Headaches can be very painful and irritating, impacting on your sense of health and capability to function at your very best. The next time you get a headache you may want to think before consuming Aspirin. According to an article in the Journal of Headache Pain, if you take headache medications more than 15 times per month it may give rise to a condition called medication-overuse headache (MOH), which results in the aggravation of major headaches and an increase in their overall occurrence. If you are suffering from usual headaches, below are some of the common types and causes with some suggestion on how to manage them.
Migraines can be the most painful type of headache one can experience as well as something that causes the most disruption to your daily activities.
The pain usually occurs on one side of the head with a tender or energetic quality and may cause you to become insightful to light and noise so that you end up needing to waste the day on bed in a dark room.
If you are experiencing this on a regular basis, see if you can recognize the trigger. Migraines are usually triggered by certain foods. Some of the common food triggers include coffee or caffeine, cheese, wines, chocolate, sugar and more. If you're prone to headaches and often indulge in these foods, get rid of them one by one from your diet to see if you can find what is causing migraine for you.
Tension Type Headache - This is one of the most common types of headache that most office workers can relate to. The pain is usually like a squeezing band at your temples or a headache that starts at the back of your head and moves forward to your temples on both sides.
Such type of headache tends to increase with the stress and long hours spent in front of your work desk or computer.
Two things can help to combat such type of headache:
* Drinking lots of water so that you are well hydrated throughout the day.
* Taking regular breaks with mini stretches.
Rebound Headaches - If you find that you are more and more relying on pain medications such a Panadol, Neurofen or other medications to keep the headaches away, be aware, they might be causing them in the first place.
Rebound headaches can occur from medications or from caffeine. If you feel like you need to keep taking painkillers or your daily fix of coffee to keep your headache away then you need to give your body a detox.
Try going 3-5 days without taking any medication or coffee. If you cannot do this, you may need to come up with a withdrawal plan to slowly wean yourself off the drugs and stop you body’s dependency on the pills or caffeine.
Cervicogenic Headaches
Your neck is called your cervical spine and sometimes neck pain moves upwards and causes the pain in your neck to develop into a headache. Pain can come from weakness or spasms of the neck muscles.
Strengthening and stretching your neck and upper back muscles daily by doing simple stretches or exercise can reduce the pain by easing the stress and tension stored in your muscles.
Headaches can also be caused from pain that is referred upwards from the small joints in the neck called facet joints. This occurs when the facet joints in our neck get locked up from being in the same posture or position and causes pain that travels up our neck and into our heads.
Exercise, as well as chiropractic adjustments create movement and lubrication in these small joints and can be very successful in reducing the pain.
Regular exercise also means that you can have fewer regular headaches. It helps relieve stress and increases the levels of painkilling endorphins. Yoga, stretching and meditation also help to reduce tension and thus relax the chemical imbalances that can cause headaches. Remember to always keep well hydrated as dehydration is another leading cause of headaches.
While you can treat your headaches with pain medication, the better course of action is to find the cause and stop them from occurring in the first place. Chiropractic care is a natural and extremely effective way to help combat all these types of headaches.
We can help you reduce the stress on your body and reduce pain as well as giving you exercise and nutritional support to help you live life without the painful headaches.
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