Does anyone have suggestions for alternative treatments for painful headaches?

Have tried so many remedies but have found no relief. Thanks for for the help! Greatly appreciated.

Asked by Itsjustme 55 months ago Similar questions: suggestions alternative treatments painful headaches Health.

Similar questions: suggestions alternative treatments painful headaches.

Tea! I dislike taking medication if I can avoid it so I have tried different teas to ease headaches. So far, the best is basil tea.

You can buy a bottle of dried basil at the supermarket and some coffee filters or a box of tea bags. Steep in hot water for a few minutes and enjoy. Headaches may also be caused by high blood pressure.

You can try adding cayenne pepper to your meal (or taking cayenne capsules) to lower blood pressure. Also lavender and chamomile teas for relaxation may help if the headache is caused by tension or stress. When I have tension headaches, I like to pop into a beauty salon or Whole Foods and get a 15 minutes shoulder and neck massage..

I know this may sound strange, but sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure or masturbation is a great way to ease headaches, because it temporarily increases pain tolerance for most people, and sometimes between 100-200 percent for women. Sources: My opinion..

You might think this is crazy, but my ex husband would bend out a metal coat hangar in the shape of a triangle and place it around his head. ( I had heard it somewhere) After I convinced him to try it, he swore it eased the pain! I guess this is a similiar theory to magnet therapy?

Learn what your "trigger foods" are and avoid them. For instance, I know my biggest ones are fake crab meat and sulfites, so I try to avoid them as much as possible. Some people react adversely to milk, butter, cheese and cream.In addition, you can avoid foods containing chemicals like nitrites and sulfites, which dilate capillaries in the brain, increasing blood flow and causing pain.

Some of the trigger foods are processed meat products, red wine, caffeine and sometimes, unfortunately chocolate. Chamomile tea and green tea, with a drop of peppermint extract, have been observed to have a very soothing effect when a headache strikes. Try accupressure Use your fingertips to push on the very top of your skull.

Using this technique will help to relieve pressure and pain associated with a tension headache. Press the area for 30 seconds, three times in a row, while breathing deeply.My husband wets a washcloth with ice cold water and places it on his forehead, while holding something warm ( like the chamomile tea) in his hands. Supposedly, this hot/cold is to divert the blood flow from his head to his hands.

( ) and cooling the blood flow from his head while warming his hands can sometimes halt the pain-causing dilation that’s occurring. I'm sure you will recieve multiple rememdies, unfortunately, you will have to experiment and see what works best for you. Good luck!

Sources: my ex, my husband's headaches, my mother in law and me readtolive's Recommendations Moran #4X810PT 10PK Wire Hanger It sounds nutty, but it's worth a try! Readtolive's Recommendations Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition: A Practical A-to-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements ... A-To-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies) Amazon List Price: $24.95 Used from: $10.65 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 192 reviews) Washcloth Puppet - Farm Animal Amazon List Price: $7.99 Spa at NewportTM Ultra-Microfiber Fantasy FacialTM Washcloths Tovolo Perfect Cube Red Silicone Ice Cube Trays, Set of 2 Amazon List Price: $10.50 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 4 reviews) NOW Foods, Chamomile Tea - 30 bags Amazon List Price: $2.99 .

Alternative treatments for headaches The successful treatment of conditions ranging from the common cold to many cancers remains beyond the reach of modern medicine, despite its tremendous advances. It is not surprising, then, that patients seek a variety of alternative or complimentary therapies. Complementary techniques are those that lack definitive proof of efficacy and are not accepted by the medical mainstream.

While many treatments widely used in modern medicine also lack scientific proof, they are not considered complementary or alternative because of their wide acceptance by the medical establishment. Headaches and alternatives While the experience of an occasional headache may be universal and usually is tolerable, chronic headache is an important cause of distress and disability. The vast majority of people who suffer from headaches have either tension-type or migraine headaches.

Headache only recently began to receive attention from the pharmaceutical industry and organized medicine. Selective serotonin-agonist drugs like sumatriptan have revolutionized treatment of migraines and dramatically changed the lives of millions of people. However, even these "designer" drugs do not work for at least 30% of patients.

Unpleasant side effects may occur, and a very small proportion of patients can suffer serious side effects. These concerns encourage many patients who have tried conventional therapy for migraines to explore complementary therapies. Most headache sufferers, however, have never seen a physician for their headaches and may turn directly to complementary treatments, which seem cheaper, safer (though this may not always be the case), and more holistic.In numerous double-blind treatment trials, a large proportion (30-40%) of headache patients respond favorably to placebo.

This "placebo effect" can account for completely useless therapies being effective in some patients. If a particular therapy appears to be clearly ineffective, but at the same time is harmless and inexpensive, I would not discourage an interested patient from trying such an approach, in hopes of a favorable placebo response. Types of complementary therapies Acupuncture This ancient method has recently received a boost in popularity because of the consensus statement by a panel convened by the National Institutes of Health.

This statement strongly suggests that acupuncture is a legitimate therapy proven to be effective for some conditions and deserving additional studies for others. The panel concluded that nausea and acute dental pain clearly respond to acupuncture, while many painful conditions, including headaches, may respond to acupuncture but require additional studies. Acupuncture treatment is done using very thin disposable needles, which cause very little discomfort or pain.

In patients with chronic headaches treatment involves ten or more weekly 20-minute sessions. Electrical stimulation of the needles is frequently used instead of the traditional twirling of the needles. Double-blind study of acupuncture is very difficult because blinding for insertion of a needle is impossible, and inserting needles into non-acupuncture points has been shown to relieve pain.

A large number of animal studies indicate that different mechanisms of action (involving different chemical substances) may be involved in pain relief from acupuncture. Only about 70% of humans and animals respond to acupuncture. Patients with chronic headaches who did not respond to acupuncture were shown to have low endorphin levels.

Despite the lack of definitive proof of its efficacy, acupuncture has a significant potential to help some patients with headaches. Issues of cost, convenience and patient preferences should be taken into the account when deciding on this treatment. Mind-body techniques Biofeedback is another therapy where definitive proof will be hard to obtain.

Most specialty headache clinics offer biofeedback, which strongly suggests that a large number of patients benefit from it (but does not prove its efficacy). Biofeedback is only one of many relaxation and stress management techniques which can be equally effective if strictly adhered to. This is a big "if.

" Biofeedback is a preferred technique because it gives the patient a structure and a therapist, who acts as a coach. The essence of biofeedback, which is often combined with behavior modification, is to teach a patient how to encounter stress without adverse physiological effects. A typical course of biofeedback consists of 8-10 weekly 30-45 minute sessions.

Learning to control body functions such as temperature can be achieved only by first learning to relax the skeletal muscles. This is achieved through progressive relaxation, visualization and breathing techniques. Most important though is the daily practice of these techniques.

The practice sessions can be only a few seconds or minutes long, but have to be very frequent. A conscious effort is required in the first few weeks of training, but gradually self-monitoring and very brief relaxation techniques become a subconscious habit. This appears to allow many patients to lower tension throughout the day and this results in fewer headaches.

Children are especially adept at biofeedback. They can often learn not only how to prevent their headaches in 4 to 5 sessions, but at times can learn how to stop their headache once it begins. Nutritional therapies Dietary approaches to the treatment of migraines are widely advocated, but have very little scientific basis, which places them in the category of complementary methods.

Dietary avoidance is a widely-advocated strategy. Migraine can be triggered in susceptible individuals by tyramine-containing foods, some food additives and sugar substitutes, as well as by skipping meals. Some patients report that their headaches get better with elimination of wheat, sugar, or milk products from their diets.

While we do not have scientific proof, it is possible to speculate on why these dietary changes may work. If the patient is so inclined there is no reason to discourage her from trying these dietary changes, which are usually safe and inexpensive. Strict vegetarian and other unusual diets, on the other hand, can lead to vitamin B12 and other deficiencies, which can make headaches worse and cause other health problems.

Magnesium is a vital element which plays an important role in the pathogenesis of migraines. Many studies have found low magnesium levels in the serum and tissues of migraine patients.In one study, an intravenous infusion of 1 gram of magnesium sulfate was given to 40 consecutive patients with acute migraine. Twenty-one (53%) had very good and sustained relief of their headache.

Of the responders, 86% had low serum ionized magnesium levels, while of the non-responders only 16% had low values. A study of intravenous magnesium in the treatment of cluster headaches suggests a possible 40% success rate in this difficult-to-treat disorder. Oral magnesium supplementation was attempted as preventive therapy of migraines in three double-blind trials.

Two of the three trials were positive, while one was negative. The negative study might have used a more poorly absorbed salt of magnesium. The absorption of various salts of magnesium has not been studied, so it is difficult to recommend a specific product to patients interested in trying magnesium for their headaches.

Magnesium oxide, magnesium diglycinate and slow-release magnesium chloride seem to work for some patients when used in 400-600 mg daily dose. Wider availability of serum ionized magnesium testing may enable us to identify patients who have low ionized magnesium levels and who are most likely to benefit from magnesium supplementation. In order to remove magnesium from the list of complementary therapies and move it into the mainstream we need large trials unequivocally proving its efficacy.

Riboflavin or vitamin B2 has been reported to relieve migraine headaches better than placebo. The maximum effect was achieved after three months of daily intake of 400 mg of riboflavin. The study involved only 55 patients, but the treatment is very benign and potentially very effective, which makes riboflavin a good candidate for further extensive trials.

Herbal remedies Feverfew is the only herbal remedy studied in double-blind fashion.In a trial of 24 patients, a daily dose of feverfew was found to be better than placebo as prophylactic therapy for migraines, though the difference was not dramatic. Because feverfew is fairly safe and may help some patients, this is the herb to recommend to patients interested in herbal remedies. Migra-Lieve is a product made by Natural Science Corporation of America which contains magnesium, riboflavin and feverfew in one tablet.

Having these three ingredients in one tablet greatly improves compliance and has been effective for many of my patients. To be fair, I must disclose that I have a financial interest in the success of this product. However, my involvement started only after I became convinced that it helps my patients.

Guarana is a relatively recent import from Sources: http://www.eons.com/body/feature/healthcorner/alternative-medicine/alternative-treatments-for-headaches/7157 .

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I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.