Know Your HeadacheThere are over 45 million Americans that have severe enough headaches to take them to the E.R every year. 1It has been spoken and written often by our politicians, that in order to defeat our enemy, we must know our enemy. If you suffer from chronic headaches, the very first step is learning who the enemy is. So before you grab the bottle of Tylenol, learn what’s actually happening to your body first. If we give a man a pill, it will help him for a day. If we teach him how to heal himself, it will help him for a lifetime. So which do you want? The easy solution sold to you, or the truth? Tension HeadachesThe majority of headache are considered “tension” headaches. These can have symptoms wide ranging between sufferers. A tension headache the tightening of muscles in your head. Literally. This can be caused by several factors, but the overall theme is stress. Life stress, food sensitivities, bright lights, illness, and even changes in the atmospheric pressure. Vascular HeadachesVascular headaches, a group that includes migraines, are thought to involve abnormal function of the brain's blood vessels or vascular system. 2 “The blood vessels in the head become enlarged, distended and inflamed, which alters the normal pulsation of the vessels and leads to a throbbing pain that usually worsens with physical activity. Vascular headache is one of the four major types of headache, alongside muscle contraction (tension), traction and inflammatory headache. “ (from: News Medical Life and Science) No one has been able to define specifically why these blood vessels tighten, but we know there are a few triggers like what you eat. Ripened cheese, cheddar, Brie, among others, onions, pickles, cured meats, avocados, fresh bread, red wine, sour cream, nuts, chocolate, coffee, tea, cola and alcohol are all things you should try avoiding. In an experiment at a Texas Neurology Clinic, over 25% of migraine sufferers improved when they stopped eating these foods. Also, anything that’s going to restrict your blood vessels will trigger vascular headaches. Chemical Headaches 3Use and long term use of commercial and over the counter pain relievers (to CURE headaches) causes headaches and/or makes them more severe. Some of the big players are codeine, acetaminophen, Demerol, ibuprofen and even aspirin. Yes. Aspirin. A 1994 study soundly concluded a relationship between chronic acetaminophen use and kidney failure. What’s “chronic” defined as, you ask? Try 1 pill a day for a year or more. The survey also indicated that people who take large quantities of other pain relievers, such as ibuprofen, naproxen acetaminophen, may increase their chances of kidney failure eight-fold. 4 When the New England Center for Headache, took people who experience chronic headaches off their daily dose of five or six painkillers, the results were clear. Two-thirds of the folks said they were having less headaches by the end of the month! 60 days later, 45% said they were experiencing even less pain than when they were on the prescriptions/medications. To top it off, these participants also no longer had to suffer with the side effects of those medications such as dizziness, insomnia, lowered immune system, digestive problems and more. No Matter Which You Suffer FromThere are some simple steps you can take now to prevent/treat most headaches. Dehydration is the most common cause of headaches, so knowing that, you have even more reason to drink more water. Remember that when we become adults, we no longer feel thirst until we’re already dehydrated. So go get a glass! Low Blood Sugar can cause headaches in the late morning, late afternoon and after naps. Eating every 2-3 hours will help keep your blood sugar steady. (not spiking and dropping) So many people suffer chronic headaches (nearly daily) just because they don’t eat enough during the day. Stop Staring at your Screen! Do you have less than perfect eyesight and not wearing glasses? Straining your eyes, especially on a computer screen can trigger headaches. So take a break! Let your eyes dilate and relax. You’re not a machine. Knowing your enemy will help you defeat your enemy. Clearly, you taking pills for the last few decades hasn’t gotten you anywhere… why not try the holistic version of healing? For more detailed information on specific headaches and treatments, please visit our DIYHealing Category in our Healing Blog.
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What Healing RequiresAs much as I'd like to say that it did, suffering and weakness do not go hand in hand. Suffering, more of the time than not, leads to reward, if self sacrificed. Healing my body has been a lesson in sacrificing what I am today for who I will become tomorrow. Who I will become is undetermined, undefined and yet to be created anywhere other than my own imagination. We were given the gift of imagination, yet we often use it as a method of self deprecation and fear mongering to our own detriment. Preparation and patience; parents of the same child: Success. But confuse not preparation with fear, for it's womb will always be barren. Healing requires from you more than it requires of others. It requires you not give in, not give up, and never allows you to forget what your fighting. You weren't given a choice, it isn't an honor, yet it's a war you are enlisted for, with no assurance of an end and little hope of victory. Whether you want to be in the battle field of your life isn't your choice. The pain you feel, the suffering your war causes to innocent casualties are all around you. Healing requires that you admit you are at war. Whether you want to be or not, the enemy will come for you and will be here when you wake. Soldiers have training, have weapons, have preparation. They have skilled leaders to guide them into the battle. No solider is left behind. Each drill, each lesson is taught for the purpose to make them a one of a kind skilled warrior. Solider's sacrifice who they are today for who they will become tomorrow. They sacrifice their time, their energy, their lives to the cause. Even in times of peace, a solider is always a solider. Once a Marine, always a Marine. And no solider will return home the same. War changes you. Meeting mortality, changes you. Not often is it spoken of, or perhaps not often enough; that at some point, nearly everyone is afraid of the battle and wishes for nothing more than the comfort they left. Each mourns in his/her own way for a simpler time, when the cruel realities of fate hadn't yet touched them. They miss the small joys of laughter, not mingled with pain. More tears have been shed before battle than lives lost, more fears have turned to realities than victories achieved in war. What is it then, that enables a solider to rise in the morning knowing death lurks just on the other side? How can they lace their boots and make their beds with precision and steady hands? How do they willing march together, in unison, weapons ready into battle? Healing requires you to be a solider in a war you did not chose, in a war you did not want; but it is yours now and how you wage the battle is entirely up to you. The enemy is coming to your door whether you want it or not. This is your war and you must believe you are the one who can win it. Fear is nothing but our own imagination, once you realize this, you'll understand how it can no longer control you. Danger is very real, but fear isn't. Never confuse preparation with fear; like water and vinegar they may look the same at first, but only one will leave a bitter taste and never quench your thirst. You have the ability to live in the future, to live in your victories instead of your fears. You have the choice to be afraid and do it anyway. You can choose what happens to you before the inevitable. You can choose how you live your life, and it doesn't have to be in fear. Healing requires you to sacrifice who you are today for who you will become tomorrow. Don't hesitate to be afraid today if it will make you brave tomorrow. The more you allow yourself to use your imagination for fear, the smaller your world gets. You can change your prescriptions, you can change your clothes, where you live, where you work; but if you never change your mind, nothing changes. That's not to say that the same struggles aren't there, its your perception to the struggle that changes. Suffering is not weakness nor is patience endurance. Healing requires a changed mind. It requires you lay down the failings of the past and fail forward into success. If your suffering is not a sacrifice for who you will become tomorrow then your suffering is meaningless in your healing. If tomorrow is no better than the day preceding it and today is no better than the one before it, what are you suffering for? If suffering is inevitable, would you rather suffer on the path to healing? Your fears of the future can be hopes of the future when you are taking active steps to make it happen. You are going to suffer anyway, why not endure it with purpose instead of despair? Healing requires all of you, every day, every moment, every thought, every breath. You must decide your life is worth fighting for by you, for you. You must endure. You must suffer. You must be patient. But you can not be weak. Stop waiting on healing and decide you are going to fight it with your dying breath. Remember,those who think they can and those who think they can't are both usually right. Do not wish for an easy life. Wish for the strength to endure a difficult one" ~ Bruce Lee It took me a long time to fully comprehend the truth of that statement. I spent countless time asking why. I spent countless nights begging for it to stop. I sought the answers from the wrong places, and I put my trust in the wrong things. We all suffer. Suffering and pain are a part of life, those who have never suffered or felt pain have not yet fully lived and experienced life's multitude of emotions. Some, suffer more than others; some suffer alone. But pain and suffering are inevitable, that much is guaranteed. In suffering we have a choice. It is a choice all who are terminally ill must face, and a choice all who live long enough will make. It is, what to do in the midst of that suffering. Who will you be? What will you be remembered for? Too many of us spend time flipping through the pages of our past and not enough time looking at the pages in front of us. The oxymoron is, we look to our past, we regret, but moreso, we wish for the things we didn't do. The words we didn't say. The opportunities we didn't take. Many of us try to replay those memories over and over again envisioning various outcomes, but nothing ever changes, the story still remains the same: no matter how much you rewrite it in your own mind. While you're flipping through those pages of your past, your present time dwindles from you, and in a not so distant future, today will be part of your past. Are you are going to flip to those days and regret? Or do you want to focus on what's is in front of you and what can be? You are the writer of your own story. You have the power to make life anything you want it to be. Maybe today you can't fulfill those dreams instantly. But we first have to believe in ourselves before we can ever expect to take that next step. We have to first believe that it is possible, that there is a way. And you have to believe that you are the one. You must believe that you are the star of your own story and beyond that you are the writer of your own story. Will you be a war hero? Will you be a victim? Will you be a little of both? This is your life and no matter how sick you are and no matter how tired you are, no matter how much you think you can't go on anymore, I'm telling you today that you can. You have a choice to make. And that choice may need to be made everyday, every hour; but the choice is yours and yours alone. This is your life, how are you going to live it? How are you going to spend the time that you have left? I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become" ~ Carl Jung |
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October 2019
AuthorLinda Lavender writes articles to help folks with Auto Immune Disease, Depression, Anxiety and other health related illnesses. |