Friday 29 April 2016

On Headaches



Headaches have pretty much plagued me all my life; in my second year of university I would get them every single day without fail. (And no it is not to do with my eyesight and requiring glasses). What causes them, I'm not sure, but from time to time they can be a lot worse than others. 
Headaches can be a common problem among many people, and everyone has their own ways of trying to combat these. So today here are my few tips (aside from the really obvious ones) that I have found can really help to ease, and try to reduce the onslaught of them!

I drink a lot of tea. And coffee. Both of which include caffeine and which is a big cause of headaches. So I have been trying really hard to cut down my caffeine intake. The main way that I have been doing this (cut out tea altogether I hear you say; god no!), is to swap one of my standard cup of teas for a Green tea. Not only is this far less caffeine but Green tea is known for its numerous health benefits. I'm currently loving the PG Tips one; it says smooth on the box and although I don't quite know what that means, it is smooth!

In a related note; dehydration is another leading cause of headaches (something that one of my friends always used to tell me back in school was the cause of my headaches). Along with reducing caffeine intake (a big dehydrater!) I am trying to drink waaayy more water. And when I say waaayy, I mean I never used to really drink anything in the day aside from tea. I have started running which has helped the water intake. I recommend having some sort of funky water bottle to motivate the water drinking.

Another good favourite of my is a head balm. I have one from Badger that comes in stick form so you can just spread it across your forehead. Anything like this I find definitely helps to soothe an achey head!

Continuing on that theme; anything cold. Placing wet flannels (or even wet tissues in a restaurant during a particular bad migraine) always and I mean always helps. I always find myself putting anything cold across my forehead; my hands, my ipod, my water bottle. 

Naps. I personally am quite a big napper anyway, and whenever I feel a bit worse for wear I generally resort to a nap. (Shout out to Hannah, another napper!) If you're really not sure what else to do and are getting nowhere with your day, definitely try and take a nap. Even just shutting your eyes for a little bit can work wonders. 

During my last speight of headaches I ended up researching if they are in fact linked up to hormones and periods. And guess what? Hormone headaches are a thing; most likely to hit around the third day of your period! So definitely keep that in mind if you are prone to headaches. Read up on that here.

And one more that the boyf has just suggested; headache candles. I personally had never heard of, let alone tried these, but after looking into them they sound quite nice! Made from soy and aromatherapy based they sound quite soothing.

I hope this has helped if you are a headache sufferer and let me know if you have any of your own tips that work wonders on an achey head!

xoxo