Are you one of thousands of people who suffer from headaches?

A headache is pain that is anywhere in the region of your head or neck and can be caused by a variety of circumstances and can be a symptom of a variety of conditions in your head or neck. The pain in a headache is caused by the a disturbance in the structures around the brain, but the term headache is generally used to classify a non-specific symptom.

Headaches can be migraines, tension related, what is referred to as cluster headaches, or to the extreme of stabbing headaches, headaches due to exertion or coughing and of course there are the headaches that are related to trauma in the head and neck area from car accidents (whiplash), or strokes.

Identifying the cause of your headache is a challenge in itself, usually when we have a headache we reach for the bottle of advil to alleviate the pain, instead of looking at the circumstances of our day that may have lead to our headaches. Many things can play into how the headache came to be including allergies, caffeine withdrawals, incorrect posture when sleeping, driving or sitting at the computer, dehydration, stress and many many more.

If you have noticed your headaches are beginning to appear with more frequency and are becoming more unmanageable with over the counter pain relievers, then perhaps its time you started to take a little bit of a deeper look to find out what the cause is.

Simple way to start, is to keep a diary:

• Look at the foods you are eating and see if there is a pattern in what you are or aren’t eating that could trigger headaches.
• Look at your sleep patterns, how many hours, restless or a “dead” sleep
• Look at your work and play schedule, are you running yourself ragged working every minute of every day?
• Have you had any recent trauma’s, minor car accidents, a fall?
• What else is happening in your life, stressors?

Let us know what you find, and book an appointment to come in and see us, depending on the results things like Naturopathic Medicine, Chiropractic and Massage Therapy can all be beneficial.

Don’t let headaches stop you from living your life, take action!