Shah Abbasi Mosque مسجد شاه, Isfahan, Iran

According to National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, 2021. (1) 
In 2021, 4.3% of adults aged ≥18 years reported being bothered by headache or migraine in the past 3 months with the percentage among women (6.2%) higher than that among men (2.2%). Percentages were higher among women than men in all age groups: 7.4% versus 2.5% in adults aged 18–44 years, 6.7% versus 2.4% in those aged 45–64 years, and 3.1% versus 1.5% in those aged ≥65 years. Among men and women, the percentage of those bothered a lot by headache or migraine in the past 3 months was lowest among those aged ≥65 years.”

In a study migraine impacts 17.6 % American female and 6% male suffer from migraine headaches, study survey was done on 20,000individuals responding to the survey.(3) in another study done in 1989, questioner provided to 15,000 found almost similar result for migraine headaches in America , 17.6% of females and 5.7% of males expressed having 1 or more migraine headaches per year.(4)

Their Conclusions:
“A projection to the US population suggests that 8.7 million females and 2.6 million males suffer from migraine headache with moderate to severe disability. Of these, 3.4 million females and 1.1 million males experience 1 or more attacks per month. Females between ages 30 and 49 years from lower-income households are at especially high risk of having migraines and are more likely than other groups to use emergency care services for their acute condition.”(4)

Causes of headache:
-Stress.
-Dehydration.
-Constipation& Poor digestion.
-Sleeplessness.
-Food sensitivities, for example food containing tyramine are chocolate and citrus containing food, phenylalanine or MSG seen in Chinese food . Food containing high amount of copper such as chocolate, nuts, wheat germs and shellfish can result in headache. Other food can cause issues are eggs, cow milk,
Accumulation of toxins in body, such as heavy metals toxicity, toxins in drinking water, perfume, smoking, pesticides, formaldehyde, animal feeds.
-Too much caffeine, alcohol, & drugs.
-Hormonal imbalances.
-Sugary food( it increase blood sugar and when crush down, it gives headaches).
-Other serious causes can be, blood clots in brain, brain tumor, glaucoma.
-Sinusitis.

Headaches can also be the result of a SERIOUS cause, EMERGENCY MEDICINE suggest :
“If headaches is accompanied by fever,nausea, stiff neck , slurred speech, vomiting, weakness or numbness on side of the face. For MORE info when to call emergency for headaches visit EMERGENCY MEDICINE side”. ( 6)

Tension headaches:
Tension headaches are also felt by increase tension in shoulders and back and sometimes tightness in chest and tension in the neck.

Cluster headaches:
Cluster headaches usually start in one side of the head or around one eyes. It comes in cluster forms, several times a day can last from several days to several weeks. Causes of cluster headaches is unknown. But, those with family history or alcohol consumption can be a factor. Cluster headaches is seen more in men than women and while not sure smocking as a factor, however cluster headache is seem more among smokers. (5)

Migraine headaches:
Migraines heads usually pain is felt in one side of the head and usually is very severe and accompanied by visual disturbances , such as light sensitivity, nausea, vomiting.

How to address headaches:
It is important to find out the underlying cause of headaches. However as mentioned most headaches are due to stress and tension,
By eliminating the usual suspects causing headaches such as sleeplessness, stress, dehydration, anxiety, food causing sensitivities or allergens important to find out exactly what is the causes and eliminate it.

Here are few steps to treat headaches:
   1.    Using relaxation techniques of deep breathing and visualization and self hypnosis ( relax and visualize yours head is relax and tension is gone). Actually visualizing it happening when you are totally relax and talking to yourself example: my forehead is relax, the feeling of relaxation is going down my face and neck etc etc, mentioning every body part and visualizing it relaxing, all the way to your toes.).
   2.    Take 200 mg of magnesium twice daily while you have headaches .
   3.    Vitamin B complex in general is excellent for nerve damage repairs etc. vitamin B2 especially helps with headaches, in addition to vitamin B6.
   4.    imbalances in calcium and magnesium can also result in pain. Make sure eat food containing calcium and mg such as banana, chicken, drink milk( if no sensitivity to dairy).
   5.    Herbs such as chamomile tea can help to relax, oregano oil and lavender massage can help in relaxing and also contain anti inflammatory actions.
   6.    fever few( 400mg) if headache continue to persist. Fever few does have anti inflammatory as well as analgesic impact .
   7.    Make sure to eat or add anti inflammatory food such as wild salmon, cruciferous  vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, kale etc
   8.    Sprinkle some turmeric on your chamomile tea.
   9.    Avoid alcohol as it dehydrate in addition eliminate important microbiome in addition to preventing important vitamin absorption in the gut.
  10. Add some avocado due to its fatty acidosis, or just take 1 gram of fish oil daily.
   11.    Taking 5 HTP ( hydroxytriptophen ) it can increase serotonin level. Also eating high carbohydrate food does increase serotonin level , therefore help with pain reduction in general.
   12.    Listen to your favorite music….music does impact brain waves and listening to types of relaxing music can change the brain waves therefore relieve pain.

Other alternative drug free approaches are smelling peppermint it result in opening up the nostrils and sometimes relieve headaches.
Similarly rinsing of the nostrils can sometimes help with headaches.

Thanks for visiting www.curenaturally.org combining ancient wisdom with modern science.

References
1. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm
2. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7222a6.htm#:~:text=In%202021%2C%204.3%25%20of%20adults,that%20among%20men%20(2.2%25)
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1941010/ 
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8502385/ 
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18471125/ 
6. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cluster-headache/symptoms-causes/syc-20352080#:~:text=Overview,one%20side%20of%20the%20head
7. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/migraine-headache/symptoms-causes/syc-20360201
8. https://www.emergencyphysicians.org/article/know-when-to-go/headache#:~:text=Seek%20emergency%20care%20if%3A,relieve%20chronic%20or%20excruciating%20pain