Globe Syndicate
for release Friday January 16, 2004
Another Way
by Melodie Davis
Helping Avoid Headaches
I am not a doctor, nurse, LPN or anything else that qualifies me to speak on
this subject, other than having had my share of headaches over the years. I
don’t think I ever had migraines, and this advice probably won’t be helpful for
those who get true classic migraines. But I have had my share of
make-you-so-sick-you-throw-up headaches, including pulling over while driving,
leaving a meeting, etc.
And, knock on wood, these last number of years I do not get headaches nearly as
often as I used to. My mom used to say I inherited this tendency to bad
headaches, because both she and my sister have had excessive headaches. But I
have been able to minimize them in the last number of years. Headaches that have
no medical basis, and that might benefit from the approach I’m about to
describe, probably fall into the category of tension headache (as opposed to
those that have some medical basis).
A broader way of looking at this is, here are some ideas for reducing tension
you may feel. Note that I didn’t say reducing stress, that’s another subject.
But rather, when you are feeling stressed, how can you relax and reduce tension?
As I get older I feel like I am more in touch with my body and its signals and
sensations, so that if I feel myself getting tense, I try to do some deep
breathing. By this I mean taking a deep breath through the nostrils and then
blowing out through the mouth. This brings in fresh oxygen which can be helpful
to your body. When my husband, daughter, and I rented a car to see “back
country” Europe, the driving situations we encountered were frequently stress-
and tension-producing. But I managed to avoid headaches for most of the trip,
and I attribute that to this deep breathing technique.
You probably also know the trick of slowly rolling your head around on your
neck, and of raising up your shoulders, arching them back, and then bringing
your arms to a resting position by your side.
I’ve observed over the years that I frequently get a headache, or the start of
one, after a stressful event is over. For instance, I love to entertain, clean
the house and fix food, but I used to wake up the morning after with a huge
headache. Now I try to catch myself in the midst of the preparation and force
myself to relax, slow down, go outside and get some really fresh oxygen, and
take some deep breaths. I try to stop and focus on whether I’m feeling tense and
stiff in my shoulders.
My daughters are prone to headaches on trips, when they go to special events or
concerts, or especially after they’ve spent a whole day outside in the summer
sun and heat: dehydration. Many kids don’t drink enough to keep themselves
properly hydrated, and I have read that lack of water or liquid can also lead to
headaches.
Another contributing factor to headaches on special event days or when traveling
is haphazard eating. My mother always has to be careful around mealtime, with a
gnawing stomach making her feel queasy. And if the meal is delayed too long,
blood sugar drops in the body and you start feeling badly because of that. My
one daughter with this problem has learned to carry a pack of small peanut
butter crackers with her—so she gets food with protein in that situation.
Finally, I’ve learned about rebound headaches from my dear longsuffering mom.
She wakes up with a headache nearly every day. To kill the headache, she takes
the kind of pain reliever that is laced with a heavy dose of caffeine. Given
that nice “shot” of caffeine in early morning, she feels great for the day. She
does not get much caffeine during the rest of the day. By early the next
morning, though, her body is again in the throes of another fix of caffeine, and
so the cycle goes.
This is not just my observation; I’ve read medically that this happens. I know
when I consumed 5-7 cups of caffeinated coffee a day plus diet cola, if there
was a day I couldn’t have my caffeine (on the rare occasion when I was someplace
it wasn’t available, or I was sick or throwing up), by mid afternoon I too could
be guaranteed a screaming headache. Overall I think I have fewer headaches now
that I get very little caffeine (maybe two or three doses a month).
So there you have it, my non-medical, “don’t sue me” advice for having fewer
headaches. It doesn’t always work for me, either. Seriously, do see your doctor
if you have serious, recurring headaches that don’t seem to be just a result of
tension.
If you care to comment, you can post your response at http://www.thirdway.com/aw/conversation.asp
or send to: Melodie Davis, Another Way c/o Name\Address of YOUR newspaper; or
e-mail: Melodie@mennomedia.org.
You can also visit Another Way on the Web at www.thirdway.com.
Melodie Davis is the author of seven books and has written her column since
1987. She taught feature writing and has won awards from the National Federation
of Press Women, Virginia Press Women and the American Advertising Association.
She and her husband have three daughters.
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