5 Better Ways to Manage Headaches

Headaches afflict a majority of the population — from intense ice pick headaches to dull, chronic pain that lasts for days, weeks, or years, headaches remain the bane of humans everywhere.

When you feel a headache come on, it’s tempting to reach for the bottle of Advil or ibuprofen to stop it in its tracks. But… how great would it be if you stopped the headaches before they even started?

There are better ways to manage headaches — and prevent them from happening — than masking the underlying issue with medicine in some situations. If you’re looking for a way to manage your headaches without heavily relying on medication, keep reading to discover five great, natural ways.

Why Do Headaches Happen?

“Headaches” is a broad term for internal pain in the cranium. Before we jump into why headaches happen, let’s first discuss the different types of headaches you might experience:

• Tension headaches: Suffers describe this headache as feeling light a “tight band” is wrapped around their heads. Tension headaches are mostly self-treatable but cause mild to moderate pain.

• Cluster headaches: This type of headache is characterized by a group of painful headaches that occur within a set period of time, followed by a window of several weeks or months of relief.

• Migraines: These headaches will cause throbbing or pulsating pain — sometimes on one side of the head — and debilitate a person for days.

• Ice pick headaches: While they only last for a few seconds, the unexpected sharp, stabbing pain of an ice pick headache can debilitate you for the length of the episode.

• Secondary headaches: These vary in level of headache pain and are caused by a primary illness or disease. The root cause spans the gamut between conditions like middle ear infections or hangovers to a chiari malformation or a brain aneurysm. 

So, what causes a headache?

When the layers surrounding the brain, called the meninges, get disturbed, that's when you get a headache. Other causes of headaches and migraines include:

• Stress.

• Hydration.

• Sleep.

• Diet.

• Medications.

• Posture.

• Exercise.

• Sleeping habits (like grinding teeth).

Manage Headaches

Managing headaches isn’t all pills and doctor’s appointments. Here are five natural, easy-to-try self-treatment options to up your headache pain management game.

Water Intake

Did you know the chronic headache you may have could be a dehydration headache? Dehydration isn’t just a lack of drinking water on hot days. You can get dehydrated from:

• Not drinking enough water on a daily basis.

• After a sickness in which you had consistent diarrhea or vomiting.

• After a hangover.

• Taking diuretic medications.

• Exercising without proper water intake.

When you get a dehydration headache, your brain and the surrounding tissue contacts, pulling away from your skull and putting pressure on nerves. This pressure causes the pain we know as headaches.

The simple solution to solve this sort of headache pain is to increase your water intake—just ensure you know what’s in your water. When you rehydrate yourself with clean water, your brain will “refill” and become its normal size again — reducing the pressure it puts on your nerves and solving the headache.

Exercise

While exercise may cause an errant headache or two, it’s a holistic and healthy way to cure headaches as well. Recent research has actually shown that exercise can decrease your risk or rate of developing migraines.

Take this fact with a grain of salt. If you’re actively suffering from a migraine, forcing yourself to complete a HIIT workout isn’t doing your brain or body any favors. Several types of exercise do exist to manage headache pain, though, including:

• Yoga.

• Stretching.

• Tai chi.

• Low-impact cardiovascular exercise.

• Relaxation techniques.

According to the American Migraine Association, exercise releases endorphins — which some refer to as your body’s “natural painkillers.” The slow and consistent release of endorphins during a workout can soothe headache pain and even improve other factors of your life (like sleep and mood) that may act as causes for headaches.

Chiropractic Care

We couldn’t write an educational article about headache pain management and not include chiropractic care. Chiropractic adjustment can improve acute and chronic neck pain, which can reduce the number of headaches you’ll experience on a day-to-day basis. What does this mean?

When you visit an office like Hershey Family Chiropractic,  our x-ray techs will take an x-ray of your upper back and neck to identify if (and/or where) vertebrae in your spine are causing undue pressure on you. From the x-ray,  our chiropractors will develop a treatment plan alongside the pain points you mention to provide a comprehensive solution that manages a custom care plan which may include addressing chronic or tension headaches on a week-to-week schedule. 

Some of the chiropractic care you can expect are spine adjustments and joint manipulations — just two of the many tools in a chiropractor’s belt that can afford lasting headache pain relief. 

Sleep

The amount of sleep you get and the rate of headaches are connected. According to research, a consistent lack of sleep can decrease your brain’s neuroplasticity. Without proper sleep, your brain doesn’t get the chance to repair itself from the day’s work. If it’s unable to repair itself, it’s unable to regulate neural pathways well, and unregulated neural pathways can lead to headaches. 

Conversely, too much sleep may cause headaches for an unlucky few. Though a rarer condition, too much sleep can interrupt or negatively affect neurotransmitters like serotonin. 

Managing headache pain through sleep looks different for everyone, depending on the rate and severity of their headaches. Better sleep can equal better healing. Aim for an average of seven to eight uninterrupted hours of sleep a night to get yourself in a routine, give your brain time to rest, and maintain your brain’s neuroplasticity. 

Caffeine Management

If you’re an avid coffee, tea, or energy drink drinker, the odds are that your body is dependent on caffeine — or at least, its effects. Have you ever skipped your morning cuppa or failed to grab your routine afternoon brew and felt a dull, aching headache pain?

You’re experiencing caffeine withdrawal. 

Let’s talk a bit more about how caffeine and headaches interact. Caffeine itself brings vasoconstrictive properties to your body — meaning it will shrink your blood vessels. If you are acutely experiencing a headache and drink a bit of caffeine, the drink may actually make you feel better. If you’re experiencing a caffeine withdrawal headache, a drink of caffeine will also make it feel better… but you’ll want to consider your dependence on the drink (and caffeine in general) if those headaches occur more often than they should.

Conquer Headaches With Chiropractic Care

Don’t let yourself suffer unnecessarily. If you’re experiencing frequent headaches from tension in your upper back, shoulders, or neck, the experts at Hershey Family Chiropractic would love to help you. Our team has the knowledge and experience to pinpoint the cause of your headaches and get you on a management plan that works for your chronic pain and your schedule. Not only do we offer patients custom chiropractic care plans; our acupuncture and massage therapy services can augment the chiropractic treatment for lasting relief.

Request an appointment today and take your first steps toward healing.

For new patients: Hershey Family Chiropractic takes a vested interest in integrative wellness practices. We require all patients to get an x-ray before we begin an adjustment plan or perform manipulations.