How to Cure a Headache Naturally and what Causes Them

How to get rid of a Headache Naturally and Easily

I hate headaches, unfortunately I suffer from them a lot. I always have, so this has made me try and figure out how to stave them off as best I can naturally by just having a good diet. You can do this too, you don't even need to change much but just take to heart some of these tipsand you should have less headaches. Of course, this wont rid you of them forever, but one less headache is worth it for me!Headaches don't just happen for no reason, typically, they are the result of a trigger. Now be warned, triggers are not the same for everyone! I'm going to give the best general advice I can but it may not necessarily work for you.

Common Headache Triggers:

Stress

Stress is disastrous to your health.

It should come as no surprise but stress was the number one reported trigger of a headache! Stress not only causes weight gain and lower immune response, but can give the majority of people a headache as well, stress has has also been found to have a cumulative effect on other triggers - most notably sleep deprivation.Cut stress out of your life as best as you can.

Caffeine

Caffeine has been known to cause headaches for a while. However it's not the caffeine it's self that really causes them, it's a sudden change in your caffeine intake. Take too much or too little and BAM! A headache comes out of no where! This is because caffeine narrows the blood vessels in your brain, so if you're use to a lot your head will adjust accordingly. If you suddenly stop taking caffeine then they will suddenly expand and cause pain. Usually getting your caffeine fix will relieve the pain.If you want to keep drinking your favorite coffee (I do and mine's VitaCup - Has vitamins in the coffee made in a keurig) then you need to consume around the same amount around the same time each day.

Sleep

This is a major one for my husband, he suffers from bad migraines occasionally. How it affects him is, if he suddenly gets a lot more or a lot less sleep he'll get a migraine. So he needs to get the same amount of sleep each night to be safe.Sleep habits are a major cause of headaches for most people, my husband might be more sensitive to it than most people but sleep definitely causes headaches for me too, especially when I don't have enough.Obviously to fix it, just get enough sleep but don't over sleep!

Skipping Meals

Your body needs to be fed, and it wants food consistently. Skipping a meal to try and lose weight can upset your circadian rhythm.Also, skipping meals because you're too busy or trying to cut calories will drop your blood sugar. Sugar as glucose is your body's fuel, if it drops too much your head will start hurting because your brain is hungry.There was a study done where they found that 1 in 5migraine sufferers and1 in 7 average people listed hunger as the number one starter for a headache. You need to eat, I'drecommend eating a meal replacement shake if you are trying to cutcalories or are too busy to sit and eat a proper meal. My favorite is Idealshape's Idealshake (kind of a tongue twister but it's amazing)Okay, now that we have the major triggers out of the way, lets get into solving those pesky headaches naturally. These aren't guaranteed to work however they have shown promise, at least for some people so it's worth checking out.

Natural Cures for Headaches:

Magnesium

Magnesium is a metal, however it's also an essential mineral for our bodies, it's actually extremely important and it helps with our cardiovascular system. Magnesium helps regulate blood pressure, as well and bone health. However, magnesium helps to block the pain receptors in our brain cells. Getting the recommended daily serving of magnesium helps lessen the chance that the brain will activate the pain receptors in response to a trigger. In fact, the American Academy of Neurology suggests getting the daily recommended amount of it, which is around 350mg, to help with migraine prevention.How do you get magnesium? It's sort of tricky but it's found in spinach, pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate and whole grains. If you want to make it easier you can take a magnesium supplement.

Drink more Water

Water is our lifeblood, water can solve seeming endless amounts of ailments. However drinking a lot of water doesn't protect you from getting headaches or sicknesses in general, but the lack of water usually makes you more unacceptable to health problems.Take headaches for example; moderate dehydration can increase your chance for a headache by as much as double! I know I tend to get a headache if I don't drink much during the day.Studies have been done on headache sufferers and by increasing their water consumption they had fewer headaches and a higher quality of life. This is probably the easiest fix, and you can start right this second. You should aim to drink your weight in fluid ounces daily. I weigh 119lbs so I should drink t least 60 fl oz daily. That is slightly less than eight 8 fl oz servings a day, it becomes very easy once you get used to it.

Meditation

Meditation has long been revered for it's power of restoration.

People claim to heal pretty much anything you can think of, or derive super powers from it. I always thought - and still do - that these are just great stories. However I recently got into meditation and while I haven't started flying yet I do feel so much better. It just gives me a sense of well-being. I imagine it's because meditation is the opposite of stress which causes many serious health problems. The extreme relaxing nature of meditation has been a very good experience for me!How meditation helps headaches, cortisol - the stress hormone - helps to block pain receptors. Stress causes blood pressure to rise, and can do many other things of harm to your body and/or cause headaches. However, you wont notice the pain until you start being 'un-stressed' and then it will come back with a vengeance. In fact your chance of a headache is about 4 times greater right after a stressful situation ends.Practicing stress reducing rituals like meditation has been shown to make chronic headache sufferers report less intense and debilitating headaches and of shorter duration.

Exercise

Exercising is probably the most important part of staying healthy. Exercising and water should be looked at as the fountain of youth, or the holy grail. Together they do some truly wonderful things for your body. It should come as no surprise then that exercise helps to shut off headaches.Exercising helps to reduce the sensitivity of your brains pain receptors. One study found that exercising moderately for 40 minutes, three times a week was as effective as taking a prescription migraine medication.I have reviewed many exercise programs, so you can do your own routine or read up on some of my reviews, but start exercising. Even something as simple as doing a 10 minute slow walk a few days a week is better than nothing.Some of my favorite exercise programs are: Jen's bikini body guide, Bodyweight Burn, and a low impact yoga burn.

Stop Chewing Gum

This one was a little odd when I read about it, but if you stop and think about it for a second then it makes complete sense.

Chewing gum causes a ton of stress on your jaw which is heavily relied on by the skull for strength. Chewing gum seems to cause headaches due to how much stress this causes your whole head. So I'd recommend stopping it because there arent really any benefits on chewing gum anyway - unless you are just doing it for a short time to freshen up your breath or something similar.