Headaches

The pain and duration of the lingering headache may be annoying, but generally not life threatening. Taking productivity and quality of life issues into account, however, many experts believe headaches pose a heavy burden on people. Why do headaches have such a pervasive effect?

Two-thirds of all adult men and greater than 80 percent of women in developed countries suffer from them, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Their effects are just as destructive to developing nations too, largely because people don't regard headaches as a disease. WHO estimates about half of the people who have headaches never receive any treatment for them either.

People who suffer from chronic daily headaches amount to a staggering 4 to 5 percent of the world's population, surpassing the rate of many other illnesses. Experts believe, in relation to those suffering from disabilities, the number of headache sufferers is about the same.

Medical expenses, lost work time and lower productivity accounts for about $50 billion in losses for American businesses.

Classification of headaches is as follows:

Tension headaches (80 percent) that are largely treated with over-the-counter drugs

Vascular headaches (including migraines and cluster headaches ) very painful and incapacitating

Brain tumors, aneurysms or other maladies account for less than 2 percent

What do we do about them?

First we need to get rid of the obvious. No more sodas, wean yourself off coffee ( at first the headaches will increase! ), get rid of all artificial sweeteners ( read our previous blog ).

Other things you can do include is try some allergy testing. Some headaches are related to allergy and these can be tackled this way. The cheap way of doing this is to decrease or eliminate dairy and to reduce your wheat intake considerably.

Other ways to help are to reduce stress ( deep breathing and meditation are key ).

Herbal remedies include forehead application of essential peppermint oil and the use of feverfew orally. Lately research with high dose riboflavin ( a vitamin ) are showing promise to help migraines.

Acupuncture, EFT and massage can also help.

Allopathic medication is good too, but do not forget that the headache pain is a way that your body tells you that there is something wrong, something you need to correct... and you don't want to shut it up.

Watch this video that shows you how to apply massage to reduce headaches