Oh, My Aching Head

Headaches for the most part, are one of life’s minor annoyances, unless of course, you suffer from the impossibly tortuous migraine, but for the ordinary headache, there is a world full of weird and wacky cures, and causes.

Because most headaches involve a restriction of blood vessels in the head or scalp, a good cup of coffee or two, can work wonders. The caffeine will help to expand the vessels and will also speed the absorption of any pills you may have taken.

Unfortunately, the only cure for “brain freeze”, which often happens after eating ice-cream, or having a really cold drink, is to let your system warm up again. This normally happens after a few minutes. When extremely cold foods and drink touch the palate in the roof of your mouth, it stimulates nerves that then turn on blood vessels in your head and they swell, causing pounding in the middle of your forehead.

‘Cluster headaches’ can be as excruciating as migraines, if only for their persistent presence. The pounding, throbbing pain that tends to stay on one side of the head can come and go several times over the course of a day. This can repeat every day for weeks or months. Oddly enough, researchers estimate that 93% of ‘cluster headache’ victims are men.

Years gone by, headaches were often ‘cured’ by making a poultice of ‘house leeks’ that often grew between the slates of cottage roofs and placing this on the effected part of the head. No doubt that worked better than the lavender that was dabbed on a lady’s temples in Victorian times. You have to hand it to the Chinese for simplicity, though. They
used to simply swing their arms back and forth, or around and around. Odd as that may seem, the improved blood flow may very well have cured headaches caused by sluggish circulation.

Nowadays there are numerous lotions and potions that profess to cure headaches, but as with most medications, the more you use them, the more you seem to need them. There is usually some valid reason why a headache starts, whether it is simply too much alcohol the previous night, stress or some other underlying medical reason. If you have headaches on a regular basis, you should consult your doctor. Prevention is often better than cure!