How to manage headaches 🤕

Whether caused by stress, muscle tension, eyestrain, sinuses, hormones, or your family (just kidding), a headache and especially a migraine can stop you in your tracks!
Fortunately there are plenty of remedies out there to try before reaching for the medication. These at-home treatments may help prevent the onset of headache & migraine attacks or at least help reduce their severity and duration.

You may be able to reduce headache & migraine symptoms by avoiding known triggers, such as certain foods and additives. Other practices like staying hydrated and practicing yoga may also help.

Migraine attacks aren’t typical headaches. Amongst other things, you may experience aura, pounding pain, nausea, gut issues and sensitivity to light and sound. When a migraine attack or episode occurs, you’ll do almost anything to make it go away.

Studies have indicated that massage therapy, especially stimulation of active trigger points, is helpful in relieving frequent chronic tension headaches.

Touch-therapy remedies are very effective in relieving and preventing many headache symptoms, including pain, nausea, and pressure. Although everyone is different, the instant relaxation that touch therapy brings has a way of decreasing pain very quickly and successfully.

Massage for headaches & migraines

Have you ever wondered why you instinctively rub your head where it hurts?

Acupressure is an ancient technique applying the same theory as acupuncture. Whereas acupuncture uses needles to access energy meridians, however, acupressure uses gentle firm touch to hit trigger points.

The idea is to send signals into the body using an external force to stimulate vital energy (qi). By applying pressure along energy pathways, the natural healing process will kick into gear to restore balance, relieving pain and fighting illness.

When you have a headache, you may begin to massage your temples or the base of your neck without thinking about it – it seems the natural thing to do!

Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and take deep, even breaths.
Apply deep, firm pressure to each pressure point and massage in a small circular motion; the object is to stimulate blood flow below the surface.
Massage each point for 30-60 seconds. If your headache persists 10 minutes after massaging the last point, you may perform the steps again.

(Some pressure points need to be avoided when pregnant as they can start contractions and harm the baby – so it’s best to avoid altogether if you are.)

Located at the base of the inner eyebrows, at the edge of the bone. Great for alleviating dizziness, blurred vision, hay fever, stiff neck, psychosis, and repeated sneezing.

These are two points on either side of the spine where it meets the base of the skull. Not only for headache relief, these points are effective in treating fever, body aches, lack of concentration, memory, dizziness, stiff neck, sore throat, nasal congestion, back and shoulder pain.

Open your hand and feel the point in the meaty part of the muscle in the web between the thumb and hand. Used properly, it can relieve a migraine, tension headache, jaw pain, dizziness, congestion, sinusitis & stomach ache.

Aromatherapy Recipe for Headaches

– 4 drops spearmint oil
– 8 drops lavender oil
– 2 drops eucalyptus oil
– 2 ounces unscented natural oil

Before doing any other headache remedies, try rubbing a few drops of this powerful blend between your fingertips and inhaling the scent for a minute. As you do the remedies, the lingering scent on your fingertips will soothe your nerves, but be careful not to get too close to your eyes.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture seeks to restore the flow of positive energy throughout your body.

It also claims to remove negative energy that is causing you pain. From a modern medical perspective, acupuncture stimulates various systems of your body. This may trigger a healing response.

Acupuncture divides your body into a series of zones and pressure points. Acupuncture needles are inserted into different pressure points, depending on your symptoms. These needle points are usually near nerves in your body. The needle stimulates the nerves to release hormones, such as endorphins, that trigger a response from your body. This immune and circulation system stimulation is what proponents of acupuncture claim relieves migraines and tension headaches.

Magnesium

Magnesium deficiency is linked to headaches and migraine. Magnesium oxide supplementation may help prevent migraine with aura. It may also prevent menstrual migraine (hormone headaches).

A study found that 500 milligrams of magnesium oxide taken twice a day for 8 weeks was as effective as the medication valproate sodium for preventing migraine without significant side effects.

You can get magnesium from foods that include: