Relief for Headaches and Migraines

Do you suffer from frequent headaches or migraines?

Over the years, I’ve learned many tips from acupuncturists and holistic health practitioners that have lessened or eliminated headaches for myself and my clients. Here are some headache relief tips, that may help you:

1) Hydrate with Water and Consider the Dehydrating Effect of Other Drinks

When your brain or muscles are dehydrated, you are more likely to have a headache. Divide your weight in pounds by two. That is the number of ounces of water you should generally strive to drink each day to feel your best. If you drink a lot of coffee, tea, soda or alcohol, those can have a dehydrating effect. Try to limit those non-water drinks to 2 per day and/or drink an extra glass of water to rehydrate after drinking them.

2) Cold is Your Friend

Traditional Chinese Medicine says that headaches can arise when we have too much heat or energy in our heads. Here are some different ways to bring your energy back into balance and gain headache relief:

– Each time you shower, use whatever temperature you enjoy for most of your shower, and then at the end, adjust the water to be as cool as tolerable, and focus the water on your face, head and neck. This doesn’t have to be a miserable experience. You can start slowly and then after a few times, try a brisker temperature. You may find that it is invigorating and energizing. Over time, this technique begins to draw down the heat from your head and you may experience fewer headaches.

– If you feel a headache coming on or you’re in the thick of it, feel your face, eyes, head, neck, and ears with the back of your hand. Do some or all of those areas feel considerably warmer than the rest of your body? If yes, then grab a cool wet washcloth, or an ice pack with slightly damp paper towel over it, and place it on those areas to cool them down. 

If you’re using a damp cloth, as it warms up, grab it by 2 corners and gently wave it back and forth in the air to cool it, then repeat. After you have cooled these areas, feel them with the back of your hand again to see if the heat has moved or if certain areas need additional cooling. Once everything feels cool to the touch, your pain will likely lessen, and it may go away completely. 

– If you are in a cold room or it’s cold outside, you can keep your body bundled up, but see if you can begin to enjoy and embrace the cold on your face and head. Sometimes this can help drive the heat downward and relieve pain.

– If all of these cold solutions sound completely miserable or you have tried them and you feel worse, try warming your feet with a hot rice pack or a warm foot bath to drive the heat down. We are all different and what works for one person, may not work for another.

3) Get Regular Massages!

I have had many clients over the years take expensive medications or go to a million doctors to try to rid themselves of debilitating migraines or frequent headaches, but they really just had tight muscles that were at the root of the problem. If your back, neck, shoulders and/or scalp muscles are tight, it can very likely trigger a headache. If this is the case for you, it likely took a long time for your muscles to become that tight (from stress, frequent exercise or manual labor without stretching, or just life), and it will likely take frequent, regular massages to get through the many layers of tension that you have built up. After each session, you will hopefully find some pain relief and this relief will ideally last longer and longer after each massage.

4) Heat, Stretching and Self Massage

Didn’t I just tell you that cold was your friend and now I’m telling you to use heat? It is a little tricky, but if tight muscles are the reason for your headaches, then warming up the muscles on your neck, shoulders, and back can help soften the tissues and relieve the strain. (Avoid putting heat on your face or head because of the reasons mentioned in section 1). 

After these muscles are warmed with something like a hot rice pack or a shower, stretching the muscles will further help to relieve tension. And feel free to poke around with some self massage. Squeeze tissues or use finger pressure in different areas and breathe. You don’t need to be aggressive. Listen to your body and follow its cues.

5) Pressure Points

In Eastern Medicine, pressure points are often used for headache relief. Here are some points to try:

– Points on your face, neck and hand

– On your ear, there are some auriculotherapy points that can help. If you look at your ear, you will notice a flap of stiff cartilage directly above your ear lobe, called the anti-tragus. In the groove between these two areas are points for headaches. This area might actually be swollen if you have chronic headaches.

Massage this area, and if you find a point that feels tender, that is usually the point that will help you the most. If it feels good, you can use your nails to peck at the points or squeeze the points from both sides. You might find instant relief and if the pain comes back, just work them again.

– You might be familiar with the ‘daith point’ that many people get pierced to help with migranes. I’ve had many clients with this piercing. Some noticed a big difference that lasted for a long time and others didn’t notice as much of an improvement or it lessened over time. You can certainly Google this point to see if pressing on it offers relief. 

My auriculotherapy instructor, who is also a licensed acupuncturist, is of the opinion that causing damage to an ear point with a piercing would disconnect it from its neural pathway and it would cease to work over time. On the other hand, auriculotherapy practitioners have used cauterization on the sciatic point in the ear to relieve pain with high success rates, for thousands of years. If you want to try this piercing, I recommend researching it further, and then make sure to work with a qualified piercer who has a good success rate with this technique for headache relief.

6) Botox

While I don’t offer botox and I have never tried it, I think it is worth mentioning that some of my clients, who haven’t found headache relief from other avenues, sometimes find temporary relief from botox injections with qualified professionals. 

I believe if some of these clients had come to me for massage more regularly, as I had recommended, they might have found relief by relaxing their muscles through bodywork, instead of injections. This is my professional opinion, but I offer no judgements. Headaches suck and we all must do what works for us. 

7) Food and Allergens

I have noticed in my own life that my headaches are often affected by what I eat. Eastern medicine also finds a correlation here. When I eat excessive amounts of grease, sugar, caffeine, dairy, meat, grains and alcohol, and not enough plant foods, I feel hotter and I’m more likely to have a headache. 

I also highly recommend going to your allergist, if you haven’t already, and getting the scratch test to see what foods or other environmental substances you might be allergic to. Once I removed the offending allergens from my diet, I had far fewer headaches and many other maladies improved.

8) Acupuncture

Many of my clients and I have found great success with acupuncture for headache relief. They can help bring your energy back into balance and it’s worth a try. The needles are very thin and you might not even feel them. Japanese style is more gentle than Chinese, so if you are nervous about potential pain, you may seek out a practitioner with a gentler style. You can even research to see if there is an acupuncturist in your area that specializes in relieving headaches and migraines.

9) Check your Blood Pressure During a Headache

Even if you have historically low blood pressure, this tip is worth trying. Use an automatic blood pressure cuff at home or pop into a pharmacy with a bp testing machine, during an episode, to make sure that a blood pressure spike isn’t the cause of your symptoms.

This was the case for a family member of mine. She was having migraine headaches during her periods for over a year. Her hormones were increasing her blood pressure, creating the pain. Once this issue was figured out, a low dose blood pressure medicine was able to eliminate the migraine headaches. Unfortunately, since this high blood pressure went unchecked for so long, it caused some damage to her kidneys. Because of this, I highly recommend that everyone with frequent or recurring headaches get this checked to prevent possible organ damage, in addition to potentially finding a headache solution.

10) Speak with a Physician About a Brain Scan

If you have been suffering from severe headaches or migraines for years, if the pain is very intense or it had a quick on-set and nothing else improves it, it may be worth speaking to a qualified professional about a brain scan. A CT scan may detect a tumor, bleed or clot that is causing the pain. This is not my area of expertise, and I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that these are the cause of your pain, but at some point, it might be worth ruling out.