Got Headaches?
Do you suffer from headaches?
Would you do anything to get rid of them for good?
Let’s figure out the root cause.
The World Health Organization tells us that headaches have been underestimated, under-recognized, and under-treated throughout the world. At least 50% of the adult population suffers from headaches. Though they are very common, headaches are NOT normal. They are very complex, and I am here to break down some of the common root causes for you.
·
The first common cause: not drinking enough water. As a population we are generally dehydrated - and this is single-handedly causing a large majority of headaches. What a simple fix!! If you have headaches and know that perhaps you aren’t drinking as much water as you should be on a daily basis - why not start to see if changing that has any effect on the frequency or severity of your headaches? Start with getting a reusable water bottle that you can carry with you throughout the day and refill as needed. There are so many differing opinions on how much water we should be drinking, but try starting with this: drink half an ounce of water for every pound that you weigh. So if you weigh 150 pounds, drink at least 75 ounces of water (that’s about 4.5 normal sized water bottles - and this is on the low end of what some say we should be drinking). Things such as level of activity are another reason someone may need to be taking in even more water than that on a daily basis. Remember: if you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated! Drink enough throughout the day to avoid feeling this way.
·
A second common cause: grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw. Though it is hard to know if you grind at night (other than if your significant other tells you!), here are some common things you may feel if you do. You may often experience tender spots in the muscles around your temple and/or the muscles near your jaw that help you chew your food. You may experience pain or clicking in your jaw - sometimes it may lock up on you. You may even experience toothaches or pain in the ear. And of course, headaches. In the video, I give you a tip on the correct resting position of the jaw: lips together, teeth apart, tongue on the roof of your mouth. If you find that your teeth are always together and you’re clenching your teeth at rest, it is time to become conscious and work on the correct resting position of your jaw. It may very well lead to a decrease in your symptoms. Additionally, in office we often will strip the muscles inside and outside of the mouth to relieve the tense muscles. Though it doesn’t always feel great while it’s being done, the relief afterwards is worth it.
·
A third common cause: your diet. This can be a very complicated cause because everybody has such different physiology. However, we can start by trying to identify our food triggers by doing something simple: keeping a food journal. Though it is annoying and time-consuming, it will pay off in the long run if we can start to see trends in what we ate prior to getting the headaches. Sometimes migraine-type headaches are caused by different triggering types of food. Maybe you always get them the day after that heaping bowl of pasta or that pizza binge. Or an hour after you have that sugar rush of ice cream. Whatever you think it may be, eliminate it. But the key is to NOT eliminate a bunch of things at once - then we won’t know which one is doing the damage. Another thing that can be a huge help is if you get routine bloodwork. Testing for different markers in your blood can tell you a lot about how your body reacts to different types of food.
·
A fourth common cause: stress. It’s no secret that stress does damage to our bodies in a number of ways. Causing headaches is just another way stress manifests itself. Many times people experience headaches during work, a big life change, a death in the family, financial troubles, etc. It may feel like there’s a tight band around your head causing a ton of pressure when we are in the midst of a stressful time. Stress isn’t something that is just going to go away - but we can make it less of a physical burden by changing the way we react to it. We must learn to cope by finding a stress-management technique that works for us. Like I discuss in the video, everybody’s management technique is different. It can be anything from journaling to yoga to baking to meditation to running - the best part about it is it can be literally anything! It just has to be something that takes our mind off of our current stressor and redirects our full focus and effort into something that is calming and helps our mind become free and clear. It can start with a simple Google search of stress-management techniques if you don’t have one in mind. We must take ahold of our stress before it takes ahold of us!
·
A fifth common cause: our spine! Sometimes people experience headaches that are related to their neck - they are called cervicogenic headaches. It literally means that the headache is generated from the cervical spine (neck). Sometimes people who have jobs that require a lot of repetitive neck movement (or lack thereof) can fall victim to these type of headaches. People who have poor posture may also experience these type of headaches. The great thing is, putting motion back into areas of the cervical spine that aren’t moving as well as they should through chiropractic adjustments can wipe these headaches off the map!
·
Headaches are no joke. Nobody should be living their entire life suffering from them. Though these are only a handful a causes, they are a good place to start if you do not know what is causing your headaches!
