Dealing With Headaches

Nausea sucks. It’s actually better to throw up rather than just be nauseated because you feel as if you are accomplishing something. Nausea is misery in unlimited potential. But you are not completely at nausea’s mercy. You can do some things to ease the pain.

Deep Breathing

This is inhaling for three seconds, holding it and exhaling for three seconds. If you can only do two seconds or one second, fine. Do wahat you can. This works in three ways:

• Deep breathing helps bring in oxygen which can help you calm down
• Deep breathign can help your muscles relax
• If all esle fails, one really deep breath will cause you to throw up and feel better

Herbal Tea

This is my favorite way of dealing with mild nausea, even from a concussion. It doesn’t work too well with stomach flu. It sometimes works for me with nausea from migraines, sometimes not. It’s best if you can get someone else to make the tea, but making the tea can give you something else to concentrate on other than your misery.

Flavors recommended are peppermint, mint blends, chamomile or ginger. (Next best thing to ginger tea is ginger ale). Parsely tea is supposed to help, too, but I’ve never tried it.

Aromatherapy

Some smells can trigger your subsconscious to relax muscles. For me, aromatherapy works best on nausea caused by motion sickness or migraines. You can just sniff the bottle, a few drops on a tissue or massage blended poils on your temples. Only lavender is gentle enough to be used full strength.

Good scents to try and relax to include lavender, peppermint, majoram and rosemary.

Hope this helps.

I forgot all about submitting to the March 2009 edition of the Headache and Migraine Blog Carnival. (DUH!) And I get two reminders, as well. I guess I could blame the ear raisins for blocking my memory neurons as well as my ear canals.

This month’s blog topic was admittedly a tough subject to write about this time around — creating a migraine-friendly environment. This means living in a way to keep migraines at a minimum, not inviting them inside your home to party. This is best expressed in Diana Lee’s Coping with a Migraine: My Three Step Approach. (Meds, darken the room, get as comfy as possible).

Other Links

Since I screwed up in forgettting to submit an article to this blog carnival, I thought I’d bounce around the web and find a few hopefully helpful websites about how to best survive a migraine attack. Think of this as March 2009 Headache Blog Carnival, Part 2:

• Living With Migraines: What to Expect is a HubPages testimony of one young migraineur’s struggle with her chronic pain. The article stumbles a bit in the beginning, but smooths out once she gets going. There are some nice tips in side grey boxes. She also can’t use triptans like Imitrex because of the cost (something many migrainuers can identify with).
• Migraine Prevention: Early Success by the ever-reliable Megan Oltman includes a very important tip for all migraineurs — keep your voices down when discussing migraine treatments or the migraine monsters might hear and come get you. These monsters are the offspring of Sod’s Law. Another important tip — don’t skip breakfast or lunch.
• And, for general all around advice about migraines, there’s Migraine Headaches: Ways to Deal with the Pain over at FamilyDoctor.org.

Let’s see if I forget to submit an article for next month’s blog carnival, which won’t have a theme. Darn, now I have too many choices!

I have a headache. You may have one, too. The two acetominophen are not doing it. But I’ve got to work. Taking a day off because of a bad headache is not an option. Perhaps you’ve also had this experience. I recommend taking some time to try and relax. This can considerably help lessen the pain and frustration that goes along with pain.

Of course, the problem with taking the time to relax when you have a crap load of work to do is that you can’t afford to take the time to relax and collect yourself. Actually, you do. If you take the time, you will be far more prone to making mistakes and having to do everything over again. And, if you’re like me, a migraine or a bad headache can trigger a panic attack. Panic attacks are definitely a time waster.

So, how can you relax? Well, there’s deep breathing, sniffing a few favorite aromatherapy essential oils like lavender or watching a brief film that tranquilizes you.

I used to have a 30 minute videotape made for kids called “Horses — Up Close and Personal”. It disappeared years ago. I could be in the middle of a full-blown panic attack at the begging of the film and by the end I was suitably sedated and ready to get on with life.

So, if watching tranquil scenes without dialogue helps me to relax when in pain, perhaps it can also help someone else. Here is a great clip of a rough draft of a documentary on Chincoteague ponies. It doesn’t just have ponies, but also birds, boats and the sea. If ponies don’t calm you down, then perhaps a short film of the sea or a sunrise will. Hope this helps.

I know I just wrote a post about hangovers on New Year’s, but this time I’ll try to write one about self-treatment for a hangover without trying to sound so smug (because I’m a teetotaler.) I haven’t tried this treatment myself, so I can’t vouch for it. Hope it helps.

Keep Head Cool

Preferably, you want to lay down in a quiet room when you have a hangover. You can then put on a wet towel or a cold pack on your forehead. You can even just wet the front of your hair if you can’t manage the coordination it takes to get a wet towel or cold pack together.

Keep Limbs Warm

Putting on two pairs of socks, gloves if necessary and comfy but warm clothing can also help your body fight the hangover misery. I’m only getting this recommendation second-hand, so I don’t personally know if it works. But the few times I did have a hangover in my wacky college days I did feel like I had a fever. Perhaps a hangover is kind of like a fever.

Lemon Water

If you can’t drink anything else, just have some water. Part of the reason you feel crappy is because you are dehydrated. But some people have reported being helped by adding to a large glass of water:

• The juice of half a fresh lemon
• A pinch of salt
• A teaspoon of molasses, dark maple syrup or honey
• A pinch of cayenne pepper (although this ingredient is optional)

Coffee or colas are not recommended to drink while you have a hangover. If you get caffeine withdrawal migraines, however, drink just one cup of coffee or a few swallows of cola and then drink water or the above lemon mixture.

Got a spare tire — (and I don’t mean the kind you can find in the boot of your car?) If you do, and you are between 20 - 55, chances are that you also have migraines, no matter if you are a man or a woman. This is the conclusion of a study of 22,211 human guinea pigs done by prestigious Drexel Hill University’s College of Medicine.

How Fat Is Too Fat?

The particular kind of fat that the Drexel researchers looked at was belly fat and not general fat or even how obese a person was. They measured belly fat by measuring the circumference of a person’s waists.

However, obesity does give you serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and problems breathing. So, you stil need to loose it if you are overweight or obese. (Wait … that sentence didn’t come out right … oh, never mind …)

Women migraineurs with abdominal fat were 37% more likely to get more migraines than women migraineurs without abdominal fat. In men, the odds were 20%.

Must Love Migraineurs

If you already have migraines, and then grow a spare tire, then you will be likely to have a greater frequency of migraines. If you don’t have migrains and get a spare tire, then — you get a spare tire and some sniggers behind your back. If only the cause of migraines was that easy…

The study also noted that it was aware that women and men’s body fat tends to store in different areas of the body. They also noted that women are still three times more likely than men to suffer from migraines.

The first blog carnival of the new year is up at Somebody Heal Me, chaperoned by the lovely Diana Lee. As you probably know, a blog carnival is a bunch of blog posts that revolve around a central topic. The topic explored (or ignored) is “What Keeps You Going When You’re Suffering.” I answered the question with, “Revenge”.

Highlights

As always, if I haven’t chosen your article, it’s not meant to be an insult. The following highlights are based soley on my personal tastes in reading:

• Rosalind Joffe at WorkingWithChronicIllness.com presents some practical advice in “What Gets You Through The Times of Pain/Fatigue or Just Plain Can’t Do?” The title is a little convuluted but the article isn’t. Rosalind used to have multiple schlerosis, had sinus surgery and therefore is more than qualified to write about pain. If you’re in a rush, skip to the list at the end.
• If you sleep on your stomach and suffer from chronic headaches, take a painkiller and read “Sleeping Off My Headache?” from Without Dash. Sadly, no mater what position my body takes to sleep, it hasn’t affected my migraines any.
• Jasmine’s “The Pursuit of Painlessness” at first seems a little too optimistic, but then smooths out with a good blend of hope and reality. The comments below are quite interesting, too.
• James presents a heaping helping of food for thought with “What Everyone Should Know About Telcagepant — The Coming Migraine Drug”. Telcagepant is hoped to work fro migraineurs who can’t take triptans.

Next Month

Next month’s topic promises to be loaded with Google ads — the theme is “Sex and Migraines”. Entries due Friday, February 6. Remember, your blog post doesn’t have to center on migraines or headaches. You don’t get paid, but it’s good publicity.

“There’s not a lot of money in revenge.” — Innigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Then picture yourself destroying this person in any way possible — use your imagination. You could do the light sabre duel from Star Wars, you could win a lawsuit against the person or thing or you you could imagine a tornado suddenly dropping out of the sky to blow him/her/it to smithereens.

Now smile and take a deep breath — ahh, doesn’t that feel better?

Use Common Sense

Obviously, you can’t act on these revenge fanatsies. Not exactly in the way that the fantasy goes. But you can use the energy to keep on going in order to look out for ways to metaphorically crush your enemies. For example, when having a headache, I’ve written many articles condemning puppy mills and have gotten paid for them. Now, that’s sweet.

When I refer to temperature here, I don’t mean your body temperature. If you have a fever, chances are you’re also going to have a headache. No, I mean, does the temperature of the weather or whatever building you’re stuck in — can that give you a headache or can temperature be used to ease a headache?

Temperature Triggers

Dramatic changes in temperature can certainly trigger a headache. This can happen when you go from a hot and humid outside into a refrigerated building and then go back outside, which has seemed to become even hotter during the time you were inside. This can also trigger a migraine (crippling pain on one side of the head as opposed to a dull ache all over the head.) Turning down the heat or air conditioning a couple of degrees may help in treating the wide temperature swings modern people face.

I can get headaches from any sudden temperature change, including the other way around — if I’m outside in the freezing cold and go into a warmed building. My hands also have a painful burning sensation. But I may be alone here. I haven’t found any clincial studies to back me up on this one, but I did find a mention in this website called HeadacheExpert.co.uk.

So, basically, no matter what the weather, I’m screwed.

Could It Be Change In Pressure?

I also get barometric pressure headache, which (for me) feels like a firm hand on the top or back of my head pressing down. It can be hard to even sit up straight with such a headache, because if I try to sit up straight, I feel thrown off-balalnce. I can predict the weather or at least a low-moving storm system coming into the area, whether or not it dumps any rain or snow on the area.

Fortunatley, over the counter painkillers and some relaxation exercises like breathing deeply and gently moving my shoulders in circles, often alleiviate the pain or at least bring it down to a dull roar. Some people get a gadet to measure the barometric pressure, so when it signals a drop, they immediately pop a painkiller and cross their fingers. These gadgets cost a couple of hundred dollars (American).

Yes, I am aware that the title of this blog is Dealing With Headaches, but fear of geting Alzheimer’s is a very real fear for many people with migraines and chronic headaches. One head problem can so easily lead to another head problem. According to a new study from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, the culprit for Alzheimer’s may also be the culprit for some headaches: low blood sugar.

Brain Makes Glucose

For the last few years, scientists have wondered if Alzheimer’s is really Diabetes Type III, because the brain makes glucose and not just the pancreas. Sugar is good for your head, in a way (as long as it’s blood sugar). The new study theorizes that when the brain is depreived or starved of glucose, then this triggers the beginning of Alzheimer’s.

How do they know that? Alzheimer’s patients have “sticky clumps of protein” (amyloid plagues) inside of the arteries in the brain. It’s thought that those clumps are produced by an enzyme (BACE1)which is caused by a protein known as “elF2alpha” (which I swear was on a vanity license plate I saw last week). But what causes the proteiun — well, that’s kinda the mystery. But it’s now thought the process starts by the brain not getting enough oxygen and glucose.

The study worked on the brains of mice and humans in order to come to its conclusions.

Preventing Alzheimer’s

The study gave some recommendations for preventing brain malnourishment — and they are very close to recommendations for depressives, diabetics, migraineurs or those with chronic headaches. These tips include:

• Regular exercise. This helps keep the arteries in all your body parts working, not just your brain. This can slso help with stress, which can contibute to the next tip.
• Manage hyptertension (high blood pressure) and do whatever you can to avoid high blood pressure. This includes regular exercise, eating a low-fat diet, not smoking and not abusing alcohol (which is all calories and no nutrition). Of course, you still need to see your doctor for help in this area, too.
• Manage your stress, preferably through non-chemical ways. Stress can make you make very unhealthy food choices or make you want to smoke and drink in the first place. The study didn’t recommend any particular type of stress management technique.

Hope this helps.

Well, the easiest hangover remedy is just not to drink alcohol. That clears that problem up pretty darn quick. But, that kind of thinking is too logical for most people on New Year’s Eve, so let’s list some hangover remedies you’ll need tomorrow morning — even though you really don’t deserve it because you were so stupid.

Don’t you hate smug teetotalars? (Evil grin).

Anyway, let’s proceed:

Prevention

If you’re determined to have a hangover the next morning, at least make the misery a little more bearable. Well, that’s the thoery at least. I have yet to see these work with anyone, but if you’re in for a penny, in for pound:

• Eat a lot of almonds before drinking
• Eat a lot of peanut butter before drinking
• Take two teaspoons of evening primrose oil before drinking. And if you can afford evening primrose oil, you should be able to afford to hire someone to have your hangover for you.
• Wear an amethyst. I always love this one. It never works, and yet go to a party and see how many drunk people are wearing amethysts.

Food Remedies

There are a whole bunch of foods that help ease the transition back to planet Earth. Of course, back in my college days when I stupid enough to drink, I tried a lot of these and none of them worked. However, I had such a low tolerance for alcohol than one four-pack could make me drunk for a week. But, who knows? Trying something makes you feel useful and can help distract you from the pounding pain behind your eyeballs. These include:

• Chicken soup
• Ginger tea or candied ginger
• The juice of one fresh lemon added to a cup of black coffee (okay, this is a new one for me)
• Raw cabbage (because, honestly, what other time are you going to eat it?)
• An apple or a bananna eaten as soon as you can become vertical.
• A teaspoon of honey every twenty minutes as soon as you realize you can move.
• Peppermint anything (except schnapps). This one though, can help ease a turbulent tummy, whether it’s a peppermint hard candy, peppermint tea or snorting peppermint essential oil.

Reassure Yourself

It could be worse. Much worse. You could wake up after a night of drinking and feel no hangover at all. That’s the sign of an alcoholic. So, having a hangover is good, in avery teeny-tiny way.

Although you shouldn’t use any website as a substitute for a real flesh and blood doctor’s diagnosis, some websites are more reliable than others for sorting out the medical facts from hearsay. For example, because of the this blog, a lot of information here is anectodotal. Blogger and commenters write about their experiences with certain treatments or medications — and what happened to us may not necessarily happen to you. I also try to link up to one of these reputable medical websites once in a while.

Here’s a good list of reputable medical websites for those with migraines or chronic headaches to get started. Enjoy:

• Mayo Clinic: Although there are certainly better medical websites out there, I haven’t found them yet. This one remains at the top of the list for me because the writing is comphrehensible, there are often helpful illustrations, the layout is user-friendly and there is a section where you can ask questions to real doctors. They also have details on some really obscure medical conditions that some other medical websites just gloss over or won;t even mention.
• WebMD: This is probably the best-known medical website, but I find it lacking in ways to Mayo Clinic’s site. However, I have noticed that the site has improved in just the last year (especially with information on depression, which many people with migraines or chronic headaches have). Keep in mind that this site is loaded with adds, including pop-up ads and may take a while to download.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Although I’m not the biggest fan of the US government, occassionally they do something right, like this helpful and ad-free website. This is geared for American readers. BIG PROBLEM: They do not have a section on migraines. But they do have good tips that migraineurs can use, such as travelling with prescription medications.
• NHS: Not to be outdone by those damn Yanks, the UK’s National Health Service has also put up a helpful website with incredibly good information on alternative therapies. Obviously meant for a UK audience, but not exclusively.
• Drugs.com: Notable for the Pill Idenitfier and a section for veterinary drugs, but mainly an easy-to read, well-organized encyclopedia of the manufactuerer’s information on just about every drug known to man or woman.

There’s been a lot of bad news in 2008 for makers and takers of supplemental vitamins. They haven’t quite proven to be the natural cure-all as sometimes they are touted to be. For example, a study on Vitamins E and C to help with preventing prostate cancer proved the vitamins didn’t seem to change a man’s health in any way. In another study done in Copenhagen University, vitmains didn’t seem to give any benefit and were harmful in mega doses.

Migraineurs and people with chronic headaches sometimes take multi-vitamins and nutritinal supplements in the hope to leesen the intensity and frequency of head pain. Taking mega doses of magnesium is a popular alternative or complimentary migraine treatment, as well as a combination of magnesium and calicium. Some people also take mega doses of vitamin B2 in order to treat their headaches.

Does this mean you should toss out all of your multivitamins?

Not Necessarily

You do need vitamins, minerals and all of that good stuff in order to get healthy and stay healthy. You can get everything you need if (and this is a big if) you eat a varied, balanced diet full of fresh foods every day.

Odds are that you live in the real world and eat an unbalanced diet. Then, taking a multi-vitamin can be beneficial. In this way, you get just the amount that you need or nearly the amount that you need. Before you take any nutritional supplement or multi-vitamin, you should talk to your doctor. He or she may ask you to do a blood test for a complete blood cell count to be sure that your body isn’t lacking in any vitamin or mineral that may make you ill.

For example, I have iron-poor blood. My body seems to have a tremendous problem absorbing iron, even if I take it in food and multi-vitamins. So, I have to take a once-a-day little iron supplement. It helps my energy levels.

More Is Not Better

The problem with vitamins not helping to cure some problems like migraines or chronic headaches is that more of a good thing turns out to be a bad thing. Mega doses of anything is never a good idea, even if it is something natural like vitamin pills. So, vitamins aren’t bad for you, but they are if you take too much or not take them at all.

I’ve been thinking about medical marijuana, partially because I’ve had to write some web articles about the subject this year. Since there is such a strong fear of universal health care in America (and fears about the crumbling NHS in Great Britain), what alternatives are there for the average person? Not much — but for some instances, medical marijuana would certainly help.

Although this clip focuses on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), medical marijuana is also known for being a very effective pain killer withut side effects (although you will get hungry and then really sleepy.) There are people with killer migraines, cluster headaches or other incredibly painful headaches that can’t afford medical care, so they have no choice but to get some relief from street weed. If our governments won’t put price caps on medicines, health insurance or Big Pharma greed, then perhaps they should just let us grow our own stuff. It would certainly keep us quieter.

I should also mention that you don’t have to smoke marijuana to get the pain-killing benefits. For example, when I lived homeless in England (and posession was legal), I would make a chai (Indian spice tea) with it when I had incredible pain. At least I could then get some sleep.

Like any other drug or herb, marijuana won’t help everyone. Some people react badly to it — even the small amounts used in medical marijuana cookies or tea.

I only started watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann this year, so I do not know what year this clip was filmed. I’m guessing 2003, but I’m probably wrong. Hmmm — 2003 I was still living homeless in England.

I don’t drive anymore. That’s not because of my migraines — it’s because my vision has deteriorated. But I did drive for nearly ten years, with or without migraines. I had to miss time off of work not because I couldn’t do the job when I got there (migraines or not), but because I could not drive when in the full grip of a migraine. Heck — when a migraine had me in it’s teeth, I couldn’t even find my car, let alone drive it.

Now, I’m lucky enough to telecommute. But not everyone who has migraines is so lucky. Often, not driving is not optional. You could be in the middle of a family vacation and have to get to the next hotel where you’ve already paid one night; you could have to drive for your job; you could have to get someone to the hospital — there’s all kinds of circumstances where driving may be unavoidable, even if you have a migraine.

Store In Glove Compartment

Take out some of the junk in your glove compartment and stick a bottle of pain killers in there. Stick in an extra pair of sunglasses if you have to. If you know that a certain smell helps you relax (lavender, for example), then keep a small bottle of lavender essential oil in there to sniff in case of emergency.

At the first sign that a migraine is on it’s way or if you start getting an aura, you need to pull over into the nearest safe parking place and take your pills and sniff your aromatherapy oil.

Before Driving

You need to eat regularly if you are prone to migraines or chronic headaches. There’s more an more evidence floating to the surface that having unpredictable meal times can trigger bad headaches. If you know that you are in for a long trip, keep some snack in the car or pack a little lunch box.

If you are caffeine dependant (like me), then you need to plan on having a break in driving just to have a good dose of caffeine. Either that, or keep caffeine-laden painkillers in your glove compartment.

While Driving

If you are driving in pain, keep breathing deeply. I find that some music helps me take my mind off some of the pain. I also find that complaining about my pain takes care of the rest. Praise yourself for still driving, even when you have a migraine.

As always, please don’t use this blog post as a substitute for your doctor’s advice.

I’ve been having a migraine since about 8:30 last night, but I’ve been able to take the edge off with Excedrin, staying dressed in my jammies and reading. Reading? Ususally when one has a migraine, you can’t read. If you try reading when the edge is off your migraine and it seems to make you worse, then please don’t. But for some people (well, me) reading can help distract me from the pain I’m going through.

Also, I can’t afford to take the day off of work. In doing the job of a freelance writer, you inevitably have to read. I’m sure it seems that I don’t proofread my blog posts at all, but I do.

When You Know The Edge Is Off

Migraines tend to come in stages, and the worst of it is when you can’t tolerate one watt of light, let alone sit down with Stephen King. When you begin to get bored of lying in bed and being miserable, this is a good sign that the worst is over and you can try to do some work. When you do go back to work, try not to read newsprint of anything smaller than that.

If you work at a computer, then immediately up the Zoom function to make the print as large as possible. If you work in Microsoft Windows, you need to go to the View menu, then click on “Text size”. It’s easier to do this in Microsoft Word, where you can get a hold of the Zoom function in the View menu and you’ll have print bigger than your eyeball.

Endorse For Effort

Try to keep focused on the positive instead of the negative of your particular situation. Yes, it’s not fair that you have a migraine and have to make a living, too, but dwelling on it can make you feel worse. When you keep plugging away as best you can — be it a business report or a blog post — keep reminding yourself, “I’m a good worker. I can work even with a migraine. I’m stronger than I thought.” Well, you don’t have to use just those sentences. Feel free to make up your own.

For those of you who have headaches and migraines and are at work today, I salute you. Well, I would, but my hands are still shaking.