Effective Headache Cures

Headache Prevention Starts with Knowing its Cause

May 6th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

A headache is often not an illness itself, but rather an indication that you are sick, eating improperly, not exercising or too stressed out. Therefore, medication is just masking the true cause of your pain. Often, the remedy for your headache is to find its cause.

Headaches are one of the most common ailments reported. One of the keys to curing a headache is to first understand what caused it. There are several kinds of headaches, but the kinds of headaches most reported include migraines, cluster and tension. Different kinds of headaches result in the pain appearing in different parts of the head. However, despite there being different kinds of headaches, the same medications tend to work equally well at alleviating the symptoms.

The active ingredient found in most over-the-counter remedies are aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen. There are also several home remedies such as sleeping, placing an icepack on the eyes, or just lying on your back. Sadly, for most people, a headache is not an illness that just shows up on its own. Rather, it’s usually the result of the sufferer’s lifestyle, such as something they’re eating. For example, mercury toxicity from eating too much fish can cause headaches. Before you take medication for your next headache, first see if something your doing is causing them.

Prevention by Changing Diet and Other Habits

Most headaches are actually caused by the things we eat and drink. For example, too much aspartame, which is found in diet soft drinks, can cause headaches. The obvious remedy here would be to drink less of it. This is the same with coffee or alcohol. Headache pain from these causes can be exacerbated by not drinking enough water. Drinking more may be all that’s needed to relieve pain. Exposure to certain types of smoke or chemicals can also cause pain. Radon causes headaches as well. If you suffering frequent headaches have the radon levels in your basement checked.

Pain is a side effect of many medications, some of which you may be taking. Check the bottle of any medications you are taking. If headache is listed as a possible side effect, contact your doctor to see what can be done. If it’s a new medication, the headaches may go away after you’ve taken it for a few days. Too much strain on your eyes can also cause headaches. Chinese public school students do eye exercises two times a day to ward of pain and deterioration of eyesight.

Physical Causes of Pain

Some pain in the head is caused by tight neck and shoulder muscles, which in turn are caused by stress or anxiety. In this case, they remedy may be to consider making certain lifestyle changes. Be sure to set aside time each day to do something relaxing. Daily exercise can also reduce stress.

Headaches can also accompany other illnesses. Are you experiencing any other symptoms in addition to head pain? Your headache could mean that you are sick. Find and treat your illness and your pain will go away. Of course, if you know the cause of your headache and are working on addressing it there, but you don’t feel like tolerating the pain in the meantime, there are many over the counter drugs you can use as a short-term solution.