Counselors who understand the interrelationships of attitudes, conditioned responses, emotional state, and migraine disease, as well as the dynamics of the change process can be enormously helpful.

Many people with headache and migraine disease feel trapped by their circumstances and the gulf between the way life is and the way it should be. Releasing the demands (the “shoulds”) with a strong dose of forgiveness can lead to rewarding and sometimes dramatic changes.

Biofeedback and Relaxation

Learning and regularly practicing biofeedback or any of the systematic relaxation approaches achieves a 50 to 80 percent reduction or elimination in both severity and frequency of migraine headache.

You can achieve the same results by learning and practicing regular meditation, eliminating or reducing your need for medication. Hypnosis, too, has significant success with headache. Self-hypnosis has been shown to be particularly helpful in children and teenagers.

Professional Care Therapies

Manual methods. Patients treated by chiropractic adjustment report greater relief: of pain compared to other manual methods.

Acupuncture in skilled hands can be very effective in migraine headache. In one study 40 percent of patients achieved a 50 to 100 percent reduction in severity and frequency of migraine episodes. Among the acupoints that can also be con- veniently used for acupressure are the following:

•    The ho-ku point in the soft tissue between the thumb and index finger;
•    The B2 point below the inner aspect of the eyebrow;
•    The GB2O and GV16 points over the spine and on both sides of the spine just below the back of the skull.

Therapeutic. Touch has been shown to provide a substantial, sustained improvement in headache patterns. Other energy therapies have success as well.

Related posts:

1. Migraine Headaches in Pregnancy
2. Foods Can Give You Migraine

Please see your own physician before embarking on any treatment program for headaches. Once I have examined a patient and ruled out any organic causes for head pain, I attempt to identify his or her particular type of headache. Correct diagnosis is necessary before effective treatment can begin.

To help give you an idea of what types of headaches you may suffer from, run through the checklists on pages 158 to 159. Check off the items that apply to you. Once you know the kind(s) of headache that you suffer from, you can begin appropriate measures to both treat and prevent headaches.

Preventing and treating muscle contraction (tension) headaches.

Muscle contraction headaches are usually easy to prevent and treat. Simply learning how to deal with stress can eliminate many of the headaches.  Here are some techniques for prevention:

1. Reduce the stress in your life. Look at the pace of your life and see if it is taxing you. Most of us could slow down and avoid making too many changes at once. Do we really need to accomplish all of our goals so quickly? Are we so busy looking ahead that we’ve lost sight of the good things we already have?
2. Exercise. At least three times a week, get some exercise. Low impact exercise, such as walking, swimming or bicycling, will tone the body and release pent up stress.
3. Relax. Set aside time every day to relax. A little bit of relaxation can eliminate a lot of stress.
4. Avoid or limit caffeine intake.
5. Eat a healthful diet. Make sure to eat a healthful diet based on fresh vegetables and fruits, with plenty of whole grains, small amounts of protein and two to three servings of nonfat dairy products per day. Reduce or avoid the dangerous “CATS form San Francisco” (caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, sugar, salt). Make sure that you’re getting ample amounts of vitamins A, C and E, beta carotene, the B-vitamins and the many minerals.
6. DLPA Taking DLPA when you are feeling fine can help to prevent headaches from striking. See the discussion of DLPA earlier in this chapter.
7. Use pain relievers sparingly. Overusing pain relievers that contain caffeine can lead to tolerance and “rebound headaches.”

Repeat this technique as often as you like.

1. Rest with hot or cold compresses to the head.
2. Drink a caffeinated beverage. A cup of coffee or other caffeinated beverage may help relieve persistent pain. Caffeine constricts vessels that may have triggered the headache by dilating (widening). Caffeine may also relieve pain by increasing serotonin levels (which helps to relieve pain in general).
3. Over the counter and prescription medications. If none of the other techniques works, you might try an over the counter (nonprescription) pain reliever. Should you and your physician feel that it’s necessary, prescription antidepressants, tranquilizers, muscle relaxants and other drugs may be used. Bear in mind, however, that all medicines have side effects. But be aware that the stronger the medication, the greater the risk of building up a tolerance and suffering from side effects.

Muscle contraction (“tension”) headache checklist

-  The pain feels like a constricting headband or vise, usually across the temples or head.
-  The pain is mild to moderate.
-  The pain may last for days.
-  The pain has no clear beginning or end.
-  The pain usually strikes when I’m stressed, although itmay also occur when I’m sleeping.
-  The pain often begins in the morning and gets worse throughout the day.
-  The muscles in my neck and shoulders get knotted.

Migraine headache checklist

- The pain usually strikes on one side of my head.
-  The pain is moderate to severe.
-  The pain is “throbbing” or “penetrating.”
-  The pain usually lasts an average of four to eight hours, but may continue for days.
-  There may be halos, flashing lights or other visual disturbances.
-  I’m sensitive to light and sound during the headache episode.
-  I often feel nauseated and may vomit while having the headache.
-  I may feel dizzy during the headache.
-  I may feel numb in my arm or part of my face during the headache.
-  The headaches may strike during vacations, weekends or other times that I’m not feeling stressed.

Cluster headache checklist

-  The pain is excruciating.
-  The pain is “piercing” or “burning.”
-  The pain is usually on one side of my face, but it may switch sides.
-  The pain settles behind one of my eyes.
-  My eye tears, swells and droops.
-  I get congestion or a runny nose on the affected side of my face.
-  I have flushing or sweating on the affected side of my face.
-  The pain lasts from 30 minutes to one hour.
-  The headaches strike in clusters of several headaches a day, sometimes for weeks or even months.
-   The headaches seem to start at the same time of the year.

Checking off several items on any one list suggests that you usually get that type of headache. But if you check off several items on more than one list, you are most likely getting tension headaches related to fatigue and stress.

I also advise my patients to keep a log of every single headache that they get. The log helps doctor and patient with diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Make several copies of the headache log on this page and keep careful track of all headache pain.

Headache log.

Date __________________________________________
Time headache started____________________________
Time headache ended ____________________________
The pain is located _______________________________
The pain feels like ________________________________
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being worst, the pain rates a —

Other symptoms.

Possible triggers * ________________________________
Medication used _________________________________
Other treatment _________________________________
After treatment, on a scale of 1 to 10, the pain rates a _____

* Possible triggers include stress, the let-down period after stress, missing a meal, medication, certain foods, hormonal changes, changes in the weather, lack of sleep, cigarette smoke, withdrawal from caffeine, bright lights, oversleeping, exercise and other factors.

Preventing and treating migraine headaches

1. Avoid migraine triggers. Certain foods, fatigue, hunger, bright lights, altitude, motion, hormonal factors and changes in the weather can trigger headaches. Staying away from those triggers may relieve the problem significantly. Both becoming overtired or oversleeping can trigger an attack, so make sure that you get enough, but not too much, sleep every night. Hunger, stress, alcohol and bright light can also trigger migraines in susceptible people.
2. Reduce stress. Although migraines tend to strike after a stressful period, they do seem to be related to stress. Reduce your stress as much as possible.
3. Preventive medication. Discuss the use of preventive medications with your physician if your migraines are lessening the quality of your life.
4. General good health measures. Healthful eating habits, exercise and other good habits strengthen your overall health, helping you to absorb the stress caused by migraines.

If the migraine has already struck, try the following techniques:

1. Rest in a quiet, dark place with hot and cold compresses.
2. Vitamin B2. Discuss using this vitamin, which can reduce pain by over half, with your physician.
3. Scalp and neck massage.
4. Herbal remedies. Several herbs are useful, including feverfew, ginkgo bioba, chamomile, coriander, turmeric, bay leaves, skullcap, valerian and willow bark Be sure to discuss their use with your physician before taking them.
5. Pain medications. Pain medication is often necessary during a migraine headache. Start with the milder medications such as Midrin before moving on, if necessary, to stronger ones.

Preventing and treating cluster headaches

The dilation of the blood vessels that occurs during a cluster headache can be prevented. In addition to the strategies for preventing tension headaches, you can:

1. Eliminate alcohol, a known headache trigger.
2. Eliminate dietary triggers. Avoid any foods and drinks that may trigger your cluster headaches
3. Avoid cigarette smoke.
4. Stick to a regular sleeping schedule.
5. Consider preventive medication. If your cluster headaches are striking on a daily basis and last for more than 15 minutes, your physician may want to prescribe a preventive medication. I like to use magnesium, a safe and natural calcium channel blocker, as a preventive.

Cluster headaches can be quite severe, so painful that relaxation techniques are not much help once the pain has struck. Deep breathing may help a little to alleviate the fear that accompanies the onset of these attacks. In addition to the techniques for treating tension headaches, you can also try the following:

Inhale pure oxygen. Oxygen can help to lessen the pain of cluster headaches in many people. Discuss this carefully with your physician, especially if you have any pulmonary problems. You’ll need a doctor’s prescription to get the oxygen from a medical supply house. Pain medication. For severe headaches that do not respond to other treatments, your physician may prescribe a pain reliever.

Preventing and treating exertion headaches

Exertion headaches can be very painful, but they are rarely serious. Neither are they usually caused by underlying medical problems. Modifying your physical activities should help to lessen the frequency and intensity of your headaches. Take it a little easier. Always warm up before exercising and cool down afterward. Slow down gradually from peak activity. If an exertion headache does strike, lying down in bed, holding cold compresses to your head and massaging your scalp will often quell the pain.

Preventing and treating organic headaches

There are no specific treatment or prevention strategies for organic headaches it all depends on the underlying cause(s). If you have or suspect that you have organic headaches, see your physician immediately. When those terrible headaches used to send me to bed crying as a child, I thought I would never be free from them. Now I know that with careful prevention and treatment, most of the pain can be eliminated, often without using strong medications.

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Tryptophan is a building block of one of the body’s important neurotransmitter switches, serotonin, which features prominently in mood and chronic pain disorders.

Tyramine and tryptophan are among the body building blocks which have been linked to migraine, seizure disorders, and other neurological manifestations of allergic reactions.

These reactions have been well documented, although medical research into this aspect of clinical practice is limited to the role of allergy to foodstuffs in childhood hyperactivity hyperkinetic syndrome, now called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

There have been numerous published reports on food allergy in migraine, one of the best can be found in the Lancet, detailing the tyramine rich foods known to contribute to migraine. I have combined the Lancet list with that of H. H. Davison, reported in the Quarterly Review ofAllergy andApplied Immunology, and with others.

The items are listed below:

•    milk, sour cream, yogurt
•    wheat
•    chocolate
•    aged or processed cheese
•    corn (and K~iro syrup)
•    alcohol (wine, beer, etc.)
•    red meat (beef, etc.), pork (pork products)
•    food containing monosodium glutamate (MSG)
•    licorice
•    eggs
•    bouillon, soup cubes, soy sauce
•    nuts (especially peanuts and peanut butter)
•    piclded or marinated herring
•    seafood, shellfish
•    citrus fruit (oranges, grapefruit)
•    cola drinks
•    bananas
•    tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, avocados
•    canned soup
•    chicken liver, beef liver
•    processed foods and smoked or cured meats
•    plums, prunes, canned figs
•    raisins
•    broad beans, lima beans
•    coffee, tea, cocoa

These are among the better known sources, though you may be sensitive to other foods. In a survey of research on food allergy and migraine, a recent New York Times article reported finding that “75% of migraine patients may be allergic to 5 or more foods. some to 20 or more foods.”

If you are a parent, you are probably aware of the role of junk foods and stimulants such as caffeine found in soft drinks, preservatives, and coloring and additives, in migraine. I am sure that you’ve read about this in many magazines that report on health issues. But I would like to direct your attention to an article by Dr. J. Egger and colleagues, published in the Journal of Pediatrics and titled “Oligo antigenic Diet Treatment of Children with Epilepsy and Migraine.” (Oligoantigenic means low in antigens, substances to which your immune system responds with the production of antibodies.)

The foods mentioned most frequently were:

-  cow milk

-  cow cheese

-  pork chocolate

-  citrus fruit

-  food additives

-  tea

-  hen eggs

-  beef

-  tomatoes

-  cane sugar

You might consider these items if you decide to consult a physician or nutritionist with a view to reducing them in your diet or in your child’s diet. Remember, I recommend against going cold turkey on foods. Elimination diets should be supervised by a qualified professional. Sudden elimination of foods that trigger symptoms may actually aggravate the condition.

I have treated many migraine sufferers and virtually all had some form of breathing disorder, usually including hyperventilation. There is little doubt in my mind that sensitivity to some foods contributes to disordered breathing in a number of different ways.

Hyperventilation is a known trigger of epileptic seizures, and I can vouch for the role of both nutritional factors and breathing disturbances in that neurological disorder. For persons with seizures, migraine and, in some cases, asthma, my preferred “don’t touch it” food list ranks:

•    milk
•    processed or aged cheese
•    wheat
•    chocolate
•    pickled herring or pickled vegetables
•    smoked or cured meats or fish
•    corn
•    bananas, plums, canned figs
•    beef
•    pork, turkey
•    soy sauce
•    nuts
•    licorice
•    broad beans
•    eggplant, tomatoes, spinach
•    citrus pulp, raspberries
•    anything containing these foods

Naturally, bananas, for instance, do not cause headaches in everyone, but people who are sensitive to tyramine might be cautious. Additionally, a list of inhalants suspected of triggering these disorders, especially asthma, includes:

• dog and cat dander or hair, bird feathers
• dust
• mold
• pollen
• tobacco
• common household cooking gas (leakage through pilot ignition flame)
• believe it or not, tiny pieces of the outer shell (exoskeleton) that fall off cockroaches as they crawl about in your home

These food substances and inhalants do not invariably trigger episodes of a neurological or respiratory disorder. Rather, they have been implicated often enough in these disorders to be taken seriously. There is still considerable controversy about which substances act and by what mechanism they act to promote these disorders.

My preferred explanation follows catastrophe theory, which attempts to explain when a constant relationship is observed to cause an unpredictable change. For instance, a constant pressure applied when bending a stick will result in a predictable bowing of the stick, up to a point. Beyond that point, it breaks. This would not be predicted from the initial changes in the stick due to bending. No matter how much information you have about bending sticks, you cannot predict exactly at what point they will break.

By the same token, a gradual increase in the blood level of action hormones or their mimics from recently consumed food, or increased histamine from an inhaled allergen, may not produce a gradual increase in symptoms. There may be a very gradual and imperceptible change taking place in the body, accompanied by an increase in breathing.Then beyond a certain point, symptoms emerge with vigor.

There is even evidence to suggest that this is what happens in seizure disorder. The effect of allergic stresses accumulates until the seizure threshold is surpassed. The action hormone mimics consumed in foods add to stress-related, naturally released action hormones, and breathing quickens. You begin to hyperventilate, and that may well be the factor that tips the balance.

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1. Migraine Headache, Mental and Emotional Recommendations
2. Migraine Headaches in Pregnancy

Steam up
Hit the steam room or opt for a hot shower or a pan of steaming water. Or stick your nose over a cup of hot tea or soup. Inhaling steam gets moisture into your nose, where it helps to liquify secretions that are blocking the openings to the sinuses.

Eucalyptus
Add few drops of eucalyptus oil to a pot of steaming water and hang the head over it for few minutes. Eucalyptus oil, is available at some health food stores.

Herbs
Traditional herbalists have long used oregano to treat colds, flu and chest congestion. And modern medical researchers have determined that it does, indeed, contain compounds that help to loosen phlegm and make it easier to cough up.

Heat
Heat also seems to offer people  a fair amount of relief from sinus pain.

Bath your nose
A saltwater rinse is helpful because it washes away any thick and dry mucus, and there are some studies that demonstrate that use of a saline nasal spray improves the flow of blood through the mucous membrane.

Red peppers
Chemicals in red peppers trigger the release of hormones which May help open nasal passages.  So using a hot and spicy diet can prevent colds and sinusitis in the first place.

Massage
Facial massage or, better still, pressure applied with fingertips to several appropriate spots over sinuses helps to relieve pain and promote draining. Facial massages and acupressure can help relieve the congestion and muscle tension that accompany and aggravate sinus pain. Applying pressure on the top of or near the sinuses improves circulation of blood and lymphatic fluid through the sinuses, which is the key to cure sinusitis.

Menthols
Fragrant menthol ointments, such as, Vicks are popular nose openers for most of people.

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Headaches have a multitude of causes. The most common type the tension headache may develop from painful muscle spasm in the neck, jaw and head. It may also come from chemical changes in the brain or may be related to stress and tension.

Migraine headaches may originate as an electrical change in brain cells, followed by a disturbed blood flow to the head blood vessels that first constrict, then dilate to throb painfully. Migraine may also be associated with an inflammation of the arteries of the meninges.

A number of triggers can set off a migraine, including hormonal changes in woman, bright lights, a change in sleep pattern, and food or chemicals sensitivities. Many kind of headaches respond to simple measures. They do, issue a warning,

See a doctor if it is your first bad headache or your worst headache ever, or if your headaches become frequent or sudden and severe, or if they are accompanied by fever, confusion or stiff neck because all these signs are potentially serious problems. For occasional, unavoidable headache, here are a number of tips those on the leading edge of experimental medicine and some headache natural cures .

OTCs
More than one third of patients said aspirin, ibuprofen, Advil provides all the relief they need.

Ice
Applying ice to the head, usually the back of the neck or forehead, is a fast, reliable way to abort a headache. Ice helps both tension and migraine by constricting blood vessels, especially if you use it on yourself at the very first sign of a headache. Heat can also have a soothing effect. Placing a heating pad on tight neck muscles for 20-3- min relax them and ease a tension headache.

Walk
Stress and headaches seem to go together, and some of the people who get tension headaches say that getting out for a walk to blow off some steam works as well as aspirin to relieve a headache.

Brush your hair
Brush your hair gently. Friction rubs, including hair brushing, are  a common from of therapy. Medical experts say that brushing stimulates blood flow to the area of the body that is being brushed.

Magnesium
Research shows that people with low blood levels of magnesium are likely to have one of many different kinds of headaches, including migraines and menstrual headaches. There are a number of cases reports of magnesium helping headaches.

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1. Migraine Headaches in Pregnancy

Caffeine is often used as stimulant. It stimulates your central nervous system and helps you stay awake and alert. In combination with aspirin, it is a nonprescription drug for headaches and pain (Anacin, Excedrin, Midol Max Strength, Vanquish). Caffeine is also found in a number of prescription pain drugs.

Remember that coffee, tea, chocolate, and cola drinks naturally contain caffeine; it is also added to many soft drinks and “energy boosting” products. Limit your intake of these if you take caffeine supplements.

Some studies have suggested that postmenopausal women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day and also have a low calcium intake are at greater risk for osteoporosis. Until more is known, postmenopausal women should try to limit caffeine intake and take calcium supplements (1,500 mg daily).

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