Pills and expensive acupuncture could help with your headache or migraine headache but they won't give you a permanent solution.
These days, being informed about healthy habits has become the norm. We live in a forever changing society, these changes affect the way we sleep, interact with our friends and family and also affect how we eat and what we eat. We need to fight all these changes that affect our health with natural remedies that don't produce damaging side effects.
Some of the natural solutions we have found to be successful in fighting migraine headaches are:
Natural ways to cure headaches and take control of your life without drugs or side effects
How to identify headache/migraine food triggers
How to keep track of headache symptoms and triggers
Tips on eating out
How to shop for organic food
Learning to relax and let go of negative emotions
Nutrition
Natural ways to cure headaches and take control of your life without drugs or side effects:
A natural cure should be gentle and shouldn't produce apparent or hidden side effects in any individual. Natural cures or natural remedies should promote overall wellbeing. They have to make you feel better than before.
Many of the pain killers we are prescribed make us feel like we are not ourselves any more. Our mood changes, instead of promoting health and well being they make us reclusive and depressed. We get rid of the headache but the side effects left us feeling useless.
One of the side effects of the off the counter medications are "rebound headaches". If you needed a small amount of medication at first and then gradually you need to increase the medication but the headaches are only getting worse, you might have developed rebound headaches. Increasing the amount of pain killers only makes thing worse. Increasing the headache medication will get you addicted to the medication and will not solve your headache problem.
Other side effects of headache pain medications are muscle cramps and nausea.
How to identify headache/migraine food triggers:
We can't talk about food triggers without first explaining that most food headache triggers contain the vaso-active amino acid tyramine. Tyramine is a vaso-active amino acid found in foods, it triggers headaches in some headache or migraine sufferers. It is an intermediate product in the conversion of tyrosine, an amino acid present in many proteins, to epinephrine, an active hormone produced by the inner portion of the adrenal gland.
Tyramide is present in all meats and vegetables. The amounts are very small when fruits, vegetables, meats and cheese are fresh. However, Tyramide increase as foods age or decay. It is important to know simple things like, choosing fresh cottage cheese and not an aged cheese, for example. Buying fresh meat, as fresh as you can and not smoked meats. This is how tyramine can be avoided.
When storing meat, do not leave it out after it has been cooked and if you are going to store meat for more than two days it is preferable if you freeze it.
Foods containing tyramine when combined with MSG can make your migraine headaches become more severe. MSG is usually found in canned soups, TV dinners and meats. Other sources of tyramine are alcoholic beverages and chocolate
Watch for these potential headache triggers:
Aged cheeses, sour cream and certain milk products.
Fresh yeast, sourdough and other yeasty breads
Fermented foods, pickles, soy sauce and miso
Some legumes, especially dried beans, lentils and soy products
Nuts, seeds and peanut butter
Chocolate and cocoa
Organ meats and meats that are salted, dried, cured, smoked or contain nitrites
Sardines, anchovies and pickled herring
Many fruits, including avocados, bananas, citrus fruits, figs, papaya, passion fruits, plantains, pineapples, raspberries, red plums and raisings
Seasoning and flavor enhancers, especially artificial sweeteners, ginger, molasses and MSG.
How to keep track of headache symptoms and triggers
Keep a diary of foods you eat everyday, in the same diary, keep an account of how you felt anemically on that day too and do an assessment every week with your nutritionist of health care provider.
It is important to keep track of how much water you are drinking in case you don't feel thirsty. Lack of water can cause headaches. How many servings of vegetables you are having. How many servings of protein or carbohydrate you are having on a daily or weekly basis. It is important to achieve a healthy and balance diet to stop your migraine headaches from happening.
Tips on eating out
Eating healthy food might be a challenge at times. It is important to prepare ahead of time if you are following a dietary plan. Some of the dietary plans we advocate are the food elimination diet, the alkaline/acid balanced diet, the food combining etc.
If you your diet isn't too rigorous or strict, the restaurant waiter can become your best friend. If you befriend your waiter, he/she will readily make sure you get the food you are requesting. This will be possible as long as it is within their possibilities. The more individualized or smaller the restaurant the better then can cater to your diet.
Fast foods restaurants or any restaurant chain will have a harder time meeting your requests. These restaurants have prepackaged ingredients for the different items in their menu and this makes them less flexible. They might be able to leave out some ingredients but they will not be able to add anything new to your order. In some cases, even salads are made ahead of time and ingredients like cheese are added before they are refrigerated. If you are forced to eat in a fast food restaurant that serves prepared meals, make sure you check the ingredients before deciding on what to eat. If you are still in the discovery period, meaning you are still trying to find out what is the possible cause of your headaches, you are better off bringing your own meal.
Shopping for Organic Foods
Nowadays shopping organic is not as difficult and daunting as some years ago. Most grocery stores are bringing organic produce and groceries. Before you start shopping, make sure you check a few grocery stores in your area. Some are more reputable than others so it's worth asking friends, family and even neighbors about the different options in your area.
The internet it's a very helpful information center, many co-op organic producers are selling produce on line. Some co-ops or individual organic farmers give you the choice to purchase a box of the different fruits and vegetables they distribute or grow. They even deliver organic produce to your home on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.
If you are new to buying organic produce, keep in mind that organic produce tends to be smaller but taste better. The prices might also be slightly higher than regular produce.
Learning to relax and let go of negative emotions
We are what we eat but we are also what we think and our thoughts become feelings and feelings affect our behavior and how we look at life in general. Having the right attitude is more than smiling, although smiling it's a good start, we have to convince ourselves to let go of negative feelings that stop us from moving on as human beings.
One very poignant example is the one of a person that was victimized in the past and still feels a victim after the victimization incident. It is like taking the weapon from our assailant and instead of them hitting us anymore, we do it for them to ourselves. We continue to victimize ourselves. Letting go in this case if about stopping this feeling or being a victim and taking control of how we want to feel about the incident. Do we want to be a victim or a survivor? Being a survivor will help you regain your health and it will also help you deal with the stress we all experience on our way to work, at work and at home.
Nutrition
Eat green leafy vegetables, white beans and whole grains for niacin (B3) and pantothenic acid (B5). These are needed to prevent headaches due to insufficient blood-vessel dilation. Natural plain yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut provide friendly intestinal bacteria needed by the body to produce B vitamins.
Daily vitamins and supplements:
Calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin B complex, vitamin C with bioflavonoid if the headache is suspected to be caused by allergies. It is helpful to add Vitamin E, with mixed tocopherols. If you are eliminating certain foods from your diet because you suspect they may be triggering your headaches, consult with your nutritionist or doctor about supplementing any of the nutrients contained in these foods.
Vivian and Paula www.stopheadachenow.com authors of the Headache Healing Secrets book have helped hundreds of headache sufferers conquer their lives back using natural headache remedies and promoting a healthier life style that is easy to achieve and maintain.
Pills and expensive acupuncture could help with your headache or migraine headache but they won't give you a permanent solution.
These days, being informed about healthy habits has become the norm. We live in a forever changing society, these changes affect the way we sleep, interact with our friends and family and also affect how we eat and what we eat. We need to fight all these changes that affect our health with natural remedies that don't produce damaging side effects.
Some of the natural solutions we have found to be successful in fighting migraine headaches are:
Natural ways to cure headaches and take control of your life without drugs or side effects
How to identify headache/migraine food triggers
How to keep track of headache symptoms and triggers
Tips on eating out
How to shop for organic food
Learning to relax and let go of negative emotions
Nutrition
Natural ways to cure headaches and take control of your life without drugs or side effects:
A natural cure should be gentle and shouldn't produce apparent or hidden side effects in any individual. Natural cures or natural remedies should promote overall wellbeing. They have to make you feel better than before.
Many of the pain killers we are prescribed make us feel like we are not ourselves any more. Our mood changes, instead of promoting health and well being they make us reclusive and depressed. We get rid of the headache but the side effects left us feeling useless.
One of the side effects of the off the counter medications are "rebound headaches". If you needed a small amount of medication at first and then gradually you need to increase the medication but the headaches are only getting worse, you might have developed rebound headaches. Increasing the amount of pain killers only makes thing worse. Increasing the headache medication will get you addicted to the medication and will not solve your headache problem.
Other side effects of headache pain medications are muscle cramps and nausea.
How to identify headache/migraine food triggers:
We can't talk about food triggers without first explaining that most food headache triggers contain the vaso-active amino acid tyramine. Tyramine is a vaso-active amino acid found in foods, it triggers headaches in some headache or migraine sufferers. It is an intermediate product in the conversion of tyrosine, an amino acid present in many proteins, to epinephrine, an active hormone produced by the inner portion of the adrenal gland.
Tyramide is present in all meats and vegetables. The amounts are very small when fruits, vegetables, meats and cheese are fresh. However, Tyramide increase as foods age or decay. It is important to know simple things like, choosing fresh cottage cheese and not an aged cheese, for example. Buying fresh meat, as fresh as you can and not smoked meats. This is how tyramine can be avoided.
When storing meat, do not leave it out after it has been cooked and if you are going to store meat for more than two days it is preferable if you freeze it.
Foods containing tyramine when combined with MSG can make your migraine headaches become more severe. MSG is usually found in canned soups, TV dinners and meats. Other sources of tyramine are alcoholic beverages and chocolate
Watch for these potential headache triggers:
Aged cheeses, sour cream and certain milk products.
Fresh yeast, sourdough and other yeasty breads
Fermented foods, pickles, soy sauce and miso
Some legumes, especially dried beans, lentils and soy products
Nuts, seeds and peanut butter
Chocolate and cocoa
Organ meats and meats that are salted, dried, cured, smoked or contain nitrites
Sardines, anchovies and pickled herring
Many fruits, including avocados, bananas, citrus fruits, figs, papaya, passion fruits, plantains, pineapples, raspberries, red plums and raisings
Seasoning and flavor enhancers, especially artificial sweeteners, ginger, molasses and MSG.
How to keep track of headache symptoms and triggers
Keep a diary of foods you eat everyday, in the same diary, keep an account of how you felt anemically on that day too and do an assessment every week with your nutritionist of health care provider.
It is important to keep track of how much water you are drinking in case you don't feel thirsty. Lack of water can cause headaches. How many servings of vegetables you are having. How many servings of protein or carbohydrate you are having on a daily or weekly basis. It is important to achieve a healthy and balance diet to stop your migraine headaches from happening.
Tips on eating out
Eating healthy food might be a challenge at times. It is important to prepare ahead of time if you are following a dietary plan. Some of the dietary plans we advocate are the food elimination diet, the alkaline/acid balanced diet, the food combining etc.
If you your diet isn't too rigorous or strict, the restaurant waiter can become your best friend. If you befriend your waiter, he/she will readily make sure you get the food you are requesting. This will be possible as long as it is within their possibilities. The more individualized or smaller the restaurant the better then can cater to your diet.
Fast foods restaurants or any restaurant chain will have a harder time meeting your requests. These restaurants have prepackaged ingredients for the different items in their menu and this makes them less flexible. They might be able to leave out some ingredients but they will not be able to add anything new to your order. In some cases, even salads are made ahead of time and ingredients like cheese are added before they are refrigerated. If you are forced to eat in a fast food restaurant that serves prepared meals, make sure you check the ingredients before deciding on what to eat. If you are still in the discovery period, meaning you are still trying to find out what is the possible cause of your headaches, you are better off bringing your own meal.
Shopping for Organic Foods
Nowadays shopping organic is not as difficult and daunting as some years ago. Most grocery stores are bringing organic produce and groceries. Before you start shopping, make sure you check a few grocery stores in your area. Some are more reputable than others so it's worth asking friends, family and even neighbors about the different options in your area.
The internet it's a very helpful information center, many co-op organic producers are selling produce on line. Some co-ops or individual organic farmers give you the choice to purchase a box of the different fruits and vegetables they distribute or grow. They even deliver organic produce to your home on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.
If you are new to buying organic produce, keep in mind that organic produce tends to be smaller but taste better. The prices might also be slightly higher than regular produce.
Learning to relax and let go of negative emotions
We are what we eat but we are also what we think and our thoughts become feelings and feelings affect our behavior and how we look at life in general. Having the right attitude is more than smiling, although smiling it's a good start, we have to convince ourselves to let go of negative feelings that stop us from moving on as human beings.
One very poignant example is the one of a person that was victimized in the past and still feels a victim after the victimization incident. It is like taking the weapon from our assailant and instead of them hitting us anymore, we do it for them to ourselves. We continue to victimize ourselves. Letting go in this case if about stopping this feeling or being a victim and taking control of how we want to feel about the incident. Do we want to be a victim or a survivor? Being a survivor will help you regain your health and it will also help you deal with the stress we all experience on our way to work, at work and at home.
Nutrition
Eat green leafy vegetables, white beans and whole grains for niacin (B3) and pantothenic acid (B5). These are needed to prevent headaches due to insufficient blood-vessel dilation. Natural plain yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut provide friendly intestinal bacteria needed by the body to produce B vitamins.
Daily vitamins and supplements:
Calcium, magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin B complex, vitamin C with bioflavonoid if the headache is suspected to be caused by allergies. It is helpful to add Vitamin E, with mixed tocopherols. If you are eliminating certain foods from your diet because you suspect they may be triggering your headaches, consult with your nutritionist or doctor about supplementing any of the nutrients contained in these foods.