Remedy headaches with natural pain relievers

Better Nutrition (1989-90), July, 1989 by Nancy Saltmarsh

Remedy Headaches With Natural Pain Relievers

Most people turn to aspirin or other drugs when they suffer a headache. But natural medicines, often herb-based, are a healthier choice.

More than 45 million Americans each year suffer from headaches severe enough to require treatment by a physician, according to the National Headache Foundation. Of these, 16 to 18 million people suffer from debilitating migraine headaches.

Aspirin is the traditional treatment for the common headache, but with ingredients like caffeine and sodium laureth sulfate, aspirin can jeopardize your health. Sodium laureth sulfate, for example, is a common ingredient in detergents. Other compounds in aspirin can cause serious side effects in small children or adults with kidney problems or peptic ulcers.

Headache sufferers are beginning to discover, however, that aspirin is not the only choice available. Health food stores carry a variety of natural headache remedies designed to combat different kinds of headache pain.

The most common kind of head pain is the tension headache. The tension headache usually affects the entire head and is not localized on one side. It is triggered by stress, fatigue or depression.

The cluster headache usually is severe, developing around or behind one eye. It usually occurs at night and awakens the victim. Most cluster headache sufferers are men and evidence suggests that excessive smoking and/or alcohol consumption can trigger an attack.

A sinus headache occurs when sinuses become infected or inflamed. One of the most common symptoms is a rise in temperature.

Older adults with a low grade fever, problems with eyesight, abnormal weight loss and a pain on one side of the jaw while chewing may be experiencing temporal arthritis. This type of headache is caused by an inflammation of the temporal artery resulting in a jabbing, burning pain around the ear.

The vascular headache occurs when the blood vessels in the scalp expand and contract to produce a throbbing pain. The best known and probably most debilitating of the vascular headaches are migraines. Women are three times more likely than men to suffer a migraine, due in part to changing hormone levels during menstruation and ovulation. Irregular eating and sleeping patterns also can be responsible for migraines. Several studies suggest that certain foods like citrus fruits, chocolate and red wine as well as excessive amounts of caffeine can trigger an attack, as can food additives such as monosodium glutamate and preservatives found in smoked and processed meats.

"We have found it ... fruitful to consider all vascular headaches to be toxic headaches and have set about trying to isolate the toxic factors," wrote Robert C. Atkins, M.D., in Dr. Atkins' Health Revolution. "Once these factors have been removed by diet control, or, if they cannot be entirely removed, have been mitigated by vitamin and nutritional supplements, the toxic headache is generally cured or controlled."

Dr. Atkins said cheese, caffeine use and withdrawal, chocolate and ice cream were a few of the dietary culprits responsible for headaches. "I feel ... the two main connections between vascular headache and diet [are] low or unstable blood sugar and individual food intolerance," he wrote.

For patients with chronic headache symptoms, Dr. Atkins prescribes a multivitamin supplement, plus extra B6, folic acid, niacin, vitamin B 12, vitamin C, manganese, magnesium orotate, calcium and tryptophan. He also recommends evening primrose oil, the major dietary source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).

"Sometimes we help a migraine patient by prescribing tryptophan," Dr. Atkins said. "The rationale here is that many migraine patients become serotonin-depleted; tryptophan quickly restores this neurotransmitter. At other times the answer lies in providing the omega-3 fatty acids, and the choice then becomes EPA [eicosapentaenoic acid]."

Eric R. Braverman, M.D., and Carl C. Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D., authors of The Healing Nutrients Within, confirm that tryptophan, as well as the amino acid phenylalanine, are effective pain relievers.

While tryptophan is necessary for the optimal functioning of the brain's primary pain inhibiting center, phenylalanine may have the ability to block certain enzymes in the central nervous system which break down natural morphine-like hormones called endorphins, Drs. Braverman and Pfeiffer wrote. "DL-phenylalanine has been suggested to be effective against the chronic pain of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, low back pain, joint pains and migraine headache," they said.

Feverfew is an herb recommended by many naturalistic doctors as a headache remedy. A member of the daisy family, feverfew is thought to work by inhibiting the production of prostaglandins, chemical substances in the brain responsible for contracting blood vessels. Expansion, or dilation, of the blood vessels can produce the feeling of pressure and pounding that most headache sufferers experience.

"Feverfew is a remarkable example of medical science learning from folk medicine," wrote herbalist Christopher Hobbs in Feverfew. "In England, where Feverfew is being used daily as a protective herb against migraine headaches and arthritis, thousands of people are finding relief where nothing from the pharmacists' shelves will work."