How to Reduce Headache Pain

Reducing Headache Pain

Headaches can come and go at a moments notice. They are frustrating and can ruin your day (or even ruin your week if you do not treat it successfully).

Many people believe that headaches cannot be cured or should be left to heal on their own. However this has the potential to cause the headache to turn into a long lasting problem.

The main reason people get headaches is due to lack of hydration. Studies have shown that people who frequently drink water – as opposed to soft drinks – are less likely to have headaches and migraines. Water helps your body to regulate itself. It is important to consume enough water to keep your body and brain functioning as they should be.

The amount of water you should drink varies between different people and there are no solid numbers. However, you should aim to drink water every hour throughout the time that you are awake to reduce the risk of headaches. Headaches are not the only symptom of dehydration but they are the most common.

What most people do not realise is that headaches can be avoided.

If you experience frequent headaches it is important to go to a doctor to have a full check up to make sure it is nothing more serious.

Your diet can play a large role in the prevention (and cause) of headaches. Some foods trigger headaches for some people in a similar way to how allergies can cause a rash. Caffeine is a very common cause of headaches. People often drink more caffeine than they are aware of throughout the day.

If possible, cut down on the amount of caffeine you drink. You should also try to offset the amount of caffeine and sugar drinks you consume by always drinking water as well. If you have water at the same time this will allow your body to function – while still giving you the benefits of the caffeine. Caffeine is known to reduce headache pain – many prescription headache tablets include it. However, too much and too frequently will cause headaches.

Certain foods will cause the same effects but it is not easy to know which foods are causing the symptoms. If you believe food is the cause or you notice certain patterns (for example if you always have a headache an hour after eating) you may wish to eliminate certain parts of your diet.

Start by reducing the amount of sugary foods and drinks you consume. Sugars in foods often cause headaches and it is usually difficult to realise they are the culprit unless you cut them out of your diet altogether.

Exercise will help to fight the symptoms of a headache (provided you are well hydrated) as your brain releases endorphins associated with pain reduction when you exercise. Exercise will also help your body regulate its temperature – you will get used to exerting energy and your body will become more efficient.

Losing weight is often helpful if you have on-going headaches. Headaches are reported more and more frequently as the average weight of the population increases. It is difficult to show a study that shows this conclusively, but many doctors will recommend that you try to lose weight in order to relieve headache symptoms (if you are over weight).

Medicines are useful but should not be taken lightly. If no other methods work then you should only then consider taking medicines. Medicines relieve the symptoms but do not always help fight the cause of the problem. You do not want to become dependant on headache medication to function in day to day life, when the solution may be as simple as increasing your intake of water or changing your daily exercise routine.

All of the natural changes you can make to help aid in reducing headache symptoms also help you in other areas of health. Exercise will improve your physical and mental performance as well as your long-term health. The majority of people should drink more water than they do. And avoiding sugar based or fatty foods can prevent heart problems later in life.

To reduce headache pain you must try to identify the cause of the problem. Try to notice patterns in your weekly schedule and link them to when you experience headaches. Keep a log of all of your activities and write down how severe your headaches were. If your headaches are routine and often appear at a certain time of day you will know that it is very likely to be linked with something you have eaten or done in the hours prior to noticing the headache symptoms.

Reducing headache pain can be simple in some cases, but it is always important to consult with a medical professional in case there is a more serious underlying issue.

The Health Benefits of Krill Oil

When it comes to good health and wellbeing, we’re constantly bombarded with news articles about what we should and shouldn’t be doing to our bodies. Eating too much of this or too little of that will eventually lead to our demise; the latest must-have health supplements come and go like fashion trends, singing their own praises on cyber shelves till the trend runs its course.

The truth lies in a balanced, healthy diet. But of course if that were easy to achieve, there wouldn’t be a thriving, multi-billion dollar health supplement industry. But there are some essential elements that have been conclusively proven to benefit our health, and even prevent potentially fatal diseases. Top of the list are omega-3 fatty acids, scientifically identified as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Our bodies can’t produce these essential fats, so we need to look to our diet or supplements. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has endorsed the fact that fish oil and marine supplements as a source of omega-3 can directly contribute to a marked reduction in the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes and many other life threatening ailments.

Krill oil is fast becoming even more popular than fish oil as a preferred supplement because of its high EPA and DHA content. Krill are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans which are part of the principal diet of whales, small fish and many sea birds. Some of the primary benefits of krill oil supplements:

  • Krill oil helps to lower high cholesterol
  • Controls blood sugar, which can help prevent and control the symptoms of diabetes
  • Anti-inflammatory properties can relieve rheumatoid arthritis and reduce joint stiffness
  • Helps prevent and treat osteoporosis by increasing calcium deposits and improving bone strength
  • Krill oil has been used to help treat ADHD with surprising results
  • Can reduce the symptoms of menopause and PMS

Krill oil contains the vitamins E, A, D as well as potent antioxidants, which help to combat toxic free radicals that attack our immune system. Scientific studies have shown that the antioxidant properties of krill oil are up to 48 times more powerful than fish oil.

As with any supplement, don’t expect to see radical changes in your health overnight. Krill oil supplements should be taken daily on an ongoing basis for the cumulative effects to become evident. After a month, those suffering arthritic complaints or joint pain should see a noticeable difference. Have your cholesterol checked before and during your course of krill oil to monitor how well it’s working. It should be said that those with allergies to shellfish should avoid krill oil supplements, and of course it’s always best to check with your health care professional.

Ideally, our nutritional needs should be satisfied through our daily diet, but with the ever-increasing pace of life, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay healthy through diet alone. Adding krill oil to your daily nutritional regime could help increase your chances of living a longer, healthier life.

Why You Should Exercise

Exercise is a an activity that maintains and enhances physical fitness, wellness and overall health of an individual. There are different reasons, why an individual performed physical exercise, it may include muscle building and strengthening, improving the cardiovascular system, honing any athletic  skill, weight loss or just plain enjoyment. Regular physical activity helps boost the immune system, prevent heart disease, obesity and diabetes. It gives the body the needed oxygen and helps the blood absorb this needed oxygen and circulate it to the body. It improves mental health, beats depression, boosts self esteem and can level up an individual’s body image and sex appeal. These benefits are hard to ignore. With the present sedated lifestyle of people nowadays, an exercise is a way to keep people really going.

In general, there are three types of exercises:

  1. Flexibility exercises. It helps and improves the flexibility  and the range of motion of the muscles and the joints.
  2. Anaerobic exercises. It increases muscle strength in a short period of time. Activities like sprinting, high intensity interval training and weight training are godly examples.
  3. Aerobic exercises. It focuses on strengthening and increasing the endurance of the cardiovascular system. Swimming, cycling, tae bo, running and jogging are good examples of aerobic exercises.

Benefits of Exercise

The obvious benefits are already mentioned earlier, but let us expand on it further. There are so many reasons why exercise is important especially in our modern and technology driven world. First, it controls weight. Any physical activities burn calories and fats thus it helps reduce weight If the individual is beyond the ideal weight; helps maintain weight if it is within the normal range. Second, it helps fight diseases and reduce developing risks of any health conditions. It reduces the levels of cortisol. Regular exercises also prevent and in some cases treat chronic diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and depression. Aerobic and anaerobic exercises improve the efficiency of the heart by increasing the cardiac volume. Plus regular exercise can improve the motor skills of the individual and helps prevent arthritis. Third, it improves the mood of the person. It increases the brain function because more oxygen is delivered into the brain. It creates new brain cells and increases the chemicals that help cognition. The body will release feel good chemicals after a workout in the gym or over the field. Fourth, it increases the energy level of the body. A well trained and physically enhanced individual through exercise will feel a greater level of energy. The body will adjust and take in oxygen and nutrients at double the normal intake. It’s like using a race quality fuel to run a car. Fifth reason, it improves sleep. Studies were made and proves that regular exercise greatly improves sleep. It treats sleep disorders like insomnia and is  a great alternative to sleeping pills which are dangerous if taken more than the recommended dosage. Sixth reason,  physical activity will promote  a better sex life. A person feeling good and looking the part will generate a positive sex appeal to the opposite sex.

Proper nutrition is equally important  to health as physical activity. Food is the fuel the body use to run, thus it is important to have the correct ration of nutrients in order for the body to recover and adjust after any strenuous exercise. Also take note that too much of something is not good. Over exercising will surely cause injuries and body pain. Give the body ample rest to recover and heal. Enjoy it and have fun. 

How To Find Good Resources For Healthy Eating

People are creatures of habit. Most people go to the grocery on the same day day every week. Every shopping day, the cart is filled with the same items. There’s nothing bad about it really but some change would make it more interesting especially if a person is trying to be healthy. Eating healthier can be scary or for some, time consuming. People are used to eating a certain way that they tend to forget what they are ingesting if it’s healthy enough or not. Healthy eating means paying attention to what is the best food to get and getting the most nutrients out of it. Finding good resources for healthy eating is not that hard to do. The regular grocery can give anyone a healthy option as long as people know what to look for. The internet is another good source, it can point anyone to any alternative stress or groceries that sell organic and free range products. Magazines can also be good sources of information. Try to change the daily menu and see what happens. Make small changes and experiment what will work best regarding the dishes that can be prepared at the same time, having a nutritious meal.

Adjusting to a healthy diet is not that hard. Making gradual changes and small steps are the easiest way to achieve it. Don’t expect too much too soon, usually the changes and adjustment will take about a month or two to feel natural. Remember, healthy eating is not about strict nutrition, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving oneself of certain foods. It’s about having more energy, stabilizing the mood and keeping the body and mind as healthy as possible. All of these can be achieved by learning some basic nutrition and using it every day. After getting all the resources needed, everything will just fall naturally. Most nutritionists have set up some healthy eating tips that can be done by everyone.

  1. Set the mind and body for success. Don’t concern the diet by measuring the portion size or calories, instead think of the diet by freshness, variety and color. It will make healthy choices easier. Find foods that you love and incorporate fresh ingredients. Again, small steps are better than making 360 degree turn regarding the diet. Adding salad or using extra virgin olive oil from butter are some small steps in making the diet healthier. Once it becomes a habit, the diet will become healthier down the road. This is not a cliché, but water really is good for the body. It flushes out toxins and other waste out of the body, rehydrates and helps the body cool down. Exercise is another important factor in overall health. Exercise and eating foods high in fiber and vitamins and mineral will really boost a person’s energy.
  2. Moderation is the key. This will depend on the overall eating habit of a person. The goal of a healthy diet is to develop a diet that can be maintained daily as long as possible. If a person’s diet consists of fast food, a healthy change is needed fast. Try to reduce any fast food and rather pack something nice for lunch at work. Try to add some salad or foods rich in fiber and water that can replace certain fast food items. Eating cheeseburger is not bad if it’s consumed maybe once a week, same with pizza or fried chicken. Don’t deprive anyone with any food they like, because a rebound from a food deprivation is much the same as eating fast food every day.
  3. Changing the way a person eats is another factor. Eat breakfast as much as possible and eat smaller meals throughout the day. Skipping breakfast and then binge eating at lunch and dinner is not helpful. Take time in chewing the food and enjoy every meal. Whenever possible, add greens and fruits to the daily diet. Fiber and water from the fruit will make the person full with less food intake and at the same time getting the required vitamins, minerals and fibers for the day. As much as possible, avoid processed and Prepacked foods. They contain preservatives and does not taste as good as fresh produce.

Trends In Natural Health

Natural health methods and alternative medicine always find ways to develop and increase its knowledge base. And just like conventional medicine, natural health is adept in new trends being introduced into the field. Alternative medicine includes a wide range of health care practices, therapies and products which are not included in regular degree courses in established medical schools.  It is just two months since 2013 started it the the time experts are predicting the health trends of the year.

The interest in natural health and alternative treatments will still gather popularity. Many mainstream medications are showing dangerous side effects, people will look for  new solutions to minimize any health conditions and to minimize any serious side effects a patient may get. Although alternative treatments are popular, some people are still skeptical about some of its procedures. With much information and resources, letting the people know of its benefits will not hard to spread. More people will try new remedies, change the lifestyle and try new activities to avoid conventional medicine side effects.  A hundred years old practices such as yoga, acupuncture and tai chi will soar further and gain attention due to its ability to soothe and calm the body. It also helps in treating chronic aping, obesity, stress and hypertension which are common today.

Another  trend introduced is moxibustion. Moxibustion is a type of acupuncture techniques that  involves or uses mugwort ( a natural herb). Traditionally, it’s a Chinese medicine that is used to invigorate the flow of the blood, Qi and  gives a pain relieving effect. The Moxa herb is lit on fire and are placed on the top of the needle. It can also be applied without using acupuncture needles; it can be burned in its stock for and the acupuncturist hovers and swirls the stick above the acupuncture points. . It is proven effective for muscle spasms, joint pains low back pain and other body pains that are caused by cold weather.

Alternative psychotherapy interest will grow. Alternatives are not only herbs, yoga and massages. People can get and experience significant changes with activities such as art therapy, music therapy, sound healing , energy balancing and other modalities that connect to people as a whole. These are sought after modalities that people are willing to take release tension and stress.  Personal satisfaction rather than external achievements will be the focus of more people. Minimizing and cutting schedule of extended lifestyles and instead creating opportunities and activities that will calm the mind and body. Personal growth and spiritual classes will help in achieving  this need. It will bring back the center of the body and will help focus on what is comforting .

The connection between food and health will be in the forefront. Different groceries and markets are now offering organic and free range produce. People today are learning to eat clean – eating foods without preservatives, additives, chemicals or too much sugar. Buying habits will also change, people will read labels more to check the nutritional facts of the product to be bought. This did not happen a few decades ago, but people today are more aware of the effects of preservatives in the human body.

What is Natural Health?

Natural health is defined as a self care method or system of natural therapies that restores and builds wellness and health by working with the natural healing powers of the human body. It is also known as naturopathy or Naturopathic medicine. It  is a form of alternative medicine based on the belief in vitalism. It focuses on the holistic approach using non evasive treatments and encourages minimal use of drugs and surgery. Traditionally, it’s about the natural healing therapies of prevention and promoting a healthy lifestyle, physical exercises, stress management and correct nutrition. Arguments have been made about the validity and the philosophy of natural health because of its resurgence and popularity. Naturopathy follow certain parameters in treatment, prevention and promoting healthy lifestyle and have been proven to work.

Practicing natural health or naturopathy  has nothing to do with religion, or with creation or other beliefs/ dimensions other than the health , wellness and healing of the human body. Naturopathy comprises of many different treatment methods of varying degrees or acceptance by the conventional medical field and medical community. But there are still skeptics in the field and to some, the ideology and methods used in naturopathy are in conflict with the established paradigm of EBM or evidence based medicine. The  ideology of natural health focused on natural substances, encouragement of natural healing and minimizing any evasive medical treatment.  Naturopaths in general, favors vitalistic conception of the body and total rejection of the established biomedicine and modern science. For naturopaths, prevention is the key to a total body wellness. Stress reduction and a healthy lifestyle  are greatly promoted. Psychic healing and faith healing is not part of natural health. The tenet of the practice is described by  six core values and stated as follows:

  1. Do no harm. Provide the most effective health care available with less risks to the patients at all times.
  2. Respect, recognize and promote the self healing power of of nature which is inherited to all individuals.
  3. Identify and remove the  cause of the illness.
  4. Educate and inspire hope and encourage responsibility for health.
  5. Consider all the individual health factors and influences when treating each person.
  6. Emphasize the condition of health to promote well being and preventing diseases to each individual human being.

Traditional naturopaths do not diagnose or treat diseases but focuses on healing the whole body, provides general wellness and facilitates body healing. The naturopaths usually does not prescribe or engage in the use of drugs, potions, surgery or other natural approaches practiced in conventional medicine. Naturopaths does not also usually  recommend vaccines and antibiotics. Methods used in natural health/naturopathy include acupuncture, hair analysis, live blood analysis, colonic enemas, botanical medicine, cranial osteopathy, applied Kinesiology and such. There are also therapies which use  or exposure to natural elements, like sunshine, heat, cold, fresh air and steam. Physical medicine such as hydrotherapy, sports medicine and manipulative therapy is also used. Meditation, relaxation, Reflexology and other traditional Chinese medicine are also  being sourced for natural health. There are many certified and licensed schools which teach natural health. Doctors practicing  Naturopathic medicine physicians  undergo basic training that includes medical diagnostic tests like medical imaging, blood tests, vitalism and hypnotherapy. In the United States, the physicians are represented by the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. The Council on Naturopathic Medical Education provides additional expertise and training which includes natural childbirth, intravenous therapy and minor surgery.

Traditional naturopaths are practitioners who have not graduated from accredited Naturopathic medical colleges and are not permitted to hold and ND or NMD titles.  But as many patients see it, the alternative healing methods can be used alongside regular medical treatment. It can be a complementary form of therapy.