There are obvious choices for managing headache pain, from over-the-counter, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Motrin or Aleve to beta blockers or antidepressants to prevent migraines. Prescription triptans, such as Imitrex or Relpax may help manage symptoms once they start.
If you’re looking for alternatives to traditional medication or if your medications aren’t doing all they can to manage your headache pain, however, there are natural alternative treatment methods you could try in addition to, or in place of, traditional medications.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a method of body control that uses electronic sensors to monitor body functions, including muscle tension, heart rate and blood pressure. Data on these body processes are fed back to a patient through sounds or computer images, with the goal of teaching people how to manage their involuntary bodily processes. By controlling these processes, patients may learn ways to reduce pain around parts of the body, and for some, learning how to ease tight muscles, for example, can help prevent or ease headache pain.
Studies on the efficacy of biofeedback show that it could be effective in managing migraines and tension-type headaches and can be more cost-effective over time than prescription drug therapies.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture therapy involves inserting thin needles under the skin to realign the flow of energy, or qi, in the body. A Cochrane review, or expert analysis, has found that acupuncture may help prevent acute migraines as well as traditional drug treatments and with fewer adverse side effects and risks. Further, there is evidence to suggest that acupuncture may help some people who suffer from frequent, episodic or chronic tension-type headaches.
In a typical session, acupuncture therapists will focus on increasing circulation in the lower body, minimizing the risk of increasing dilation of the blood vessels in the head, which may worsen a migraine or tension-type headache. While the number and frequency of treatments will vary from patient to patient, for chronic headache sufferers, weekly treatments over a period of months may be recommended to ease headache pain and minimize headache onset. The bonus? Acupuncture has been found to be effective in treating a wide number of ailments, and your acupuncture therapist will be able to apply the benefits of your session to treat multiple ailments if they exist.
Heat and Cold
For some headache sufferers, including pregnant women, even over-the-counter painkillers are not a safe option. Using the heat and cold method to treat headaches is a safe, risk-free alternative. This method involves applying heat to the back of the neck and icing the temples. For neck tension, just the heat may be sufficient to ease headache pain or for pulsing headaches, icing temples alone may be enough. For many, applying heat or cold to the forehead, temples or back of the neck can offer natural headache relief, depending on the type of headache you’re experiencing.
Migraine sufferers benefit from icing temples or the forehead, for example. This method is effective because the artery that supplies blood to the lining of the brain sits behind a thin bone in the temple. For migraine sufferers, lowering the temperature of the blood passing through that area seems to ease the throbbing pain associated with migraines. For those suffering a sinus headache, applying a heated towel to the forehead or over the eyes has been shown to be effective.
Caffeine
Your morning cup o’ joe is a powerful beverage. It pulls you out of your morning fog, boosts your mental alertness and helps keep you going throughout the day. It may also help control your headaches when consumed in controlled amounts. Because caffeine constricts the blood vessels, it can help curb headache pain at the onset of these events.
Further, caffeine can help your body better absorb your migraine or headache medication through your stomach lining. Studies show that simply adding about 130 mg of caffeine to the formulation for an over-the-counter pain medication can improve headache relieve by about 40 percent. However, before you rush to brew a pot of coffee when you feel a headache coming on, remember that caffeine can trigger headaches in some people, and for regular coffee drinkers, one of the symptoms of withdrawal (when you skip your morning mocha) is a headache. Experts suggest limiting coffee intake to five (8-ounce) cups a day or fewer.
Sex
Here’s some surprising news: if you’ve ever used the excuse of having a headache to get out of intimacy, you have been doing yourself a disservice. Studies have shown that sex is actually a natural pain reliever, and headaches are at the top of the list of ailments that it may ease. Because natural endorphins and other pain-relieving, feel-good hormones are released during orgasm, this headache relief method can help you relax and give you a sense of calm. A team of neurologists at the University of Munster, Germany, found that more than 50 percent of migraine sufferers who had sex during a migraine episode experienced an improvement in their symptoms, and 20 percent found that sex completely cured their migraines.
Know When to Seek Help
While most headaches are painful but otherwise relatively harmless, it’s important to note that some symptoms that accompany headaches should not be brushed aside. If you experience a headache accompanied by chest pain, shortness of breath, vision problems or slurred speech, you should seek immediate medical attention to rule out the possibility of a serious medical condition. Further, if you begin to experience recurrent headaches or headaches that are significantly different in feel than previous ones, you should make an appointment with your primary care physician to discuss your symptoms and attempt to determine their cause.