Are Migraine Headaches More Common In Women Than Men
Yes. About three out of four people who have migraines are women. Migraines are most common in women between the ages of 20 and 45. At this time of life women often have more job, family, and social duties. Women tend to report more painful and longer lasting headaches and more symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting. All these factors make it hard for a woman to fulfill her roles at work and at home when migraine strikes.
Why People Seek Out Natural Migraine Remedies
A variety of motivations lead people to seek out natural Migraine relief or natural Migraine prevention, including:
- Interest in a more natural, organic approach to healthcare
- Aversion to side effects from some prescription medications
- Safety concerns among children, pregnant women, and women of child-bearing age
- High deductible insurance plans, which produce a focus on effective treatment value vs. prescription reimbursement
- Failure to respond to most doctor-recommended therapies
Even if your doctor isn’t aware of all the Complementary and Alternative Medicine therapies for Migraine and headache, several options have relatively strong evidence for effectiveness. You may want to share these with your doctor and see if they’re right for you.
If you’re skeptical about using anything your doctor doesn’t recommend, that can be both wise and limiting. According to International Headache Society Chairman David M. Dodick MD and the World Health Organization , most doctors get little to no training in med school in headache medicine, be it traditional or natural remedies for Migraine.
That’s especially ironic given the fact that headache disorders, including Migraine, tension-type, and medication overuse headache, are now deemed to be the 3rd most disabling disorder on the planet, according to WHO
Often, that relentless pain leaves patients like us to find effective therapies anywhere we can. That’s where tried and true Migraine remedies come in.
As If Stress Werent Bad Enough On Its Own It Can Both Trigger And Worsen Headaches
Modern life is stressful and, unfortunately, that doesnt seem likely to change any time soon. From the moment your alarm clock jolts you out of bed until youre finally done for the day, you are likely to experience some amount of stress. This can be in the form of anxiety or other psychological pressures, or physical stress such as eye and neck strain from sitting at a computer. While a little stress is tolerable, too much can have damaging effects on your health.i Many symptoms can be attributed to the mental and physiological pressures were under. These can range from fatigue to stomach upset to sleep problems. Top of the list? That nagging headache.ii
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When Should I See A Doctor
Everyone may experience a headache or migraine from time to time, and even more so during pregnancy. Since its an expected side effect, in most cases, you can use remedies for pregnancy headaches. Sometimes though, your headaches dont go away or are severe enough to need a doctors help.
You should see a doctor for pregnancy headaches if youre experiencing:
- Persisting headaches that cant be treated
- Severe pain
Keep Stress Under Control
Stress and tension-type headaches often go hand in hand. To reduce stress, try these simple tips:
- Simplify your life.Don’t look for ways to squeeze more activities or chores into the day instead find things you can leave out.
- Take a break.If you feel overwhelmed, a few slow stretches or a quick walk may renew your energy levels.
- Exhale.When you feel your stress levels rising, take several deep breaths and count to 10.
- Adjust your attitude.Think positive thoughts. Don’t think that something is impossible tell yourself that you are up to the challenge.
- Let go.Don’t worry about things you can’t control.
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Articles On Migraine & Headache Prevention
Everyone experiences stress. Our bodies are designed to feel stress and react to it. It keeps us alert and ready to avoid danger. But, when stress persists, the body begins to break down and illnesses, like headaches and migraines, can occur. The key to coping with stress is identifying stressors in your life, learning ways to reduce stress, and managing stress.
Q: Can Tension Headaches Be Prevented
A: Yes! Because of their strong link to stress, take thesesteps to prevent or minimize the severity of tension headaches:
- Drink water: Dehydration can increase headache severity, so drink eight glasses of water each day.
- Exercise: Physical activity produces brain chemicals that are natural painkillers. Exercise also leads to improved sleep.
- Gentle stretches: Yoga and tai chi both blend relaxation, breathing and stretching to reduce stress levels.
- Good sleep hygiene: Improve your sleep by minimizing daytime naps, avoiding caffeine or alcohol close to bedtime, getting exercise and avoiding electronic devices before bed.
- Massage: Whether you prefer a light touch or deep-tissue work, massage helps relieve built-up muscle tension in the shoulders, neck and scalp.
- Mindfulness: Using your breath as a guide to keep your thoughts in the present can help reduce overall stress and pain.
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Ways To Tame Tension Headaches
If you ever had a tension headache, you know it can put a damper on your day. This kind of headache usually develops in the afternoon, causing mild or moderate pain that may feel like dull tightness or a band of pressure. Tension headaches occur when neck, shoulder, and scalp muscles become tense. Some people experience tension headaches from time to time others get them more often. While a tension headache is rarely debilitating, it can certainly make life miserable.
If you have frequent tension headaches , here are some strategies that can show you how to get rid of a headache.
Your Mood Has Changed
If your mood shifts after your headache, there’s a good chance it was a migraine.
Following the attack stage of a migraine is the postdrome phase, also known as a migraine hangover. It can last hours or a day or two, and can cause changes in mood.
During this phase, you may feel depressed, irritable, or have trouble focusing.
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How To Relieve Stress Migraines
The typical recommendation for dealing with a stress migraine is to deal with the symptoms immediately. This will help to lessen the severity of the migraine. As soon as you feel a migraine coming on, do the following:
- Take pain medication such as ibuprofen, aspirin, or acetaminophen. Make sure that you follow the instructions on how to use the medication properly.
- Drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration, especially if you are nauseous or vomiting.
- Lie down in a quiet dark room to rest.
- Apply a cold compress on your neck or head.
Apart from following these steps, you can also do the following to reduce the stress and pain during a migraine:
- Breathing exercises to reduce stress and tension
- A gentle face massage will help by improving blood circulation
What Are My Options For Stress
On the non-medication side, things like breathing exercises or mindfulness-based approaches may be helpful for migraine attacks triggered by stress. There is evidence that cognitive-behavioral therapies that enable individuals to change their body’s response to stress can be useful. They may counteract the kinds of chemical and electrical changes that happen as part of the response to stress
On the medication side, there are certain medications that we might think about using with higher priority in individuals who have migraine attacks triggered by stress. Beta blockers block the response to adrenaline and reduce surges in heart rate or blood pressure that can happen in response to the increasing levels of adrenaline or epinephrine that can accompany stress
These treatments are more for preventive than acute use. Treatment options for a migraine attack triggered by stress would be the same for migraine, in general. There is no specific medication approach that would be different in any way based on the specific trigger of the attack.
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I’m Pregnant Can My Migraines Still Be Treated
Some migraine medicines should not be used when you are pregnant because they can cause birth defects and other problems. This includes over-the-counter medicines, such as aspirin and ibuprofen. Talk with your doctor if migraine is a problem while you are pregnant or if you are planning to become pregnant. Your doctor might suggest a medicine that will help you and that is safe during pregnancy. Home treatment methods, such as doing relaxation exercises and using cold packs, also might help ease your pain. The good news is that for most women migraines improve or stop from about the third month of the pregnancy.
What Are Rebound Migraines
Women who use acute pain-relief medicine more than two or three times a week or more than 10 days out of the month can set off a cycle called rebound. As each dose of medicine wears off, the pain comes back, leading the patient to take even more. This overuse causes your medicine to stop helping your pain and actually start causing headaches. Rebound headaches can occur with both over-the-counter and prescription pain-relief medicines. They can also occur whether you take them for headache or for another type of pain. Talk to your doctor if you’re caught in a rebound cycle.
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What Is A Stress Migraine
“Stress migraine is not an official diagnosis and headache specialists do not use that term. If an individual believes they are experiencing stress migraine attacks, it is likely that they identify stress as a significant trigger of migraine attacks which is fairly common.
Headache specialists wouldnt use the term stress migraine because it implies that stress is somehow the cause of the migraine disease or disorder, rather than stress simply being one of multiple factors that are involved leading up to a migraine attack.
It is important to make the distinction between a cause and a trigger. Changes in stress levels can trigger a migraine attack in someone who has migraine disease, but stress itself does not cause migraine disease.
While identifying stress as a trigger is important, there can be a negative implication that those with migraine simply can’t handle stress as well as those who dont have migraine, which is not true.
The Unfairness Of Let Down Migraines
If stress can trigger a migraine, you’d think that recovering from a stressful week with a relaxing weekend would be just what the doctor ordered.
But there’s a phenomenon called a “let down migraine,” in which people get migraine attacks on the weekend. But the week’s stress is already over, so gives?
While experts aren’t quite sure why this happens, says Dr. O’Neal, it is something that doctors regularly see.
“We know that, as a generalization, migraineurs tend to be successful people. There must be some reason why they can continue to be successful despite having a debilitating disease,” she says.
One theory: perhaps the migraine is being suppressed until it doesn’t need to be. When the stress is over, your body doesn’t see a need to hold back anymore. Like that, you’re left lying in bed all day on a Saturday.
Another theory has to do with changes to sleep routines and eating schedules, which can trigger a migraine regardless of stress.
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Want To Learn More About Head Massage Benefits
We hope this in-depth discussion of head massage benefits was helpful for how they do more than just relax you. Nevertheless, here at Soul 2 Sole, we offer traditional and Thai head massages.
For a list of our complete services, please view them here or book your appointment today with our booking app. We are still open and are following and monitoring Alberta Health and Safety measures closely every day. We look forward to hearing from you!
If My Headache Isn’t Going Away Should I Get Tested For Coronavirus
Headache is one of the symptoms of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . A February 2020 report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19, from early in the pandemic, found that of 55,924 people confirmed to have the disease, 13.6 percent had a headache.
Theres no treatment for COVID-19, but the same OTC pain relievers that help with other types of headaches may alleviate headaches caused by this disease. does not recommend against the use of ibuprofen for people with COVID-19.)
If you have symptoms of COVID-19 and want to get tested, the CDC recommends calling your state or local health department or a medical provider. Most people with COVID-19 have mild illness and are able to recover at home, the CDC notes.
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When To Call The Doctor
- You are experiencing “the worst headache of your life.”
- You have speech, vision, or movement problems or loss of balance, especially if you have not had these symptoms with a headache before.
- A headache starts suddenly.
Schedule an appointment or call your provider if:
- Your headache pattern or pain changes.
- Treatments that once worked no longer help.
- You have side effects from your medicine.
- You are pregnant or could become pregnant. Some medicines should not be taken during pregnancy.
- You need to take pain medicines more than 3 days a week.
- Your headaches are more severe when lying down.
Snack On A Green Apple
But before you take a bite, take a deep whiff. One study from Chicagos Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation found that headache sufferers who sniffed the smell of green apple had a greater improvement in their pain compared to those who didnt smell anything.
Whats more, the carbohydrates in the apple can actually help you feel less stressed. Thats because your brain uses carbs to produce the feel-good, relaxation-promoting hormone serotonin.
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When To See A Doctor
Get help sooner rather than later. The problem with stress as a trigger is that if you’re under constant stress, you’re more likely to get more migraines.
The more often you have to treat them with medications like over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs , the more likely you are to deal with rebound headaches, which is pain that’s triggered by the medication itself.
“Migraine begets migraine,” says Dr. Khoury.
Intervene now before you reach the point of having chronic migraines, which can make treatment more challenging.
Q: Are There Different Types Of Tension Headaches
A: We categorize tension headaches as episodic or chronic.Episodic tension headaches are milder, less frequent and relativelyshort-lived.
If someone reaches a threshold of 15 headache days a month, orrealizes their headaches are affecting their life quality, we would label thoseas chronic tension headaches.
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What Do Early Pregnancy Headaches Feel Like
If youre at the beginning stages of your journey, you might be wondering what early pregnancy headaches feel like. Although you may get a typical tension headache, migraines are also common during the first weeks or months. In fact, a headache or migraine might be one of the first signs of pregnancy for some people. However, since theres many possible causes, you wont know without taking a pregnancy test.
A tension headache creates mild to moderate pain behind the eyes and might feel like having a tight band around your head. These are the most common type of headaches.
A migraine feels like a throbbing sensation, usually on one side. They may cause nausea and vomiting in severe cases.
Managing a headache or migraine in the first trimester may be particularly difficult because theres many medications you should avoid.
Can Migraine Be Worse During Menopause
If your migraine headaches are closely linked to your menstrual cycle, may make them less severe. As you get older, the nausea and vomiting may decrease as well. About two-thirds of women with migraines report that their symptoms improve with menopause.
But for some women, menopause worsens migraine or triggers them to start. It is not clear why this happens. , which is prescribed for some women during menopause, may be linked to migraines during this time. In general, though, the worsening of migraine symptoms goes away once menopause is complete.
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Home Remedies To Ease A Headache Or Migraine Attack
Many headache symptoms can be at least partially alleviated without medication. Here are some tips for homemade headache and migraine relief:
Apply an ice pack to your head and neck. Cold compresses on the head and neck are a common home remedy to ease the pain of a migraine attack. Some people also find it helpful for tension headaches. To avoid skin injury, wrap the ice or cold pack in a cloth and apply it for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time.
Apply heat to the head, neck, or hands and feet. Applying heat may help relieve a tension headache or dull the pain of a migraine attack, according to the Mayo Clinic. Use a heating pad set on low, a hot-water bottle, a warm compress, or a hot towel. A hot bath or shower may also be helpful, or simply run warm water over your hands and feet.
Have a big glass of water.Dehydration can trigger a migraine attack or lead to a nonmigraine headache, says the National Headache Foundation. Replacing the liquids your body needs may help to relieve the pain.
Practice a relaxation technique. Meditate, breathe deeply, and try to visualize a peaceful image. “Various relaxation techniques can significantly help patients who suffer from ‘muscle contraction’ headaches,” says Rozental.
Give yourself a massage. Massage eases muscle tension, and sometimes helps to reduce headache pain, according to the Mayo Clinic. Gently massage your temples, scalp, neck, and shoulders with your fingertips, or gently stretch your neck.
