Dealing With Headaches

As I type this, I am currently suffering from what I call “The Great Cricket Headache”. As far as I know, there is no official medical term that matches this — but there should be! This is the headache you get after having a cricket in your bedroom go CRICKET all night long.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not anti-cricket. I think crickets have just as much right to live in America as anyone else. I think crickets should be paid an equal wage for doing an equal job as any other American insect. But having one in my bedroom is making me think of committing cricket-a-cide.

I used to live in the South West of England back when there was a Concorde flying back and forth over our heads. That sonic boom was not half as bad as this darn cricket in my bedroom. At least a sonic boom goes away.

The Pathetic Cricket Hunt

Two nights ago, my dog cornered the cricket on her bed. I scooped it up with a plastic cup and set it free outside. By this time, I had been awake for an hour and a half so I thought, “Well, it’s four-thirty in the morning — I’m only going to get up in another four hours, anyway.” So I gave the dog a walk and reorganized the basement.

Last night, about one in the morning, I’m sleeping, the dog is sleeping and then

CRICKET!

Apparantly, this is a different cricket. Either that, or the cricket I turned out last night was the Harry Potter of crickets and this time came back under an invisibility cloak. I tore the room apart and couldn’t find the critter even though I could distinctly hear CRICKET coming at me tauntingly.

I can’t use insect killing sprays for two reasons — one, they might get my dog sick and two, they DEFINATELY get me sick. In comparing the levels of misery, I fear vomiting more than I do CRICKET.

So I did the only thing a sensible human being would do.

That’s right — I slept on the couch.

Meanwhile, my dog was snoring away all of this time. This is the same dog that slept through both Guy Fawlks’ Night and Fourth of July night in the same year. Two rounds of exploding holidays on both sides of the Atlantic, and she couldn’t be bothered. The cricket meant nothing to her. I call, “Pony! Get the buggy!” and Pony looks at me and says, “You want the buggy — YOU get the buggy.”

So I’ve been sleep-deprived for two nights. Wonder if the third time will be the charm? Boy, am I looking forward to going deaf!

Doctors and headache sufferes are in Washington DC this week lobbying for more research money in order to understand and cure headaches. Considering that a potential cause for Americans’ headaches might be Congress, getting more money seems only fair.

Seriously, Though

Just how bad do headaches and migraines effect Americans? Just about as much as heart disease. Myabe even more. Most businesses will not tolerate you calling out of work with a “mere” headache, so you wind up struggling through the day, not being able to do a good job, and maybe even making costly mistakes. NBC news estimates the cost of these headaches are $13 billion annually.

There hasn’t been a new headache medicine in 15 years. And an estimated 28 million Americans suffer from migraines. It is thought that more suffer from all types of headaches, including tension, barometric pressure and cluster headaches.

Currently, only about $13 million is spent trying to help us deal with headaches. And we are still as baffled as to what causes them as we ever were. There are theories, but nothing so far has been proven. $13 million is spare change to the government. $13 million can buy you 0.17th of an Osprey helicopter (which costs a mere $78 million each).

If you vote and get headaches, contact your state Congresspeople and be a headache yourself to get some relief for headache and migraine researchers.

From the “I’m Really Trying Not To Say ‘I Told You So’” Department: Head and neck cancers will give you headaches (surprize!) If you already get one kind of headache, you’ll be more prone to getting another. One of the fears of those dealing with headaches is that the chronic pain is the sign of something worse — like head cancer. Well, if you don’t drink alchohol or have been on the wagon for at least 20 years, you have one less headache to worry about.

The Latest Study

It shouldn’t come a big shock to know that drinking too much is bad for you. But usually the warnings are given so you can avoid cirrhosis, hangovers and waking up with strange tattoos. Now, you can also had a much incresed risk of head and neck cancers because of too much booze.

A study done by Canada’s Centre For Addiction And Mental Health showed that even with cutting out the booze for two years, your risks for getting mouth, esophagus and larynx cancers plummets.

What gets the cancerous growths in the head and neck are usually soft tissues. Smoking, of course, also greatly increases your chance of getting soft tissue cancers. This is not the same as growing brain tumors. But even if your cancer is in the throat or the mouth, it will give you nasty headaches.

If you want to avoid this, just quit drinking, or at least cut down to one drink a day and drink with food. If you are thinking about having a big boozy bash on your 21st, think again, when you still have a pain free head left to think clearly with.

What This Means

Doctors are aware that their clients expect and deserve privacy. If you confess to your doctor that you are dependent on booze to get through the day, they will not be shocked. They can give you discreet help, tips and contacts to organizations for further help.

Also, if you have constant headaches and really don’t know why, don’t just think they will go away on their own. Get them checked out by a doctor. Not only can this give early enough treatment to head and neck cancers to prevent them from becoming lethal, but you can get effective pain relief.

And, if you are a teetotaler like myself, you have one less worry to deal with.

Hope this helps.

Sometimes I think that humans really decended from pack rats and not apes. We seem to love clutter and junk, hense the problem of compulsive hoarding becoming a real problem for 1-2% of America’s population. Throwing anything away is really difficult. Our species never made enough clutter to have anything to throw away before.

Throwing away medicines can be especially difficult. I used to be homeless, and haven’t come to terms with havings ample closet space. I especially have a problem throwing out any medications or vitamins that are long past their sell by date. I keep thinking, “I might need this someday.” But really, the only thing I need to do — and wound up doing — was throwing it all out in the trash. In researching this article, I discovered that the best and safest way to disposed of any expired medication is to put it in a bag and take it to a pharmacy or doctor’s office to get rid of. Medicines can pollute the ground in landfills or seep into water, or kill animals who accidentally eat it. Oops — sorry, there, enviornment.

What’s the Worst That Can Happen?

Mostly when you take headache medications that are expired, they just won’t work. Their ingredients can only stay active for so long, then they go stale or (in the cases of old vitamin pills) rot. Taking expired medications is like eating spolied or rotting food — you really are risking infections and illnesses. The worst that can happen is that you might get a seizure, a rash, vomiting or damage to your internal organs.

If the medicine has expired only a couple of days ago, you can probably risk it. But if it expired several months ago, it’s not worth the risk, especially if the bottle has in any way been exposed to heat or moisture. This is true both for over the counter medications and perscription medications.

It is recommended to weed out your medicine supplies twice a year (since some medicines have a shorter shelf life than others). If you take care of an elderly person, do the weeding out for them if they forget. Be sure to toss all expired children’s medicine and medicine for animals, too. By getting rid of them, you not only save yourself or someone else in your house an accident, but you have made more space for all new stuff.

Hope this helps.

Doctors and other medical sundries have been quibbling for years whether a persistant headache (not migraine) was a sign of high blood pressure. A 2002 report insists that there is no link between a constant headache and high blood pressure. However, the American Heart Association says that high blood pressure medication can, as a side effect, help ease headaches, if not prevent them.

Although it seems high blood pressure is not the main culprit of persistant headaches, the National Headache Center reports that often a blood pressure of 200/110 or higher will precede a headache. Considering that a normal blood pressure reading is 120/80, be thankful a headache is all you get.

What Does This Mean?

Well, this means several things. First off, everyone should get their blood pressure checked whether they get headaches or not. Secondly, if you do have high blood pressure or hypertension, you might as a benefit have your headaches prevented by your new medications. And thirdly, DON’T take high blood pressure medication just to see what it does to your headaches. These medications include beta blockers and calcium channel blockers.

The best news is that there is always hope, no matter how long you have headaches, in any avenue of healing.

Just for the record, I happen to have low blood pressure — and I get several kinds of headaches as well as migraines. So taking any medications for me to lower my blood pressure would be very dangerous.

And as usual, this article is not to be taken as a replacement for a doctor’s advice. So use your head.

Hope this helps.

I would do a Top Ten List, but for two reasons:

• The name “Top Ten List” is apparantly copywrited
• I’ve had a killer headache today and am doing this post at the last minute. If I go to ten reasons, I’m afraid the Excedrin will wear off and I’ll be back to Miseryville again. You wouldn’t want that to happen to your poor little blogger, do you? How could you take the guilt?

So, anyway, here are five things guarenteed to help ease your headache.

Five: Cuddle With The Pets

Animals cuddling onto or next to you can help ease your blood pressure , heart rate and stress. These three things can intensify a headache. Your pets may also be able to momentarily distract you from your suffering. Just watching a video of aquarium fish can also help soothe your panic and stress.

Four: Wear Sunglasses

If you can get away with it, definately wear sunglasses, even indoors. Many people with headaches and migraines find that they are incredibly sensitive to light. If you already wear glasses or bifocals, then you need the huge ski-goggle typw glasses that are half the size of your head. You might look like the world’s worst Bono impersonator, but at least your head will feel somewhat better.

Three: Win Some Money

Although it does not take care of the root cause of your headache, winning some money by finding it on the floor or a lotto win or getting a raise sure seems to push the headache pain into the distance momentarity.

Two: Keep Taking the Medicine

Well, with all we have to do in a day, no wonder we keep forgetting to take our medicines. It’s best to take any daily medications at the same time each day — just so the routine helps you remember. If you get migraines and do have perscription or over the counter medications that help, you must carry those pills around with you everywhere. If you beleive in Murphy’s Law, this makes even more sense. If you have the pills, then you won’t get a headache. But if you just happen to forget the pills, then Murphy’s Law kicks in becuase it smells that something has gone wrong and makes sure you get a real whopper.

One: Complain, Complain, Complain

There’s nothing like a good old moan to let out some of your pain by giving it away to whoever is within earchot, even if it’s only God you are whingeing at. Compalining is easy, it’s free and does not require a perscription.

Hope this helps. Have a great weekend.

Headaches and computers just go together like bread and butter, don’t they? And if you are prone to other kinds of headaches or migraines, you may be more prone to getting headaches while working on your computer. A lot of these kind or “computer headaches” are a kind of tension headache, or headaches due to eye strain. You can help better your chances of not triggering a headache is you take the time to do some easy changes:

Take Breaks

You really should look away from the computer screen every fifteen minutes, just to give your eyes a rest. Every couple of hours, stretch or take a walk — even if you have to fake a potty break. Sitting for hours in front of your computer is akin to taking a cross-country airplane ride — you have to get up and move to prevent not only deep vein thrombosis, but headaches.

Since I telecommute, it’s actually even MORE tempting to keep on keepin’ on in front of the computer, expecially if my writing is really in a groove. However, I always wind up paying for it later. Fortunately, my dog Pony reminds me every couple of hours that she needs to go outside to potty.

Get Some Fresh Air

I also have Pony to thank for getting me a lot more fresh air than I normally would if I wrote for as long as I could on the computer. The little breaks help me to relax and relieves any knotted up tension in my shoulders, legs or neck. Get the window open whenever possible when you are working on the computer.

And, if you are in the office when you are working on your computer and smell something strange, report it immediately. Strange smells can wind up giving you and everyone else in the office a headache. If you’ve just painted or sprayed for bugs at home, don’t plan on working on the computer right away until the smell fades, or you will be guarenteed a nasty headache.

Use Larger Fonts

It’s ironic that I wind up getting a professional blog about “dealing with headaches” — and my webhost uses this stupid itty-bitty print! If you are having trouble reading this or any other website — even if you are working on business documents, you should be able to set your computer to a much larger font. With bigger words, it’s less of an eyestrain. Just be ready to move your mouse more often for scrolling down the screen.

Do You Have Enough Light?

As a kid, I hated it when my parents admonished me for reading in dim light. As an adult, I hate it even more becuase my parents turned out to be right. I did strains my eyes and triggered headaches I could’ve easily avoided. Be sure you have enough light when you work. You need light behind you as well as a brightly lit monitor. Be sure your computer monitor isn’t reflecting light from windows or lamps that cause a huge bright glowing spot that covers up the screen. There are also such things as anti-glare filters you can buy, if you find you can’t move your monitor.

Keep Your Eyes At Arm’s Length From The Screen

Well, more or less an arm’s length from the screen. Since I’m nearsighted, I have a bad tendency to practially press my nose against the monitor. This causes more eyestrain than if I just enlarged the font.

If you can, tilt your monitor up a little bit, so it’s easier to read the bottom of the screen. I didn’t believe this when I first read it, but tilting the monitor up a tiny bit seems to have relaxed the strain on my neck.

Hope this helps. For even more details on these tips to avoid “computer headache”, click here.

Yet another thing to blame your parents for. According to Health 24, if one of your parents has migraines, you have a 50% chance of getting them. If both your parents have migraines, then you have a 75% chance of getting them. You are probably getting them for the exact same reasons your parents got them. If your parents do get migraines, then ask them how they manage theirs or what their triggers are. This will save you a lot of time trying to figure out what triggers your migraines.

However, if your parents do not know why they get migraines, then you’re on your own.

WebMD reports that 4 out of 5 migraine sufferes are from families with a history of migraines. I guess the family that pains together stays together, eh?

But why does anyone get migraines in the first place? That is still unknown. One theory is that we inherit an abnormal brain from our parents. Gee, and all I wanted was a pony…

If you have migraines, really think carefully before having kids (if you can help it. Sometimes kids happen beyond the plans of mice and men). If you have kids, you have a HUGE chance of given them the same lifetime of suffering as yourself.

Which raises an interesting question — if all of the people who currently have migraines in the world stopped having kids, would migraines then become a bad dream?

I know, I know — it’s like asking how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop.

And then again, could the theoretical “brain abnormality” only be activated when in the presence of children or people who act childishly? Hmmm —

And science stumbles onward.

Since migraines can last for several hours or several days (my longest was two weeks), you eventually need to eat. But how can you eat when you are hypersensitive and queasy? Very carefully.

The following is in no way meant to substitutes for a doctor’s advice. This is just the compilation of the menu I have when I’m clobbered by a migraine (or a bad headache).

A Nice Cuppa Tea And A Sit Down

The main trigger for my migraines is caffeine withdrawal, which I’ll explore in a future post here on Dealing With Headaches. Although I have sucessfully managed to cut down my caffeine consumption over the years, I still am caffeine dependant and need the equivelent of six cups of black tea per 24 hours in order to prevent a migraine. So, if I feel a migraine start, I have a tendency to automatically make a cuppa whenever possible. When a cuppa is not possible, I settle for taking one Excedrin Migraine pill (which contains caffeine). Black tea and green tea contain caffeine — black tea the most. Decaffienated tea tends to have traces of caffeine in it, but not enough to make any difference to my migraines.

Yogurt

Most of the time I get a migraine, I also get hypersensitive to light, sound and taste. This means that I have to avoid chewing as much as possible. Yogurt, without any bits or chunks in it, can be swallowed without having to chew. It also is very gentle to the digestive system. If you can’t tolerate yogurt, perhaps you could eat pudding, instead.

A Plain Piece of Bread

A slice of soft bread can be stuck in the mouth and sucked on, then worked around the top of the mouth without actually having to do a lot of chewing. This takes a long time to eat — even longer when your stomach is upset — but gives your body something to work with.

Overcooked Macaroni & Cheese

So I don’t have to chew too much, the macaroni is overcooked so it not al dente, but really soft. It also tastes better when my Mom cooks it, for some reason, even if it’s only from a blue box. Perhaps the Mom Mojo adds just a touch of comfort aching heads need.

Whatever you eat, take your time. You might want to take one swallow, see if it stays down for ten minutes, then take another swallow. Try not to lie flat between swallows, but still sit up.

Hope this helps.

Faking a migraine is not recommended, but if you are reading this post, then chances are you never have an opportunity to fake one — you’re too busy having the real thing! But have you ever been tempted?

There’s A Good Thing About Migraines?

When you have migraines long enough, you realise what you have to do to fake one. You have to use these fake outs for emergencies only — such as getting out of a family reunion early. One time, my family and I traveled across state to attend the wedding of my cousin. We knew the bride, the bride’s parents and no one else. We are an animal rights family and we wound up in Hunter’s Paradise. I faked a migraine to go out to the car. The rest of my family followed “to see what’s wrong with Rena” and had a long talk.

“If I see one more idiot with a rifle in one hand and a beer in the other, I will commit a crime, ” my Dad warned.

“Well, we put in an appearance and have been here over an hour,” Mom pointed out.

“You’re faking that migraine, aren’t you?” asked my older brother.

“Nu-uh!” I insisted, tears streaming out of my eyes as I imitated very authentic dry heaves.

The rest of my family looked at each other, kissed me and Mom slipped out to break the bad news to the mother of the bride, then we went and hid back at the hotel.

The Danger

The danger of faking a maigraine is the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome. If a lot of people suddenly start faking migraines, then no one who actually has a migraine will be believed. Unfortunately, some of the people most taken by migraine fakers are doctors, especially if the “fakee” wants a perscription for powerful painkillers. (A scene like this was dramatised in an episode of ER.

Up to 60% of migraine sufferes have reported a bad experience with a doctor. In the early 1990’s, I had one doctor tell me flat out that I was faking (I wasn’t — and at the time I was having a panic attack, too). I never went back to him again.

So, if you are going to fake a migraine, use the opportunity as if a genie gave you three wishes — and you have the rest of your life to cash them in.

The two most prominant times to get migraines are Monday morning and, beleive it or not, Friday night, as mentioned here is a BBC report on migraines. This happens mainly to people who work the traditional Monday-Friday gig. Why do people get migraines at a time when they are usually relaxing?

Sometimes Stress Is Good

Remember the movie The Blues Brothers? Specifically, their ex-cop car? It did all sorts of incredible cross-country stunts and only fell apart when it didn’t have to go anywhere any more. This is very much what happens to those with Friday night migraines, or who get migraines when everything has come out for the best after a bad patch.

Say you’d been under a lot of stress becuase of the work week. You survived the week, and now can kick back. Your body has been stressed out for five days and in a constant fight-or-flight mode. Now, suddenly, all the stress is over. It’s as if the body can’t beleive it and has a Friday night migraine in order to compensate.

Treatment

Sometimes Friday night migraines are called “weekend migraines”. Treatment does not mean being stressed all of the time — that would lead to other dangerous health issues. What you need to do is see what your Friday night routine is. Do you stay up really late, hit the booze and party or perhaps eat a lot of really fattening food? The triggers for the weekend migraines might actually be the sudden change in sleeping and eating pattens and not just because you are relaxing.

Treating a weekend migraine is the same as treating any migraine — do whatever it takes to get rid of the pain. If you consistently get Friday night migraines, then perhaps you should take any migraine medicine before you even leave work. And try to keep to your usual sleep schedule — it’ll be less of a shock to your body.

Hope this helps. And good luck this weekend, everyone!

Never understimate the power of a nice cold compress. Not only is it effective for easing headaches and migraines, cold compresses are also useful for concussions, sprains, insect bites, bumps and reducing fevers (which may or may not be accompanied by a headache).

One of the easiest cold compresses to grap is a small bag of frozen peas — preferably unopened. Don’t put the bag directly onto your skin — it’ll burn! Wrap the bag in a washcloth or tea towel and then press against where it hurts. You’ll need to cook the peas right away because they’ll get defrosted — unless you only need the compress on for a ten minutes or less.

There are also many commercially available cold compresses, but they need to be in the freezer i advance. They are available at drug stores, department stores and sometimes large grocery chains. And, of course, they can be purchased through their online equivelents.

The Traditional Cold Compress

Soak a clean cloth of some sort in cold water. It’s easiest to fill a bowl with cold water, ice ice cubes and any essentail oils if you choose and then put the cloth in. After a minute or so, get the cloth out. Wring it out, then drape it over the hurting area.

You can then cover it with plasic wrap and bandage it to keep it in place. You could also improvise a bandage by wrapping a towel around the compress.

Keep it on until it gets warm. Repeat if necessary.

Aromatherapy Oils

Smells have deeply ingrained associations in our subconscious minds. Some also have an effect on the body as well as the emotions. Aromatherapy works better for some people than others, just like any other medical system. For whatever essential oil you choose to add to your cold compress, make sure it has an odor pleasing to you.

Be sure to choose therapuetic quality oils (whether blended or full strength) and not the kind labeled “For oil lamps only”. They will cost a lot more than those just for oil lamps, but a little goes a long way. You only need to use about three drops for a cold compress.

Popular headache relieving essential oils include lavender, rosemary, geranimum, peppermint, bay, jasmine, melissa and eucalyptus. All of these oils encourage the body to relax by breathing deeply. The least expensive of the group are lavender and eucalyptus.

Lavender is so gentle to most people that they can put it on their skin without having to dilute it. You should do a skin patch test before sticking on any full strength essential oils. Just put a drop on your arm and watch for any negative changes in that spot for the next 24 hours.

Hope this helps.

Getting a concussion will definately give you a headache. Not only headache, but often dizziness, extreme confusion, sudden sleepiness and nausea. This is a serious head pain condition. Most concussions do get better on their own — provided the patient rests — but sometimes a concussion is the warning sign that there is more serious damage to the head.

What Is A Concussion?

A concussion is a head injury where some other object clonks into your head. In a famous and beloved episode of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye get s concussion from having his jeep overturn. Falling onto the road gave him the concussion. He then is taken in by a Korean family that can’t understand a word he says.

One thing Hawkeye says is that he is scared of falling asleep because he knows he has a concussion. This is actually an irrational fear — but one you’ll probably have. But sleeping is actually one of the best things you can do (provided it’s safe for you to nap where you are). The body often seems to reapir itself when you sleep.

My Last Concussion

Unfortunately, becuase I’m partially blind, I’ve had more concussions than I can remember…uhh, probably because I’ve more concussions than I can remember. My latest misadventure was when I was working at a *a-hem* famous department store. They had a T-shirt display that I accidentally walked directly into. I was told the blow spun me in a half circle, and shoppers in the entire department heard the CLONK. I was also told me face went chalk white.

I had quite a red mark on the left side of my forehead. I was shaky and suddenly groggy…and quite embarrassed. That display had been there for months and I was the first person to walk right into it.

I was given an ice pack and my lunch break, and was able to eat. However, I then nearly fainted and couldn’t figure out what was going on. The human resources manager called the ambulance, which was the best thing she could’ve done. Then she called to have the T-shirt display removed.

I was given x-rays and then told all I had to do was stay in bed for a week. What do you know — it worked.

Concussion First Aid

Rest, ice packs to the area of impact and painkillers (but NOT aspirin! — it could make your head more prone to bleed.) Ibuprophen and acetominophen are OK.

Repeat as necessary.

When To Go To Hospital

Any child getting a concussion and then passes out should go to the hospital immediately.

If you still aren’t feeling any better after an hour, get an ambulance. Don’t drive yourself!

You should call an ambulance for yourself or anyone else with a concussion if there are:

• Siezures (Something has definatley been injured badly)
• Vomiting or extreme nausea
• Dizziness or vertigo (vertigo is when the room keeps spinning)
• Ringing in the ears or any sudden hearing loss
• Sudden loss of memory
• Hallucinations
• Sudden loss of smell
• Sudden loss of taste

You need to go for x-rays (at least) to determine that there isn’t a fracture in the skull. Often, you’ll need a CAT scan, especially if you are under 16, can’t recall getting clonked on the head, had the concussion as a result of a motorcycle accident or fell at a height of more than three feet. The doctor may admidt you to the hospital overnight, where you are checked every two hours to see if you can wake up and remember who and where you are.

Personally, I cannot remember what machine my head was stuck into. All I know was that I was there in the emergency room for ten hours. But it could’ve been much worse.

Hope this helps.

Yes, we all know you apply directly to the forehead, but does HeadOn: Migraine deserve a head-up? HeadOn comes in a few varieties, but all I could afford to buy was one kind, so I chose HeadOn Migraine, which I bought last December. So this a very unscientific clinical trial undertaken by just one human guinea pig — me. (Things I do for my readers…)

What Is It?

HeadOn products are based on homeopathic medicine. It’s basically blends of botanical tincures in water and a sort of vasiline ingredient to help you absorb the ingredients into your skin. You’ll see designations next to the ingredients like 12x. That means there’s only 12 parts per million of the active ingredient. A little goes a long way in homeopathic remedies.

The active ingredients for HeadOn Migraine are:

• Iris versicolor (blue flag) 12X H.P.U.S. 0.1%
• Kali Bichromicum (Potassium bichromate) 6X H.P.U.S. 0.3%
• Byronia alba (White byrony — no relation to Lord Byron) 12X H.P.U.S. 0.04%

And, like the ads continually repeat in their monotone mantra, “Apply directly to the forehead”. It’s sort of like a Chapstick for the head. You use as often as needed and try to “color in” your entire forehead. Try not to get any in your eyes. Trust me on this one. It’s worse than an eyelash on your eyeball.

Does It Work?

It’s definately better than nothing. In less than one minute, the sensation on your forehead is VERY similar to that of an ice pack. This is very relaxing. It doesn’t completely take the pain away, but does bring the pain down to a much more manageable level. When you get a migraine, you usually can’t get to an ice pack, so this is a great alternative.

To me, it actually seems to work better when I sit up then when I roll it on and lie down. This is especially true for my sinus headaches. It seems to help drain my sinuses (and I mean that as a compliment).

It also has a positive benefit for my barometric pressure headaches, but I still need the cloud system to pass the immediate area in order to have the best results.

As to my migraines, which are (for the most part) triggered by caffeine withdrawal — the ice pack sensation similarily helps, and the smell does not upset an already queasy stomach, but the pain is still there. I have to take Excedrin in order to turn the volume down on the pain to a dull roar.

Although HeadOn claims it’s safe to use in combination with other medications (perscription or over the counter), I haven’t really tried that yet. From what I’ve read of homeopathic treatments, combination with other remedies is not encouraged. But, since the product has been on the market for two years and there hasn’t been any reported lawsuits yet, it probably is safe to take in conjunction with other medications.

For less than $7 (US), you have a nice way to ease pain and help you relax just a tad. Now, if only HeadOn could come up with a product that helps me remember where I last put my HeadOn Migraine stick…

“Cleaning therapy” is a term I made up — there is no official therapy based on cleaning. It’s a trick I’ve used over the years to help distract me from chronic pain. Cleaning anything boosts your self-esteem.

Self-esteem? But isn’t this column called Dealing With Headaches? Of course it is. Your emotions can greatly affect your pain, including headaches. Anything you can do to build up your self esteem and lower self-defeating thoughts can eventually help with chronic pain.

The Link With Depression

The majority of people who suffer from chronic pain also suffer from clinical depression. Although depression often needs to be treated with medications, they can do their job better when you think positive thoughts about yourself instead of living like The Whiners all the time.

When you clean something, you can see the results immediately. There’s instant gratification for you. You can see immediately that you have made a difference. It’s a subtle form of behaviorial-cognitive therapy. You are, in a sense, reprogramming your internal chatter in order to boost your self-esteem.

Yet Another Study

Just recently, a link has been seen between depression and mold in the home. Just the smell of mold can be depressing, let alone having to live with it all of the time! So getting rid of household mold can boost your self-esteem, which in turn may help the severity of your chronic pain.

Some Tips

When you use cleaning therapy, there are some things to keep in mind. The goal is to make you feel even just the slightest bit better, not to get your living room into Home And Gardens.

Only take on small tasks, especially when you are in pain. Instead of washing all of the dishes (for example), wash one cup. Wash another if you can. That’s still cleaning!

Don’t compare your cleaning efforts with someone else. You just concentrate on your own efforts.

Hope this helps.