Heading Off the Hurt - taking care of headaches

Better Nutrition, May, 2001 by Liz Brown

Try these techniques and supplements to help ease headache pain

Science today can tell us much more about the causes of headaches and how to head them off before they begin. According to Dr. Roger Cady, director of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo., there have been recent changes in the understanding of headaches, especially in regard to migraine, the most debilitating form that can last from hours to days.

For example, tension headaches (the intermittent, somewhat painful but less debilitating variety) and migraine headaches were once considered two very different forms. But that's changing, says Cady.

"We're learning that migraine and tension headaches may have some very common biological mechanisms," he points out. "People who live with migraines can have tension headaches, as well as others that fall in between the two varieties." In other words, these forms may correspond to different points on a continuum.

According to Cady, people who suffer from migraine and tension headaches tend to have nervous systems that are particularly sensitive to the environment. Changes in such a person's internal environment (such as hormone levels) or in the external environment (light, sound or diet) can trigger headaches. Many environmental factors that a person is exposed to may overload different parts of the nervous system, determining whether the resulting pain is muscular (as in tension headaches) or vascular (as in migraines).

When environmental changes occur, levels of neurotransmitters in the brain can also fluctuate. One of these, serotonin, plays a protective role by preventing abnormal blood vessel dilation, and it also blocks inflammatory chemicals and diminishes pain in the brain. When serotonin levels dip, blood vessels dilate more than normal, irritating the surrounding nerves, and pain is exaggerated; in other words, you get a headache.

While Cady concedes that sufferers in the throes of a migraine usually need medication to stop the pain, he emphasizes that it's often possible to avoid a headache before it exacerbates to a severe one that can interfere with a person's ability to work, play and live normally. That's good news, considering that many of the prescription drugs prescribed for headache relief, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), have side effects.

HEED HEADACHE WARNINGS

By the time a migraine gets its hooks into you, the process of this headache has been going on for hours or days, Cady explains. Learning to recognize the early signs and act accordingly just might spare you the pain. There are three stages in this process:

1. Prodrome

A prodrome refers to the early symptoms and signs a patient experiences before the full-blown syndrome occurs. About 70 to 80 percent of sufferers experience this, but not all of them are aware of it. It's marked by subtle changes in nervous system functioning that come out as one or more of the following: fatigue, irritability and mood changes, muscle aches and pains, pain in the temples, changes in sensory perception, cognitive changes, and food cravings (especially for sweets and carbohydrates).

2. Aura

Only about fifteen percent of migraine sufferers experience an aura, which can be flashing lights, silver streaks, or numbness and/or tingling in the fingers. The aura was once thought to be the result of blood vessels tightening, but now Cady and other experts think it's caused by an electrical phenomenon in the brain.

3. Headache

There is often a mild pain phase of the headache (similar to a tension headache in many people) before it grows into severe, throbbing vascular pain, and there is a good chance of aborting the ensuing disability altogether if treatment is initiated during this phase.

Learning to monitor the body carefully and to recognize the prodrome stage can help sufferers attempt to thwart the potential migraine. Going out and exercising, taking a short nap, tensing and relaxing muscles or simply getting up and leaving a stressful environment may help divert it. In fact, all of these actions help the nervous system generate good neurochemicals, including serotonin, endorphins and others, that help bring the nervous system back into balance when it has been thrown out of whack by environmental stimuli. Women on the birth control pill or on hormone replacement therapy may also experience migraines more frequently.

Here's a look at some other effective natural approaches to halting headaches. Because people who suffer occasional tension headaches don't usually end up in the doctor's office, most of the research regarding headache treatments is based on efficacy in migraine. That doesn't mean, however, that the following therapies have no effect on tension headaches, just that there's less clinical proof.

HERBS, AND SUCH

* Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)

Feverfew has proven to be effective at reducing frequency and severity of migraine headaches. Keep in mind that it is a preventive measure, not an acute treatment that's going to stop an already throbbing headache. It appears to limit inflammation that leads to head pain.