Dealing With Headaches

It’s amazing what you discover when you’re a freelance writer with a headache and migraine blog. Somedays, I find out more about headache treatments reasearching other sudjects than I do when pursuing items specifically for headaches and migraines.

Case In Point

I recently had a client who asked me to do a series of articles on Native Americans. I jumped at the chance, because I’m part Native American (only 1/16th or so, but there you go). Since no one in my family knows anything about the tribe we’re from (long story), the only way I get to find out anything about the most vital part of my heritage is to take assignments on Native American tribal customs and spirituality.

Anyway, in my library’s copy of the Time Life series The American Indian, I found some interesting information on how the Seminole Indian healers used to treat headaches. (Seminoles used to live in the Southern woodlands of America and then were shoved to Florida.)

How Did They Cure a Headache?

First off, just like today, you were better off finding a headache specialist than going to just any old medicine man or woman. Seminole headache specialists usually wear the feathers of the yellow flicker. This specialist then diagnoses what animal spirit you have offended to give you such a bad headache. (Hey — whatever works!)

Then, you may have to lay back and cut small incisions made on your head. The bad blood is then expelled from your body. (Oddly enough, this is still practiced, in a way.)

Or, if you’re lucky, healers may give you a tea made from a shrub such as prarie willow (Salix humilis, var. tristis. This tea also was said to help bring down a fever, too. The magic didn’t lay entirely in the plant, but in the loving way it was prepared by the healer for you, kind of like when you feel better after someone makes you homemade soup.

Another plant used for Seminole Indian headache treatment was white sage (also called western mugwort, cudweed or Artemisia ludoviciana). Instead of making a tea out of it, you used it like an incense or like aromatherapy. You crushed the leaves and breathed in the scent. We still do something like this today with sniff lavender oil or peppermint essential oils to help ease a headache.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.