headache:

Tension Headache:

Anxiety Headache:

I’ll wrap it up, I’ll do them all together, are tension headaches, stress headaches, and anxiety headaches. They often come on at the end of the day.

They are located often wise from the neck, located at the back of the skull.

The forehead as well. They tend not to drop below the eyes. And they often are associated with a very tight feeling around the skull, like you’re wearing a tight, tight cap. There’re aggravated by stress and poor posture.

Imagine you’re sitting in front of the computer, for example, sitting like this (front of the computer) all day long, shoulders come up and the head is tilted backward, the tension on the neck, that can aggravate a stress headache.

They’re often relieved by paracetamol and over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. So that’s something you can try. You can do some muscle stretches, which will help.

A simple and effective one is, Imagine- I’m grabbing my right wrist, pulling my shoulder down, and tilting now my left ear to my left shoulder, which stretches the upper trapezius muscle which runs from, in this case, from my right ear to my right shoulder.

You hold this stretch for about 10 seconds, you repeat it 10 times and do 10 sets. And you do the same on the other side. So that’s something you can do which will help.

Some breathing exercises, I want you to stress, the same thing as I said with the migraines, people breathe often too shallowly, so breathe a bit lower down in your tummy. Again, the medical dry needling will help, something we can help you with to release some tension in the muscles that connect your skull to your neck.

We can do some adjustments which will help loosen things off for you. And posture improvement’s also a big thing again where we can help you or you can do it yourself, or find some videos where you open up and you strengthen the back of your neck and your shoulders, and make sure you’re nice and upright in shoulders and nice and down.

Have a look at your workplace as well, make sure your desk is set up properly so you’re not driving into your screen but you’re nice and upright.

As I said, a chiropractor can help with a few things, he can help prevent a few things as well, the migraines and the tension, stress, and anxiety headaches, that something we can help prevent happening.

There are three anti-inflammatory foods I’d like to share with you for all these types of headaches, where they reduce general inflammation in the body.

They are turmeric. So take 1,000 two and a half thousand milligrams daily. The second one you can try is EPA fish oil. Take 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of that daily.

And the last one you can try is called magnesium. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant and it’s also an anti-inflammatory. So that will also possibly give you some relief from your headaches.

We hope this blog makes you feel better and relieve you of headache.