General Tips Headaches
- Regular cardiovascular exercise e.g. jobbing, walking, cycling, swimming (not too strenuous) or do a sport one enjoys to ease stress and tension and hence reduce headache.
- Have an exercise programme (avoid heavy weights, heavy objects)
- Lose weight if overweight
- Consider a head massage
- Consider:
- Aromatherapy
- Homeopathy
- Yoga
- Tai-chi
- Pilates exercise
- Acupuncture therapy
- Consider breathing exercises
- Consider a healthy diet
- Have regular breaks.
- Eat a snack or a light meal as headaches can result from a drop in sugar
- Avoid dehydration, cut down on alcohol, tea, coffee (caffeine drinks) and drink plenty of water.
- Headaches can be caused by cold environments.
- Try hot and cold compress.
- Keep yourself elevated (i.e. have extra pillows when sleep at night)
- Avoid events that trigger headaches
- Sit in a quiet dark room
- Obtain a diary to identify triggers and severity (www.migrainetrust.org)
- Allergy tips
If headache due to bad posture:
- Warm bath to loosen neck muscles
- Osteotherapy
- Physiotherapy
- Spinal manipulation (back pain)
- Manual therapy course
- Chiropractice or deep massage
- Achieve good posture.
- Have a good mattress
If headache due to poor vision/eye strain
- Visit your optician for an eye test, (the eye test is a regular health check, which can detect underlying health problems as well as changes in your vision) this should be done every two years even if one has no eye condition symptoms, but if one has concerns one should book an eye test at any point.
- Follow your optician advice if one has an eye condition in terms of eye testing and eye symptoms and/or conditions.
- Persons over 40 years should have eye test at least every 2 years and you must tell drivers authority if it affects your driving
Exercise your eyes
Focus change
This exercise works by challenging your focus. It should be done from a seated position.
- Hold your pointer finger a few inches away from your eye.
- Focus on your finger.
- Slowly move your finger away from your face, holding your focus.
- Look away for a moment, into the distance.
- Focus on your outstretched finger and slowly bring it back toward your eye.
- Look away and focus on something in the distance.
- Repeat three times.
Near and far focus
- This is another focus exercise.
- As with the previous one, it should be done from a seated position.
- Hold your thumb about 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 seconds.
- Find an object roughly 10 to 20 feet away, and focus on it for 15 seconds.
- Return your focus to your thumb.
- Repeat five times.
Figure eight
- This exercise should be done from a seated position as well.
- Pick a point on the floor about 10 feet in front of you and focus on it.
- Trace an imaginary figure eight with your eyes.
- Keep tracing for 30 seconds, then switch directions.
20-20-20 rule
- Eye strain is a real problem for a lot of people. Human eyes are not supposed to be glued to a single object for extended periods of time. If you work at a computer all day, the 20-20-20 rule may help prevent digital eye strain.
- To implement this rule, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Vision therapy
- Vision therapy may include eye exercises, but only as part of a more specialised treatment program done under the supervision of an eye doctor, optometrist, or ophthalmologist.
- The goal of vision therapy can be to strengthen the eye muscles.
- It also can help to retrain poor visual behaviour, or help with eye tracking issues.
Healthline : Medically reviewed by Ann Marie Griff, O.D. — Written by Corinne O’Keefe Osborn — Updated on September 29, 2018
- One can suffer headaches due to dry eyes.
Natural treatments and tips (DR Axe)
