How to Fight Back Against Stress Headaches
Stress headaches are a common symptom in this fast paced society, and while you can always pop an aspirin or other pain reliever in your mouth, it’s better to find longer term solutions. If you only get headaches once in a while then quick fixes are fine but if they happen all the time it is important to figure out the true cause. If you have severe headaches, you need to talk with your doctor and you might find some of these other remedies helpful too.
Aspirin (or another medication you can buy over the counter) is the most common way to treat a stress headache. There are plenty of choices for this method and, depending on the type and severity of your headache, some are going to work better than others. You should realize, however, that taking medication for headaches too often can cause what are called rebound headaches. This is the name given to the headache that returns after your medication wears off and stops working. This is the primary reason that you should not exceed the recommended dose of any headache medication you choose without first asking your doctor whether or not the dose you are already taking is okay.
Chronic headaches can often be cured using acupuncture and other methods that involve pressure points. If there’s a good acupuncture practitioner in your area, you may want to consult with him or her, as this can be a way to reduce your overall stress level as well as curing your headaches. You may have to go for a series of sessions. Learning about your own pressure points in your hands and feet is an even better and less expensive approach to take. Reflexology is just one system that teaches this and there is a lot of information about it available online. Another technique that is also useful is the Emotional Freedom Technique (or EFT) which has you tap on a variety of places on your body and it can be good for relaxing and alleviating your stress headaches.
A foot bath with hot water is a remedy that’s often effective if you frequently get stress headaches. You can use your regular bath for this or a bucket or one of the foot bath spas that are made specifically for this which are usually easy to find in the pharmacy or on the internet. This is a great treatment to use in the evening or nighttime before you head to bed. When you buy a foot spa you can set it up at your own comfort level but if you do your own prep, remember that you want water that is hot but not scalding. Keep your feet in the water from ten to fifteen minutes or so. This isn’t just good for your feet; it relaxes the rest of you too and might even cure your stress headaches as well.
The are, as we’ve seen, many possible ways to deal with stress headaches. You might be tempted to use an “instant cure” like a pain reliever or cold caffeinated beverage when you’ve got a bad headache but you really need to make sure you find the cause of your problem if you want to properly manage it. You should not be forced to live with stress headaches; they are usually a message that your body wants you to reduce how much stress you experience as part of your regular lifestyle.
If your stress headaches do not improve, it may be time to visit a medical professional. A doctor may run several tests to pinpoint what may be instigating your headaches. For lab work in the medical field,
Strategic Lab Partners is a great place to start.
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