A headache-free life can be yours by identifying and eliminating headache triggers. With a proactive approach, you can take control of your pain and enjoy a better life without headaches.
Dismissing all your triggers is not the answer. Common headache triggers include oxygen deprivation (sometimes from shallow breathing), dehydration (lack of water), a poor diet (eating foods your body can’t handle), incorrect exercise and rest, uneven muscle development, bad posture, stress, poor self-image, and attitude. Not all of these triggers apply to everyone. However, recognizing how these triggers interact with each other to cause headache problems is essential.
The way forward is not to eliminate all triggers but to identify which specific triggers and combinations cause headaches for you. This requires effort, patience and commitment. Try assessing each of these trigger categories and focus on one category per week.
For example, let’s say you choose to start with oxygen deprivation. In this case, make sure your home and office have proper ventilation. Pause your activities every hour to inhale deeply and take full breaths, ensuring you sleep in a position that doesn’t affect your air intake. After a week, take note of how you feel and move on to the next category—hydration.
Maintain the habits you developed during the previous week as you continue your focus on hydration. Drink two glasses of room temperature water every morning and avoid diuretic beverages throughout the week. Proper hydration means maintaining clear-colored urine every time you use the restroom and drinking water after exercise.
Once you have tried this method for six weeks, your overall well-being should improve significantly. However, many headache sufferers are in great pain and feel like giving up. The key to headache prevention lies in knowing your trigger limit or “number.”
Each person has a specific number of triggers their body can handle within a day without experiencing a headache. If your number is exceeded, a headache will likely follow. For example, suppose you know that caffeine, sugar, and milk trigger your headaches. Starting your day by drinking coffee with sugar and milk means you have reached your trigger limit, so you must be extra cautious for the rest of the day. Staying within your daily trigger number can help prevent headaches, curing yourself of the pain. Should a headache occur, knowing your number gives you control and understanding of the trigger cause.
The goal is to make a series of beneficial corrections. Eliminating headache triggers and finding your trigger number is the first step. A six-week plan of focusing on trigger reduction by following the steps above can lead to a much-needed change. If a six-week plan seems unfeasible, maintain a diary of your daily choices, activities, food consumption, headache intensity, and corresponding numbers to learn how to prevent headaches.
It is important to remember that most headaches are preventable as we often bring them upon ourselves. Be kinder to yourself and know your trigger number—here’s to your headache-free life!
