7 Tips To Get Relief From Headaches & Migraines

Are you suffering from headaches and migraines? Are you looking for relief? Are you having to take pain medications every day just to bear through it? Are you confused about why it’s there, and you just can’t quite seem to find anything that helps you for the long term? Well, I’m going to share with you today, the top seven tips to relieve headaches and migraines.

We see people here all the time, that are suffering from headaches and migraines. Just to explain a bit about the difference, there are some true differences between headaches and migraines. Many people don’t know which ones are which, as far as what you are experiencing, is it a headache or a migraine?

A lot of doctors aren’t even 100% sure about it. At the end of the day, your head hurts, and there are certain things that tend to make it worse. What we have seen here in the clinic is that it could be related to diet problems. It could be related to hormones or recent trauma. Obviously, if you got hit in the head somehow, then there is a good reason for your head hurting. But if you haven’t had any of those issues, if your hormones aren’t necessarily out of balance, you have had that checked, or you are just not at that point in life, or you are going to have that issue, and you feel like your diets pretty good and you haven’t had any head trouble.

It’s confusing. You don’t know why these headaches and migraines are happening. There are tons of reasons why. Here in the clinic, we will look at people’s necks and shoulders, and nerves within their head and neck area, to get to the root of the problem. What we find is these tips I’m going to share with you, are the best places to start fixing your headache and migraine problem at home.

Let me go into these seven tips for you…

Tip number one, make sure that you are hydrated get plenty of water.

If you aren’t already drinking plenty of water, then I would double check to see how much you are drinking. Google exactly how much water you need based on your weight, the average temperature outside, and how much exercise you might be doing to account for water that you lose from sweat. But generally speaking, you should be drinking about four to five water bottles per day. Like your typical 16 to 20-ounce water bottle. You shouldn’t ever feel thirsty necessarily. You should be drinking it throughout the day. You don’t have to necessarily sip on it all day long.

What I do personally, I’m working with clients in the morning, have my lunch break and then have clients in the afternoon, so I don’t really drink a whole lot of water while I’m with clients. I chug a bunch of water at the beginning of the day, again at lunchtime and then in the evening after I get home. I’m drinking a bunch of water then, so I mainly have three times a day that I’m drinking water, but I do drink a lot of water at those times.

It’s possible to sip on water throughout the day as well. But don’t be misguided by other fluids. It’s possible to think I’m drinking coffee, I’m drinking tea or soda, or some other beverage, and it may not be hydrating for you, it actually might be dehydrating for you. You have to be careful that the fluids that you are consuming are truly hydrating. Check with your doctor if you have any questions about that, because it’s different for everybody. There are some fluids that are very hydrating like coconut milk. Milk can be hydrating as well. It just depends on how your body reacts to it, but make sure that you are drinking enough water and if you aren’t, start right away. That’s a quick, easy fix.

The second thing that we ask clients about, whenever they see us for a headache, or migraine problem is if they are taking any other medications.

Because many times, even with pain medications, the side effect might be headaches. It’s kind of counterintuitive. You think that taking this pain medication would never cause pain, but sometimes it can. It can cause a headache effect in some people. Then also, if you are taking multiple medications, you have a higher chance of getting headaches and migraines as a result of that. Double check the side effects label on your medications and see if that’s an issue.

If you are taking pain medication right now, of course, have some plan to get off these pain medications. You need some sort of natural solution in order to eventually have to not be in a position where you are having to take these pain medications for the long term.

Tip number three is move frequently.

We often find that people that don’t have any hormone problems, their diet is good, they are drinking water, they haven’t had any recent head trauma, they haven’t hit their head in any way. They oftentimes spend a lot of time in front of the computer, either at home or at work, or a combination of the two. They have to sit still, especially it they are at work, and they are not moving around a lot, or if they are watching a movie at home.

Or if you are stuck at home and they are just still for a long period of time. If you tend to sit with your head bend forward, and you don’t have proper support or posture, then that sitting still for a long period of time, can begin to cause problems that contribute to a headache. So, make sure that you move frequently. Building in some breaks, to stretch and move your shoulders, stretch them out, look around, get up and look out the window. If you are at work or at home, take a quick walk. I wouldn’t sit for longer than about 30 minutes to an hour.

Everybody has different tolerances for how long they can sit still. You have to find out what works best for you, then break up the long term sitting still in the same position. That will tend to help out your neck, your headache and migraine problem. But break up the long term sitting still for extended periods of time, because that will tend to begin to help out the headache and migraine problem.

Tip number four, check how much sleep you are getting, and check the quality of your sleep.

If you don’t already own one, I recommend you look into getting something like this, something like a smartwatch or you can download apps on your phone, and you keep it in bed to monitor the quality of your sleep. Because how much sleep, and how good a quality of sleep. There are different cycles to sleep, and getting enough rest is a big deal for headaches and migraines. Look into that.

But there are different guidelines for different people. I can tell you, for me specifically, about seven to eight hours is adequate, and I have to go into deep sleep about three times during that time period. There are even times where I’ve gotten only six hours of sleep, but I’ve made my three trips into deep sleep, and I feel rested. Now there are times especially when I first had kids and you just don’t get the greatest sleep.

Even if you do sleep eight hours spread out over a day because you are constantly interrupted with kids or something. You never get into those deep sleep phases. It really messes with the quality of your rest, and it can begin to affect the headaches and migraines. So, check your sleep quality, and quantity that will help you out with headaches and migraines.

Tip number five, I alluded a bit to this, which is posture.

Look at your posture, not only when you are sitting, standing, walking around, or at the computer, but when you are driving as well. When you are having a meal, even when you are sleeping, you want to be aware of the position of your head, and shoulders and neck. Generally, your head should sit right on top of your shoulders, not forward or not too far back either.

A lot of people think that they are conscious already of their posture, so they try to move their head back to sit up nice and tall. But here on the clinic, we often have to undo that. We are telling people that their posture is overcorrected. What you should feel, to have good posture, is just be comfortable. If you should feel comfortable, it might be a little bit of work to bring your head back if you are used to having your head forward, and you are a little bit hunched over, but you need to be fairly comfortable if this bothers your headache and migraine symptoms to be in that posture.

But ultimately, realize that even if you are in the perfect posture, you can’t be there for extended periods of time. Our bodies are meant to move. That’s why we have joints and muscles, because joints and our bones move, and muscles are what control joints, they were designed to move. If we don’t move for extended periods of time, even if you are in the perfect posture, it’s going to be harmful for you. So, work to be in a good posture, but break up the long term sitting anyway, and make sure that you get some frequent movement.

Tip number six, get regular exercise.

Depending on your fitness level right now, and what’s possible regarding your schedule. It’s a good idea to exercise a minimum of two days a week. If you can do three to four days a week, or more. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it, you need to have a balance of how much you exercise, and how much you rest. But getting exercise gets the blood flowing, it releases important hormones and other chemicals in our body. That’s important for your brain health, your nerve health.

If you haven’t been in the routine of exercising regularly, even if it’s as simple as going for a walk, or riding your bike, or getting on a machine at home. If you can get access to weight type of equipment, like going to the gym, or if you have a home gym, doing something to get your blood flowing, and working up a sweat. That’s how you can measure how effective your exercise was. If you can sweat a little bit, and you feel your heart rate is going up, because not everybody sweats enough. I sweat easy, I can look at somebody exercising, they start to sweat, whereas I know other people that can exercise vigorously for half an hour and barely have a drop rolling down their head.

I like to use a sweat as just a one factor but you can definitely feel your heart racing once you start working out more intensely so you can use that more accurately. But do that regularly throughout the week. And that will help to regulate hormones in your body. It’ll help you to sleep better, it tends to improve your posture anyway, you’ll tend to eat better as well, for most people, and you get thirsty o so you tend to drink water. Exercise really ties all of these issues together to put you on the right path.

Now, tip number seven, get with an expert.

Somebody like a specialist physical therapist can really expedite this process to pull out from you where you are weakest, in your approach towards fixing your headache and migraine problem. Also tell you what to keep doing, or maybe there are small tweaks, you are on the right path with what you are doing, but it just needs to be done a slightly different ways so that you get the best effect from your current approach.

There are lots of reasons for headaches and neck migraine problems. A lot of times it’s related to neck pain. So here in the clinic, we look at people’s neck joints, nerves, muscles or shoulders as well. We have to take into account posture, we will discuss posture in depth, we cover all that so that you can get the fastest relief possible.

If you are interested in hiring us to help you with your headache and migraine problem, the quickest way to get in touch with us is by hitting the button right around here that says, inquire about cost and availability. We will send you some information and we will be in touch with you as fast as possible to send you that information, talk to you over the phone about your problem, and make sure that you get the right kind of help.

You can also call us at 915-503-1314 and just start there by telling us about your headache and migraine problem. I hope you have the best day and hope this headache and migraine problem goes away really fast.