Headaches: The Natural Relief

Headaches can sometimes prevent you from completing simple everyday tasks. While over the counter medications and prescription ailments bombard you in advertisements during trips to the pharmacy, you might be able to treat your pain in a more natural way with items you already have at home. Although you should always check with your doctor if you have regular or frequent headaches, below are a few easy ideas that may prove to be more helpful than the constant consumption of pain relief pills bought from a pharmacy.

Check Your Diet and Exercise Routine
Your headaches are often an indicator that your body is lacking various nutrients or is even crying out for regular exercise and activity. Magnesium is one of those nutrients that could possibly help reduce the instances of headaches that you experience. In addition, make sure to get into an exercise routine to keep your body healthy overall and reduce the stress and tension, which is often the cause of pain and headaches.

Massage and Compress
When you feel a headache coming on, you will often benefit from massage, which will relax your body and help soothe some of the tension that induces many headaches you experience. Massage your temples in a circular motion to reduce and alleviate pain. It will also benefit you to sit in a dark room and keep your home from becoming too cold. Warmer rooms, especially while you are sleeping, will keep your body looser and keep muscles from tightening to reduce tension and headaches. A cold or warm compress on the head area will also keep headaches at bay and keep you from tensing up as pain progresses. Place a compress on the nape of your neck or on your forehead to achieve the best results.

Try Natural Herbs
Herbs like peppermint are good for inducing a more relaxed state. Both peppermint and lavender have calming properties that can lend themselves well to reducing the stress and anxiety that sometimes cause headaches. You can use natural oils with the herbs in them to help calm you down with the massaging fore-mentioned. Rub peppermint oil into your temple with your eyes closed as you lie in a darkened room. Peppermint will energize you while lavender will create a soothing atmosphere. Both types of oil can be found at natural or health food stores. You can even drop some lavender oil into a warm bath to alleviate stress and relax after a long day.

Julie enjoys writing about health and fitness issues.  She is an expert on relieving headaches and spends her weekdays helping patients as a Houston migraine doctor. If you constantly have headaches due to stress, her tension headache treatment may be able to help.