Can Stress Cause Headaches?

What are Stress Headache Symptoms and what can you do about them?

Do you get headaches?

Do you get Migraines?

How do you deal with yours?

Two-Thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress, 54% are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives.

About 90% of headaches are classified as tension headaches which can feel like a band wrapped around your head.  Lack of sleep, hunger, bad posture, eyestrain and of course stress are the main cause of headaches. Stress is a major contributor to headaches and other physical symptoms you feel throughout your body.

An estimated 28 million  Americans nearly 10% of the population, suffer from headaches of some kind,  most of them are women and these are migraines, not headaches. Migraines in my experience with my clients can be caused by the fear of getting a migraine.  They are so painful and can have you out of action for a few days that the fear of this happening again can bring on a headache and then perhaps the migraine.

Common triggers for headaches.

• Dairy Products
• Dehydration
• Low blood sugar
• Perfume
• Weather
• chemicals in food
• smoking
• caffeine
• fatigue

Getting headaches can confine you to bed, give you nausea and generally disrupt your work and social lives. So what can you do to help yourself instead of taking medications.

• stress management classes to teach you ways to cope with stress and how to relieve tension
• biofeedback, which is a relaxation technique that teaches you to manage pain and stress
• cognitive behavioral therapy, which is talk therapy that helps you recognize situations that cause you stress, anxiety, and tension
• acupuncture, which is an alternative therapy that may reduce stress and tension by applying fine needles to specific areas of your body
• Emotional Freedom Techniques
• Meditation on a regular basis to reduce stress
• Drink lots of water and keep hydrated
• Sex, believe it or not, sex relieves stress.  🙂
• Ice

Try this exercise – Put a pencil between your teeth but don’t bite – you have to relax to do that.  The relaxation and the distraction should ease the headache.

Another way to relieve a headache is to put pressure on the web part of your hand between your thumb and your forefinger.  Do this until you feel the pressure in your hand and the relief in your head.  So easy to do and so effective as well.

Foods to avoid to prevent headaches.

• Peanuts, peanut butter, almonds, and other nuts and seeds
• Pizza or other tomato-based products
• Potato chip products
• Chicken livers and other organ meats, pate
• Smoked or dried fish
• Pickled foods (pickles, olives, sauerkraut)
• Sourdough bread, fresh baked yeast goods (donuts, cakes, homemade breads, and rolls)
• Brewer’s yeast found in natural supplements
• Bread, crackers, and desserts containing cheese
• Most beans including lima, Italian, pole, broad, fava, navy, pinto, snow peas, garbanzo, lentils, and dried beans and peas
• Onions
• Avocados
• Certain fresh fruits including ripe bananas, citrus fruits, papaya, red plums, raspberries, kiwi, and pineapple
• Dried fruits (figs, raisins, dates)
• Soups made from meat extracts or bouillon (not homemade broth)
• Cultured dairy products, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt

Natural Remedies for Headaches.

• Magnesium
• Peppermint and Lavender Oils
• Feverfew
• B-Complex
• Water
• Cayenne Pepper
• Fresh Air
• Arnica

Using Natural remedies are a much better choice as Headaches are not something you want to live with all the time. Hopefully some of the above will help ease your pain. So….can stress cause headaches?  The answer is YES it can, relieving your stress will definitely relieve and even eliminate your headaches.

Remember if you are on any medications please see your health practitioner before changing your regime.

So how are you going to handle stress in the future?

If you found this post helpful please share with others and I would love to hear your comments regarding your remedies for headaches.

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