Content Copyright 2011 by Cricket Webber
Smashwords Edition
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Chapter 1: Differences Between Headaches and Migraines
Chapter 2: Blood Sugar and Headaches
Chapter 3: Cold Foods and Headaches
Chapter 6: Smoking Triggers Headaches
Chapter 7: Migraines and Your Menstrual Cycle
Chapter 8: Headaches from Eye Strain
Chapter 9: Combating Rebound Headaches
Chapter 10: Limiting Chemicals to Reduce Headaches
Chapter 11: Headache Prevention Diet Tips
Chapter 12: Migraines and Vitamin D
Chapter 13: When to Talk to Your Doctor About Your Headaches
Chapter 14: Printable Trigger Tracking Page Instructions
Weather, hormones, diet, chemicals, smells, sounds, lights, stress – all of these and more can trigger a headache or, even worse, a migraine.
I'm not a doctor, but I have lived with headaches and migraines from early childhood through adulthood, and I know firsthand that they are not pleasant to experience. One of the most effective tools in my arsenal has been learning exactly what triggers my headaches and migraines so I can make informed decisions.
Knowing most of my headache triggers helps me to make the right decisions every day. You can't avoid every headache, but you can certainly be prepared. Learning your triggers is not always easy, but it can help you to manage your headache and migraine pain.
Each of the short chapters that follow address a particular trigger, with tips on how you can minimize your headaches and migraines if this is a trigger for you. At the end of this book is a printable tracking page that you can print as many times as you need. It allows you to keep track of your food intake, activities, weather and anything else that may have been unusual that day. If you experience a headache or migraine, you can look back to see what could have contributed to your headache.
This kind of information is also helpful to take to your doctor. You may not see a pattern in your headaches, but with your tracking sheets your doctor may be able to spot something and give you some guidance on what may be contributing to your pain.
Please visit the Headaches and Migraines site and forums at BellaOnline for more information and just to say hi. If you've found this book useful, I'd love to hear from you!
Cricket Webber
Site: http://headaches.bellaonline.com
Forums: http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=403&page=1
Chapter1: Differences Between Headaches and Migraines
Almost everyone has experienced a headache at some point in their life. Headaches vary in intensity and can be quite painful. Throbbing or dull, aching pain in different areas of your head can indicate different types of headaches. A migraine is a different type of headache altogether, however.
Most people who experience migraines report changes to their vision or hearing prior to a migraine's onset. Visual changes can include floating "auras" that disrupt your vision or a decreasing tunnel effect when you try to look at things around you. Hearing problems typically include an increased ringing in your ears or even the feeling that you are hearing everything as though you are under water.
The pain of a migraine tends to remain in one location. Many people report the migraine above one eye or the other, but rarely over both eyes. Pain can also be located at the side of your head. Rarely does migraine pain occur in the back of your head, but it is possible.
Headaches generally only involve pain in your head and neck, whereas migraines include other symptoms. Migraine sufferers can become nauseated, sometimes before the onset of their migraine or during the migraine itself. Other sufferers may report vertigo or a hot, flushed feeling throughout their entire body. Sensitivity to light, smell and sound are also extremely common with migraines.
Migraine sufferers often find that once the migraine has settled in they are not able to perform their regular functions. While some are able to engage in light duties, other sufferers find that they must lie down in a cool, dark room in order to receive any sort of relief.
If you find that your headaches seem to fall more in line with the symptoms of migraines, talk to your doctor. Your doctor can diagnose for certain whether your headaches are migraines and can begin looking at causes. Your doctor may also recommend that you begin a food log or some other method of tracking your symptoms.
Some migraine sufferers are able to control their migraines with over the counter medications, but others are not so lucky. There are a wide variety of treatment options available, and depending on the severity of your migraines, your doctor will be able to recommend a treatment plan.
If you are experiencing migraines more often than is normal for you, definitely speak to your doctor. He can rule out other causes and determine if preventative steps are necessary in your particular case.
Chapter 2: Blood Sugar and Headaches
Your blood sugar levels have quite an effect on other hormone levels in your body. When blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas responds by sending out insulin to help convert those sugars to energy for your body to use in all sorts of ways. If your body is not able to keep up with the amounts of sugar you are taking in, it might release too much insulin all at once.
These spikes and troughs in blood sugar levels can trigger a nasty headache. Typically a headache related to blood sugar is a dull pain, and can be centralized on one side of your head. Some also report these types of headaches as an "all over" ache. If you are prone to these types of headaches, you are likely familiar with how they tend to occur for you.
One of the best ways to avoid sugar headaches is to limit your intake of high sugar foods. Candy, ice cream and other foods containing larger amounts of sugar can flood your body too quickly with glucose. If you are craving a sweet treat, try an apple or orange. You'll get the sweetness from the fruit as well as fiber to help your body offset the natural sugars.
Another way to avoid sugar headaches is to make sure you eat regular meals throughout the day. Some people find that small meals all day long works for them, while others find that a traditional three meal schedule helps keep them balanced. If you are sensitive to blood sugar levels it is important that you find the schedule that works best for your body. Not only will you avoid sugar headaches, but you may find that you feel better overall.
If you are unlucky enough to find yourself with a sugar headache, first try to pin down which end of the spectrum is a culprit. If it has been several hours since you last ate, do not eat something that is high in sugar. Instead, choose a meal or snack that is high in protein. The protein will not cause your blood sugar to leap as quickly as a sugary snack will, so you won't run the risk of having your blood sugar jump too quickly in the other direction.
On the other hand, if you have just finished a snack and find yourself dealing with a sugar headache, your best bet may be to take an over-the-counter pain medication. You can also try to counteract a potential blood sugar crash in advance by eating a small amount of protein.
Chapter 3: Cold Foods and Headaches
You may know them as ice cream headaches, or simply "brain freeze", and truth be told there isn't really a scientific or diagnostic name for them. In fact, the medical community isn't completely sure what makes this type of headache so painful. Ice cream headaches have a reputation for extremely rapid onset and excruciating, brief pain. They can disappear as suddenly as they appear, but it can take several minutes to recover from the experience completely.
The Mayo Clinic suggests that the trigeminal nerve is to blame for these painful headaches that generally last a minute or less. The theory is that cold foods and drinks, not just ice cream, slide along the nerve and it reacts to the cold shock by sending pain impulses directly to your brain. The nerve interprets the sudden cold as some sort of threat, so it sends an impulse the brain cannot ignore -- excruciating pain. Although it has not been proven conclusively, researchers believe that you may be more susceptible to ice cream headaches if you have ever suffered a serious head injury or if you have other headache-related problems, such as migraines.
Because these types of headaches are so short in duration and seem to have a simple cause, not much is recommended as far as prevention. If you find that you get ice cream headaches every time you eat or drink something cold, handle cold foods and drinks with caution. Avoiding the middle of the roof of your mouth can help cold foods and drinks to avoid the nerve that causes the headaches, although this method is not necessarily foolproof.
To help ice cream headaches disappear faster -- or just to distract yourself until it goes away -- there are a few tricks you can try. If you have a warm or even room temperature beverage handy, take a sip and hold it in your mouth for a few seconds. The warmer liquid after the shock of the cold can help to calm the nerve endings and shorten the ice cream headache's duration. A quicker option is to quickly begin rubbing the roof of your mouth with your tongue.