What Your Headache is Trying to Tell You
Headaches can be caused by many different things. In very rare instances, they can be a sign of something serious going on such as a brain tumor. However, in the majority of cases, headaches are merely a symptom to let us know that something is out of balance in the body and many of these imbalances can be traced back to dehydration. In this article we will take a look at some of the conditions which can trigger a headache, what we can do to alleviate the problem and we will see how many of them tie back to dehydration.
Causes/Natural Remedies of Headaches
Cause: Dehydration
Dehydration itself is probably the number one cause of headaches. The brain is about 85% water, so when we are not getting enough water to drink the brain will complain. According to Dr. Batmanghelidj, “The type of dehydration that causes migraine might eventually cause inflammation and leakage of the small arteries of the brain and be responsible for plaque formation that is often seen in serious neurological disorders. It can also affect the back of the eye and possibly cause partial loss of eyesight”.
Remedy:
Make sure you are getting plenty of fresh, clean water to drink on a daily basis. A good rule of thumb is to take your body weight, divide it by two and then drink that amount of water in ounces. For instance, if you weigh 160 lbs., divide by two which is 80, so you would need to drink about 80 ounces of water per day to remain hydrated. The exception to this rule is if you are eating a lot of fresh fruit which is full of water.
Cause: Lack of circulation
Some headaches can be brought on due to lack of circulation to the brain. This can happen due to several different scenarios such as the neck being out of place – sometimes when the vertebrae in the neck are out of place, it can cause pinched nerves and lack of circulation to the brain.
Remedy:
In a case like this, we would see a chiropractor to have the neck aligned and we would use something like cayenne ointment or an icy hot to help increase the circulation. Lack of circulation to the brain can also be caused by dehydration – if this is the case, we would increase our amount of water intake and also use the cayenne or icy hot to help relax the neck muscles and increase circulation.
Cause: Constipation
Quite often, headaches can be a signal for constipation. If you are not having regular bowel movements, then toxins are building in the body which can lead to headaches. In Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management by Bernard Jensen, D.C., PhD., we are told:
Autointoxication is the result of faulty bowel functioning which produces undesirable consequences in the body and is the root cause of many of today’s diseases and illnesses. If we can make the analogy of the large intestine, or colon being the body’s waste disposal or sewer system, we can begin to understand the process more clearly. Imagine what would happen if all the pipes got plugged up with some unmovable material so that the system failed to move waste? It wouldn’t take very long before a crisis developed and a huge sanitation problem would threaten health and society.
From open sewers in the past sprang the devastating plagues and diseases that literally destroyed whole cities and populations. When the sewer backs up, we have an immediate health problem potential. Call the plumber! In addition to the above scenario there is the possibility that the proper functioning of the waste elimination and treatment process can be shut down due to a power failure. The works themselves are O.K. but the energy that feeds all the machinery is shut off or is only partially available. We can liken this to what happens in our bodies when food is nutritionally deficient and fails to give us energy… In general, the overall major contributing factor is our straying away from a simple, natural lifestyle, wherein all the preconditions for happy, healthy living are found.
Remedy:
Again, dehydration is a part of this problem – adding more fresh water daily will help to keep the bowel moving. Another contributing factor is diet – adding more fresh fruits and vegetables with the added water and fiber will help to keep the bowel clean and moving the way it was intended. If this problem has existed for some time and/or you have been on the typical American diet for any length of time, then taking an herbal bowel supplement can help to cleanse and nourish the bowel so that it can function proficiently again.
Cause: Sinus Problems
If the sinuses are inflamed and/or filled with mucus, this can cause what is known as a ‘sinus headache’. Your sinuses are air-filled spaces inside your forehead, cheekbones, and behind the bridge of your nose. When they get inflamed, they swell, make more mucus, and the channels that drain them can get blocked. The buildup of pressure causes pain that feels like a headache.
Other sinus symptoms might include:
A runny nose
Feeling of fullness in your ears
Fever
Swelling in your face
Remedy:
Again, drink plenty of fluids. Use a hot water vaporizer with some eucalyptus essential oil to help open and drain the sinuses. Take something like Echinacea & Goldenseal to help support healing and rub an herbal anti-bacterial tincture on the skin above the sinuses to help fight the infection. You can also use a salt-water nasal spray to help clear the sinuses and flush out the infection.
Cause: Lack of Sleep
Not getting enough sleep can cause headaches as the body is trying to push through in spite of not getting enough rest.
Remedy
Allow the body time to rest and recuperate. This can sometimes be a challenge especially if you have young children. Under these conditions, it is important to try and sleep when they sleep or to have someone watch them so you can take a nap and allow your body to rest.
Cause: Medications, Alcohol
The use of certain medication and/or alcohol can cause headaches.
Remedy
Drink less alcohol and more water. If you feel certain medications are causing you to have headaches, then research to see if there is a healthier, holistic way to handle the problem you are taking medication for.
Cause: Stress
Stress can cause a lot of anxiety and muscle tension which can lead to headaches. Stress is a killer!!! It is not always easy to avoid or change the stressors in our lives, but it is possible to learn how to manage the stress they cause.
Remedy:
Go for a walk
Take a hot bath
Put on soothing music
Write in a journal
Meditate/pray
Diffuse essential oils into the air which are relaxing and/or calming
Find someone to talk to – bounce ideas off of
Breathe – taking deep breaths – finding your center – grounding yourself can help to alleviate stress
Take your shoes off and shuffle your feet through the grass – this can quite often help us relieve static electricity which we have built up through the day by walking in synthetic shoes on synthetic floors that never give us an opportunity to ground ourselves.
Cause: Being Sedentary
If we sit in front of a computer all day or lay on the couch watching television or sit at a sewing machine or on a chair crocheting – we can literally become stagnant. Movement is what helps to move the lymph throughout our body and it is what helps to keep our circulation moving. Allowing these toxins to build and not circulate can cause inflammation and headaches.
Remedy
No matter what you are doing during the day – remember to get up and move every couple of hours. Drink plenty of fluids.
Cause: Hormones
When estrogen levels fall right before your period, it can sometimes cause headaches to happen.
Remedy
Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Drink plenty of water each day. Consider using an herbal hormone supplement to help keep the hormones balanced and regulated.
Cause: Poor Diet
Processed foods and drinks release neurotransmitters which can cause headaches in some people. Triggers could include aspartame, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, cheese and other animal products.
Remedy
Focus on eating more fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Try to include a large fresh salad into your daily routine. Stay away from processed and fast foods which are full of harmful chemicals.
These are just a few examples of some of the things your body may be trying to tell you when you get a headache. As you look over the list of possible causes, I hope it will become evident that if we adopt a healthy lifestyle which includes lots of fresh, live food, water and exercise – many of these headaches can be quickly eliminated from our life. Instead of treating our body like it is broken – it is much better to learn how to work with it, listen to hints and signals it gives us and then respond appropriately. If we can learn to do this on a daily basis, we will stand a much better chance of being able to live a long, active, healthy life.
