How to relieve a headache without pills: simple life hacks at home

Published: 10/24/2018. Updated: 10/21/2021.

Even a slight headache complicates life, prevents you from concentrating at work and doing household chores, forcing you to take medications and even give up your favorite activities. According to the World Health Organization, 50% of adults face this problem every year, and 30% of them are diagnosed with migraine. What to do if you have a severe headache and don’t have any pills at home? Try using effective folk remedies.

Before reading about how you can quickly cure your headache, make sure that your headache is not caused by a health problem. In addition to overwork, dehydration and lack of sleep, it can be caused by poisoning, cervical osteochondrosis, viral diseases, sinusitis and other pathologies.

By the way, if you have a very bad headache and pills don’t help, sometimes the only thing you can do is learn to cope without analgesics. The reason is that when taking most types of painkillers for more than 10 days for three months in a row, so-called abuse, or drug-induced pain, develops.

Pay special attention to your health and be sure to make an appointment with a specialist to find out what to do when you have a really bad headache if:

• this condition occurs several times a week;
• you have to take medications or increase the dose;
• this condition is accompanied by fever, confusion, nausea or vomiting
• pain has intensified or its location has changed.

These may be symptoms of serious illnesses, so do not ignore a full diagnosis.

Acupressure

This type of treatment is also called acupressure - influencing certain points on the body by pressing with your fingers. If you do it yourself, no special skills are required, but it is advisable to obtain preliminary consultation from a specialist.

What to do for headache pain? First, relax, otherwise you will not get the desired effect. Sit in a comfortable chair, inhale and exhale slowly. Imagine that you are in a calm place, breathing evenly and deeply. The acupressure technique can be used not only at home, but also outdoors or in the office, since you can relieve a headache with your hands in just ten minutes by working on each point. It is necessary to take turns influencing the points that, according to Chinese medicine, can reduce discomfort (or eliminate them altogether).

Primary or secondary headache?

Headaches are divided into primary and secondary.
Primary headaches have no structural or metabolic cause. It is mild pain of this type that can be relieved with relaxation, massage, walking in the fresh air, and so on. These also include tension headaches, migraines, cluster headaches, and analgesic rebound headaches. Secondary headaches are caused by conditions such as increased intracranial pressure, pseudotumor cerebri, subdural or intracerebral hematomas, hypertension, meningitis, temporal arteritis, Lyme disease, and brain tumors.

An accurate diagnosis and identification of the causes of headache largely determine the success of its treatment.

Therefore, if you experience frequent, intense or chronic headaches, you need to be examined by a specialist. In this case, it is better to start with a visit to a neurologist and ophthalmologist.

General massage

Another way to quickly relieve a severe headache without medication is to do a light massage to eliminate cramps and improve blood circulation.

Sit on a sofa or chair and use your fingers to perform light massage spiral movements along your neck for two minutes. After warming up your neck, move on. Massage your head in the same way as when washing your hair for 5-7 minutes. If you feel warmth, then you are acting correctly. If your head hurts without stopping, continue self-massage, smoothly moving to a new area - your temples. Massage them for five minutes in a circular motion, gradually moving towards the back of the head. Finally, gently massage your earlobes for two minutes.

As with a classic massage course, after completing the session you should not get up suddenly and immediately go about your business; rest for about fifteen minutes.

“Medicines don’t always work quickly”

Bota Suleimenova: – I have had poor eyesight since childhood, so attacks often pass with an aura. An aura is a short-term visual disturbance that signals an upcoming attack.

Medicines do not always work quickly, so the best solution is to reduce the frequency of attacks. To do this, I try to exercise regularly and maintain a healthy regimen. With overall health improvement, the frequency of migraine attacks decreases.

Although often there is no need for a reason for an attack to occur. You can eat right and maintain a generally healthy body and brain, but seizures still appear. This makes it difficult to do business. I work for an international organization, we have additional sick leave, which does not need to be confirmed with papers. If I have sudden attacks, I can just rest at home.

Relatives try to be understanding, but the other person cannot help. Don't bother is already a help.

Aromatherapy

What should you do to make your headache go away if you don’t want to perform a massage? Use a method that was popular in the 18th century and remember the benefits of certain essential oils. For example, mint was used to eliminate a runny nose, while lavender and chamomile relaxed and gave long, restful sleep. How to quickly relieve a headache? Use the following fragrance oils:

• lavender,
• mint,
• eucalyptus,
• linden,
• sandalwood,
• nutmeg,
• rosemary.

No matter how much you want to get rid of pain without pills, remember the safety and side effects. When using essential oils in concentrated form, skin irritation may occur, so before use they must be mixed with neutral oils or cosmetics.

You can choose any of the six main ways to quickly get rid of a headache at home using various pleasant aromas (which will help you best, you need to check experimentally):

• bath.
  When taking a bath, add eight drops of essential oil mixed with a tablespoon of neutral oil;
• diffuser
  (sprays fragrant steam due to the action of ultrasound). To fill a standard 15-meter room with a pleasant relaxing aroma, add three drops of aroma oil to the container;
• oil burner.
  Light it 2-3 times a day;
• warm compress.
  Add a drop of aromatic oil to the water, soak a towel in it and place it on your forehead;
• massage.
  When massaging your face or body, add two drops of essential oil to your regular massage oil;
• inhalation.
  It is enough to breathe in hot steam for five minutes with the addition of three drops of aromatic oils for your well-being to noticeably improve. Keep in mind that this method of treating headaches at home is contraindicated for asthmatics, allergy sufferers and patients with problems with the respiratory system.

Sources:

• Scripter C. Headache: Tension-Type Headache. FP Essent. 2018 Oct;473:17-20. PMID: 30346680.
• Espí-López GV, Zurriaga-Llorens R, Monzani L, Falla D. The effect of manipulation plus massage therapy versus massage therapy alone in people with tension-type headache. A randomized controlled clinical trial. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2021 Oct;52(5):606-617. Epub 2021 Mar 18. PMID: 26989818.
• Marks DR, Rapoport AM. Practical evaluation and diagnosis of headache. Semin Neurol. 1997;17(4):307-12. doi: 10.1055/s-2008-1040943. PMID: 9474710.
• MacGregor E.A. Contraception and headache. Headache. 2013 Feb;53(2):247-76. doi: 10.1111/head.12035. PMID: 23432442.
• Allais G, Gabellari IC, De Lorenzo C, Mana O, Benedetto C. Oral contraceptives in migraine. Expert Rev Neurother. 2009 Mar;9(3):381-93. doi: 10.1586/14737175.9.3.381. PMID: 19271947.
• Friedman DI. Headache and the eye. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2008 Aug;12(4):296-304. doi:10.1007/s11916-008-0050-1. PMID: 18625108.

Published on the portal health.mail.ru

Water treatments

A hot shower or bath is another effective option that can quickly relieve headaches for both men and women. Heat helps to dilate blood vessels, relieving spasm and supplying beneficial nutrients to cells that usually lack nutrition when a nerve is pinched in one of the parts of the spine or other pathologies. If there is no time or opportunity for full water procedures, use a heating pad.

When looking for an answer to the question “How can I quickly get rid of a headache at home” on forums, you often find information that a cold compress helps. This method does work in many cases, but be extremely careful, as cold not only brings relief, but also constricts blood vessels. If a headache in an adult or child is associated with a spasm, home treatment without pills should avoid cold compresses and any non-medicinal products that cause constriction of blood vessels.

Migraine has a script with certain stages

1. Prodrome – the first phase. Symptoms of the prodromal phase include a wide range of phenomena: mood changes, irritability, depression or euphoria, fatigue, sensitivity to smells and sounds. This phase is observed in migraines with or without aura.

2. 30% of people then experience an aura that lasts no more than an hour, this is similar to visual hallucinations. And the longer a person looks at colored or flashing objects or drawings, the worse his condition is, so he tries to focus on a white wall or piece of paper.

Aura is a transient neurological phenomenon that occurs before or during a headache. Usually the aura develops gradually over several minutes and lasts no more than an hour. Symptoms may be visual, sensory, or motor, and many patients experience multiple symptoms simultaneously.

During the first two phases, you need to take a triptan rescue pill. This will not stop the pain, but it will significantly ease it and shorten the duration of the attack.

3. During the third phase, pain covers the entire head, nausea and vomiting, and severe fear of light and sound appear. Any movement increases the pain. This phase can last from several hours to several days.

4. Postdrome – the pain subsides, the person falls asleep. The next day the person feels tired, has poor hearing, and blurry vision. Abilities are reduced.

If a person has more than 10 migraine attacks per month, he practically does not live. Fortunately, these are few in number; every third person experiences one or less than one attack per month. But it happens that people do not know about the existence of pills that can help stop a migraine attack, because up to 50% of migraine sufferers still practice self-medication.

Drink plenty of fluids

Another reason why headaches and pills do not help may be due to dehydration caused by heat, increased sweating during exercise or at high temperatures, and other factors. Drink more clean water (not tea, sweet soda or mineral water), and to be sure of its quality, use only filtered water.

Migraine tries to force people to live in the middle ground

People with migraines are more susceptible to momentary factors called triggers, which increase the risk of headache attacks.

Among the most common triggers:

• Hormonal – menstruation, ovulation, use of oral contraceptives.
• Food – consumption of alcohol, glutamate, chocolate, cocoa, nuts, celery, cheese.
• Weather – Weather changes can affect the balance of chemicals in the brain and trigger seizures.
• Behavioral – lack of sleep or too much sleep, feeling hungry or overeating.

If you keep a diary of the occurrence of migraine attacks and the circumstances in which these attacks occurred, you can identify your individual characteristics. People who know their triggers and avoid them experience fewer seizures and significantly improve their quality of life. For convenience, you can keep a diary of migraine triggers in a mobile application. Such an application “Migraine Control” was recently announced by SANTO. Useful materials about migraines on the Internet can be found using the hashtag #SUMAMigraineReduces.

You can download the application using these links:

• for Android;
• for iOS.

Fresh air

Even healthy people feel uncomfortable in rooms with high concentrations of carbon dioxide. What to do for pain in the head if it is caused by excess carbon dioxide? Ventilate the room regularly to bring in more oxygen.

If you live near a highway or industrial plants, opening the windows is not the best option. Noise, toxic gases and bad odors will enter the room, because of which you will have to look for an additional way to relieve headaches and how to relieve a very severe migraine attack. Install supply ventilation with air purification functions, such as a breather. This equipment supplies fresh, purified air to the room with the windows closed, and in winter it eliminates the risk of drafts due to the possibility of heating the incoming air masses.

Take walks in parks and squares more often to forget for a long time about looking for a remedy for your scalp at home. Clean air and light physical activity can reduce the risk of attacks without taking pills, as they reduce stress levels, calm you down and normalize blood circulation.

No one knows for sure what causes migraines

Migraine is a chronic disease, the main symptom of which is an attack of throbbing headache. Sometimes migraines are accompanied by nausea, sensitivity to light and sounds: ordinary sounds and soft light intensify the already excruciating pain.

Neurological disorders can also indicate a migraine: dizziness, temporary blurred vision, lethargy. At the same time, migraine is associated with external factors - nutrition, routine, stress level.

The causes of migraines are not visible on MRI, and pain is a very subjective indicator that is extremely difficult to measure. During the intervals between attacks, the person looks quite healthy, which supports the spread of the myth that the disease is illusory.

Healthy foods

If you have a headache, healthy foods can help, both in the form of infusion or tea, and fresh.

Lemon.

The lemon aroma has a calming effect; you can also drink a glass of clean water with the addition of a tablespoon of lemon juice. What else can you do if you have a headache but no pills? Peel the skin and apply it to your temples and forehead, it will help reduce pain.

Mint.

To eliminate headaches, you can drink a decoction of a tablespoon of dried leaves and 200 ml of boiling water infused for fifteen minutes.

Ginger.

Drink ginger tea (bring water to a boil, add a spoonful of dry ginger and simmer) with tea leaves and honey. This is not only a quick help for headaches, but also an excellent home remedy for colds; it helps strengthen the immune system (if there are no medical contraindications).

Cinnamon.

Drink a couple of sips every hour of the concentrated, cooled solution or prepare a recipe for cinnamon tea with the addition of ginger, black pepper and mint. It is worth adding honey to the drink, as it contains calcium and magnesium, which help improve blood circulation and relieve an attack of acute headaches at home without pills (remember that honey should not be poured with boiling water). Instead of tea, you can prepare a special mixture of three teaspoons of cinnamon and a few drops of water, then apply it to your temples and forehead. Half an hour with such a warm compress is all that is needed for a headache to go away if it is caused by a change in weather or changes in atmospheric pressure.

If you have allergies and stomach problems, you need to carefully use the proposed methods, as they can contribute to the exacerbation of chronic diseases. Cinnamon should not be used during pregnancy or lactation.

“No one can say exactly why I have a headache.”

Our heroine Bota Suleimenova had her first migraine attack four years ago. Now it is part of her life: migraine can remind itself once a month or several times a week. It interferes with work and life.

Bota Suleimenov:

– The first attack happened in the winter of 2015, when I flew to Almaty on vacation. It was an overnight flight, and once I was home, I immediately fell asleep. When I woke up, I still had a headache. I thought it was due to jet lag. Painkillers did not help, the pain did not stop for 2-3 days: I could not get up, I felt nauseous, it was painful to open my eyes. Then I was diagnosed with migraine.

I had a concussion as a child, and at the age of 10-11 I started having constant headaches. Then they diagnosed intracranial pressure, so throughout my conscious life these pains seemed to be something normal. It didn’t really interfere with everyday life, but when I was in my first year of university, there was probably a period of exacerbation. I was again sent for an MRI and examination, which again only confirmed intracranial pressure.

According to some doctors, the migraine arose as a consequence of intracranial pressure, but no one can say for sure what exactly is causing my headache. Maybe because of intracranial pressure or migraines, or because of both.