Help for headaches
When your head stings, throbs, or slowly drills, headaches take center stage. Headaches can manifest in completely different forms and intensities. Some types can only be tackled with a doctor and possibly medication support. Other mild forms can easily be treated on your own, and you can take preventive steps so the annoying headache doesn't occur in the first place.
What types of headaches are there?
This question isn't easy to answer because there are actually a vast number of headache types. Approximately 60 percent of all Germans suffer from headaches occasionally. Along with back pain, it is one of the most common ailments. There are dozens of headache types, and the symptoms as well as the location of the pain vary accordingly. Broadly speaking, we differentiate between primary and secondary headaches.
Primary headaches are all those headaches where no organic disease (co-)causes the headache. These include widespread tension headaches, the highly unpleasant migraines experienced by many, and less common cluster headaches. Significantly less frequent are secondary headaches, where the causes can be traced to a pre-existing medical condition. With secondary headaches, treating the underlying disease must naturally be the main focus in order to subsequently get the headaches under control. Depending on the severity of the discomfort, primary headaches with mild pain can be treated fairly well on your own. However, if headaches occur regularly or severely, seeing a doctor is strongly advised to clarify the underlying causes with their help. Migraine attacks should also be treated together with a physician and, if necessary, medication.
The causes of tension headaches
When we talk about mild to moderate tension headaches, there are a few typical causes that can be identified:
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Tension in the shoulder and neck area: Lack of exercise, drafts, working at a screen, and improper or excessive strain often lead to tense shoulder and neck muscles. For tension, heat in the form of a lukewarm hot water bottle, mild pain relievers, or relaxation techniques such as yoga can help.
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Dehydration: A classic. You work for hours and forget to drink enough fluid. Here, the regular intake of water can provide quick relief or prevent tension headaches from occurring in the first place.
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Stress: It can also be a cause of headache attacks. The only solution here is to reduce stress in your life and use relaxation techniques such as PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation according to Jacobsen), gentle yoga, or autogenic training as a counterweight.
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Current weather events and sudden changes in temperature: Weather sensitivity can also be the cause of sudden headaches.
How can I prevent headaches?
Once the pain is already there and throbbing behind your temples or anywhere else in your head, you can of course tackle the pounding with common over-the-counter pain relievers. In such cases, the German Migraine and Headache Society recommends diclofenac, ibuprofen, or ASA (the active ingredient in Aspirin), among others. According to recent findings, the combination of ibuprofen 400 mg with 100 mg caffeine is said to work even faster while generally being well tolerated.
Even better, however, is not letting the headache develop in the first place. For this, keeping a kind of "headache diary" over a longer period of time can be helpful: When exactly do you have a headache attack? What did you eat around that time? What was the weather like? Did you experience particularly high stress levels before the headache hit? Keeping track of all these observations helps you identify certain patterns.
In addition, there are some good tips to avoid falling into the headache trap in the first place:
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Avoid stress! Try to actively combat impending stress with relaxation techniques. Regular meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and autogenic training help keep stress levels low(er), relax muscles, and thus prevent stress-induced headaches.
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Drink enough water! Ideally water or unsweetened herbal teas. Older people in particular often drink too little. But we also frequently forget to drink at work. Always place a glass of water on your desk or download an app that regularly reminds you to drink (yes, such things exist!).
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Eat a healthy and varied diet!
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Get enough sleep!
Preventing tension headaches through endurance exercise
Endurance sports can also effectively prevent headaches. Go outside regularly for fresh air and take a walk around the block during your lunch break. Ride your bike to the office, or if you're a jogging enthusiast, go for a run after work. Make sure there is enough fresh air at home or in the office; airing out the room regularly with wide-open windows brings a fresh boost of oxygen into the room and clears out the stale air.
Another major plus of regular workout sessions (whether cycling outside or at home on an ergometer bike, jogging in the park or on a treadmill, or a round of cross-training or functional training) is that you automatically move your neck and shoulder muscles. This relieves tension in those muscles after a long day at a computer screen. In addition, a workout session also ensures you get nicely tired before bed.
What can I do for acute headaches?
Besides mild pain medications, there are several alternative home remedies that can also work well. Why not try the following first before reaching for a pill:
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If your neck is tense, a heating pad on the shoulder and neck area often helps to relax the muscles there and relieve the onset of a headache.
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A cool forehead compress can help by drawing heat away. Cooling leg wraps bring relief, especially for headaches caused by a cold.
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Drink coffee or tea: A cup of espresso or ginger tea promotes blood circulation and can thus banish headaches.
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Essential oils: Grandma almost certainly had a bottle like this in her bathroom cabinet, but even today many people still have peppermint oil or tea tree oil at home. A few drops applied to the temples or along the hairline can banish headaches. Lavender and rosemary oil can also help. Just always make sure that essential oils never get into your eyes or mucous membranes!
In general: Don't wait too long – once a headache has reached its full extent and is pounding behind your forehead, usually only taking a painkiller promptly will help. And if headaches occur very severely, very suddenly, or chronically, a visit to the doctor or even the emergency room for extreme symptoms is always recommended. In those cases, a very sudden illness could be behind it, which must be taken seriously.
On the other hand, mild, occasional tension headaches that often occur due to stress or muscle tightness can easily be treated yourself and actively countered through preventive measures like exercise, relaxation methods, a healthy diet, adequate sleep, and proper hydration.
