In today’s times, stress is inevitable. Many individuals get stressed for different reasons. It could be because of their daily tasks at work or from projects and assignments they have at school. As you may be aware of, pressure brought about by stress can lead to health problems. One of which is tension headache. Good thing though there are tension headache remedies that can easily deliver you from pain.

In terms of tension headaches, not all people seek medical attention. They think that this condition will normally go away. They perceive it to be the same with ordinary headaches. Self-medication with the help of over-the-counter pain relievers should not be overused. In looking for remedies for this, there is a variety of medications that can reduce the pain. Some of the drugs that can stop existing headache attack are the following:

1. Narcotics and Triptans

If you are suffering from both episodic tension headaches and migraines, triptans can help alleviate the pain. There are various studies showing how tripans relieve even the worst symptoms of headache. Opiates or narcotics are rarely used compared with triptans because of their adverse effects, but they too are effective in providing pain relief. Tripans can be injected. Some of the injectable forms of it include sumatriptan. They are good remedies for patients suffering from long-term headaches.

2. Pain Relievers or Analgesics

Simple over-the-counter analgesics are some of the best tension headache remedies readily available. Compared with other cures available, these drugs are the cheapest option. Analgesics are usually considered as the first line of treatment for alleviating headache pain. Some of the pain relievers that can help you out include aspirin, naproxen sodium, ibuprofen, naproxen, ketorolac, mefenamic acid, acetaminophen, and indomethacin.

3. Combination Drugs

In cases of severe tension headaches, there are some doctors who prescribe their patients with combination drugs. Meaning, you are directed to combine two different drugs in order to achieve the pain relief you need. Excedrin, which is made up of acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine, is one of the most prescribed combination medicines for pain relief. There are some patients who consider combination drugs more effective than the single-ingredient pain relievers. Unlike the single-ingredient pain medications, these drugs need to be taken with prescription from your physician. Long-term use can lead to addiction or can worsen your headache.

Tension headache remedies help relieve the symptoms and pain of headache. A friendly reminder for patients out there – never use these drugs for a long time. Moreover, educate yourself on the benefits and risks of taking these medicines. That way, you know what drugs should not be taken together with your headache medicines.

Is that throbbing pulsating headache you are experiencing really a migraine? Over 40 million people experience migraine headaches. Migraine attacks are more common in women than men. In fact, they are about three times more common in women. It is one of the most common types of headache today.

How do you define migraine?

I’ve searched for a while for a migraine definition that is simple and easy to understand. Fellow sufferers describe it as a very painful and intolerable type of headache.

Medical practitioners define migraine as a kind of vascular headache. Researchers once believed the dilation and constriction of blood vessels in the head caused migraines. Scientists now believe migraines are inherited abnormalities in genes that control the activities of some of the cells in the brain.

My plain and simple migraine definition is a severe, throbbing and pulsating vascular headache that can last anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

Attacks are usually accompanied by several warning symptoms such as:

• seeing stars or flashes of light
• blind spots
• tingling in the arms and legs
• nausea
• vomiting
• increased sensitivity to light and sound

These symptoms are “auras”. You can have headache pain on either side of your head, sometimes pain can occur on both sides of your and occasionally you can have a migraine without a headache.

Types of Migraines

There are two major types of migraine: classical and non-classical. The type of migraine with an aura is called classical. The aura usually begins about 35 minutes before onset of the headache. You’ve probably noticed that you can almost predict when an attack is coming because you get one of the early warning signals. Maybe you began seeing flashes of light or perhaps you became nauseated and started vomiting. In a classical migraine your blood vessels become constricted. Then when it attacks there is an increase in size of your blood vessels. To get a jump-start on treating your headache pain you may want to take your migraine medication at the first sign of an aura symptom.

The second type of migraine is non-classical. Non-classical migraines hit without an aura or early warning symptoms. Some also call this a simple migraine. This headache occurs from the closing of the blood vessels up to the point of the blood vessels increasing in size. When a non-classical migraine hits you should take your medication at the first sign of headache pain.

Classical and non-classical are the most common types of migraine but there are still other forms of migraines. These are: cluster migraines, abdominal, ocular, basilar artery, retinal, confusional, hemiplegic, status migrainosus and carotidynia.

No matter how you define migraine, you’ll want to keep a migraine diary. In your diary track the type of migraine, any auras or early warning signs and symptoms, and what you ate preceding your headache. You may also want to look into herbal migraine remedies and supplements to help reduce your migraine frequency.

Until recently, treatment for migraine has focused on the patient’s cry for help: “I have to get better; please get rid of my pain!” A wide range of medical and alternative medicine resources are available to address this plea.

Migraine sufferers who cannot find sufficient relief have developed a new request: “Please help me live my best possible life, despite my pain!” Professional coaches specializing in migraines can work with migraineurs to address this area.

In my view, the primary physician should be your initial resource for migraine treatment. Your doctor will be able to order tests to rule out any major physiological reasons, hopefully, for your headaches. Many patients will find that their doctor’s recommendations – whether for medications, stress relief, lifestyle modification, etc. – reduce the frequency, duration or severity of their migraine attacks. Others will be referred to neurologists or migraine specialists for more detailed consultations.

Every migraine sufferer is different and has their unique response to treatment. There is a wide array of treatment options available, both inside and outside the traditional medical system. Some of these alternatives include acupuncture, therapeutic massage, meditation, and so on. If you are fortunate, at some point you will find adequate long-term relief from one or more of these therapies.

Migraines, as described by Dr. Carolyn Bernstein in her excellent 2008 book, “The Migraine Brain”, are caused by a common neurological condition called cortical spreading depression, which is ‘superexcitement’ of the brain when it is confronted by one of your triggers. There is no cure for migraine at this time.

After trying a number of alternatives, you may come to the realization that there is no combination of treatment options which can give you sustainable pain relief.

Even though you don’t want to give up the ongoing search for relief, your focus begins to shift to versions of the second question:

“I want to improve how I deal with my pain.”

“Please help me live my best possible life, even though I have regular pain.”

You find yourself in the position of anyone else who faces a life-long medical condition, such as arthritis or heart disease. The condition, and your response to it, can only be managed in future; it is unlikely that it will ever be resolved.

But there is a silver lining to this new reality: in general, when you look around, you realize that people respond to the same circumstances in very different ways. The way that you have reacted to your migraine pain up until now is not the only way — there may are better migraine management strategies which will allow you to achieve the improved quality of life which you seek.

The manner in which you react to a migraine attack may very well be ingrained and habitual by now, and it’s hard to modify it by yourself. The better way is to bring in a third party like a coach who will recognize and identify your hard-wired reactions, and help you to transform them into productive responses that will set you in the direction that you would like your life to go. Working with a coach tends to be more beneficial if you have episodic (less than 15 migraines per month) rather than chronic migraines (more than 14).

Migraine sufferers should work through their primary physician to see if they can relieve their pain. Sometimes significant pain relief cannot be obtained. Even then, the coaching alternative can provide them with hope that the quality of life that they can achieve will still be better than otherwise expected.

The fast pace of the times has got everyone so busy. Just keeping up with the day to day list of things to do takes up almost all of your time and energy. On some particularly difficult days, you might not even be able to finish everything you have to do. With the busy schedule packed with a million tasks and appointments, most people hardly enough time to sit down and take a breather. This is why health concerns especially the seemingly minor and tolerable ones are being shoved further and further down the list of priorities. This is a very dangerous practice which everyone should strive to break.

Headaches, for example, are the most common among the bodily pains people tend to ignore or take for granted. Unfortunately, they do not often go away or get better unless you solve the health problem that has been causing them in the first place. Moreover, these headaches can actually be signs of a more serious health condition that needs to be addressed promptly.

Usually, the headaches are simply signs of strain, stress or over fatigue. The solution for this type of headache is actually pretty easy. Most physicians would simply recommend a few minor therapy sessions or even fitness classes. Some are caused simply by pad posture. Imagine if all you had to do was to sit in a different angle when you work. One quick consultation with your doctor would easily save you from having to endure days or months of annoying headache.

A lot of people choose to ignore the pain because the headaches are tolerable and go away anyway. But if the problem has a safe and easy fix, why would you want to endure that at all? Also, when you are nursing a headache, you are not performing as well as you could be. So even if you think you are saving time by skipping that trip to the doctor, you are actually compromising your work or output in the process.

Some people opt to placate the chronic or recurrent headache and self medicate. They usually take pain medication. If it happens once or twice, that is perfectly fine. However, if your headaches are recurring, then constantly popping pain meds is a very bad idea. For starters, you will be giving your kidneys and liver unnecessary stress that will severely compromise your health in the long run. Moreover, pain meds themselves can actually cause a particular type of recurring headache as well.

More importantly, a headache, especially when the frequency and intensity seem to be increasing, can just as well be a sign of a serious health condition. If you keep on ignoring it or delay seeking medical attention for it, you might end up with a grave health problem. A headache, like all the pain we feel in our bodies, is your body’s way of telling you that something is not right. You should listen to it.

At some point in their life, everyone will experience a headache. For some, a headache is a rare and trivial matter, for others, a chronic nightmare. Headache symptoms range from the mild pain and throbbing of a tension headache to the excruciating agony, sensitivity to light, and nausea of a migraine.

Why Me?

There are many possible causes for the typical headache, the most common often being trigger points/knots in neck, shoulder and/or jaw muscles, many times due to:

– Stress
– Tension
– Postural issues
– Temporomandibular joint disorders

Tightness in certain neck muscles may impinge on small arteries that bring blood to your head, causing pain and impacting mental function through a lack of oxygen to your brain.

Other reasons may be related to:

– Allergies
– Sickness
– Lack of sleep
– Poor nutrition
– Dehydration
– Withdrawal from caffeine or other substances
– Weather

In all of these cases, your body is trying to let you know there is a problem! The majority of people will try to cover up the symptoms of a headache by taking medication, but this does not treat the real issue – the root cause of the pain. Although over-the-counter (OTC) medicine may be practical for temporary relief of the occasional headache, overuse of pain relievers can also increase the number and extent of headaches (1) and eventually lead to liver damage. Masking the pain with drugs does not help with chronic conditions and the safety of these medications is constantly coming under scrutiny, with new guidelines and warnings being issued (2). So what is a person to do???

There Must be a Better Way…

A more beneficial choice to treat the pain of a headache is to identify what is causing it and correct the root problem. Depending on the issue, this may involve the help of a massage therapist, chiropractor, doctor, or other professionals. Many times the cause of a headache is as simple as tension and knots in the upper body. The normal stress of life, occupational repetitive motion, carrying a large purse, athletic endeavors, heavy school backpacks, and bad posture are all common sources of gradually developing myofascial* constrictions. In our tech-driven age, many spend their time hunched over computers, laptops, smartphones, mp3 players, digital book readers, and portable game systems, resulting in rounded shoulders, forward head posture, and other problems which cause muscle imbalances and produce pain. Sitting too much may lead to posterior pelvic tilt, kyphosis of the thoracic vertebrae, and increased shoulder/neck problems. Postural issues can chronically increase tension on certain muscles while weakening others, distorting proper muscle function and leading to constrictions in the fascia*. (*Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds & supports all aspects of the body.)

The most commonly affected muscles that may refer pain and cause headaches include:

– Upper trapezius (shoulders/neck)
– Sternocleidomastoid (neck)
– Scalenes (neck)
– Suboccipitals (neck)
– Masseter (jaw)

A good first step in treating reoccurring headaches would be to see a knowledgable massage therapist. They can give you a clinical assessment, form a plan for treating postural deviations and misalignments, start working on the muscular issues you may have, suggest some exercises and stretches that you can do at home, or refer you to a physical or occupational therapist for more in-depth treatment.

And the Answer Is…

Yes! It is possible to avert a lot of those pesky headaches! Some common sense comes into play with headache prevention, although ultimately, even those who are diligent to take care of themselves may still sporadically suffer an occasional minor headache.

Here are some basic guidelines for overall wellness and headache prevention:

– Reduce stress in your life, or do not let unavoidable stress “get” to you
– Eat properly for your body
– Stay hydrated with pure, filtered water, free of chlorine, fluoride, or other contaminants
– Get plenty of restful sleep
– Exercise frequently
– Address any allergies you may have, optimally through natural means
– Remain flexible or increase flexibility through Active Isolated Stretching
– Attend to any postural issues which cause muscle tension & knots
– Relieve muscular and emotional tension through massage

As the saying goes – “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Being proactive in preventing headaches will not only help with avoiding headaches, but will increase your overall health and well-being.

According to therapists in the flower therapy field, flowers give off specific vibrations or energy and the result of these vibrations can help various physical, emotional patterns and moods, from migraine to depression to period pain to panic. Certain flowers are thought to evoke certain and different effects on the person, on their mind and body.

How flower therapy works is that it helps to heal the emotional states of the person first. It does not treat the condition that the person may be suffering from such as migraines. The flower healing system was created in the 1930s by Dr Edward Bach who is now widely acknowledged to be the British authority on flower healing.

In total there are 38 Bach Flowers that work on different emotional states. By now, you are probably wondering which flower bach will relieve your migraine headache, right? But, as mentioned previously, the Bach flower remedies do not address the physical pain or condition directly. Instead, the flower helps by treating the emotional states that provoke or worsen the physical state of the person. And just as each migraine is unique, so will the types of flowers chosen vary from person to person.

What this means is the best way to select the remedy that would best suit you is to first think about your mood, how you are feeling. The Bach remedies treat the emotional states and these will have a positive effect on the physical symptoms.

Here are a list of flower power for different emotional states:

– Anger: Holly
– Bitterness: Willow
– Guilt: Pine
– Acute anxiety: Rescue Remedy
– Fear: Rock Rose and Cherry Plum
– Inner anguish and despair: Grimony
– Hopelessness: Gorse
– Sadness: Mustard
– Despair: Sweet Chestnut
– Depression: Walnut

The essences can be taken in so many different ways. You can put some drops of the liquid under your tongue or if you prefer, you can mix it with water or soft drinks, but whatever you do, do not dilute them in tea or coffee. You can also add some drops to your bath. Soak in the water to really get the full benefit of the essences. If you have sensitive skin, dilute drops with pure spring water and splash it on your skin. You can also have some drops on your pillow before you go to bed.

Your assignment: Notice your moods and reactions and write them in your migraine journal. After a week, review your dominant moods and pick the appropriate Bach Flower or flowers for you. Try this remedy out and notice any positive changes.