5 Ways to Head Off a Headache

Although headaches can range from annoying to debilitating, they do share one important trait: They make it really hard to enjoy life. You don't look healthy or feel beautiful when your hands have a vice grip on your temples. So what can you do? Take steps to understand what's causing the headaches, so you can find ways to stop them from starting.


1. Make a positive ID.
The first thing to do is make sure you don't have a secondary headache. That is, a headache that's a side effect of some other health problem. It's helpful to have a doc figure out the cause, but you can assist big time by identifying the triggers of your headache. Keep a log that has the date, the time, and what you did and ate for the 48 hours preceding your headache (and if you're a woman, what time in your cycle it occurred).
Need help sorting out your headache symptoms and triggers?

2. Strengthen your neck.
Weak neck muscles can cause pain in your upper back that goes to your lower neck and then to your upper neck as progressively weak muscles compensate for too much time spent hovering over the computer, the remote, or those baby booties you've been working on for more than a year. Weakness of the trapezius muscles can lead to soreness in your upper back. Strengthening that area can reduce pain by over 80%.


3. Sweat it out.
Walking, swimming, and biking aren't just good for your heart health, your waistline, and your sexual magnetism. Regular aerobic exercise also means that you'll be having less regular headaches. How? It helps relieve stress and increases the level of pain-killing endorphins. Similarly, yoga, stretching, and meditation help reduce tension and thus relax the chemical wackiness that can cause headaches.

4. Try supplements.
Some of the vitamins, minerals, and supplements that may help prevent headaches include the herb butter bur (50–75 milligrams twice a day for prevention or 100 milligrams every 3 hours for 3 doses during an active migraine); vitamin B2 (riboflavin at 400 milligrams in the morning); coenzyme Q10 (200 milligrams three times a day); and magnesium sulfate (200–400 milligrams twice a day; less if you have loose stools). There's a hung jury on the effectiveness of these supplements, but if you have chronic problems, they may be worth a try. They take 6 weeks to work.

5. Touch the pressure points.
Yes, let your fingers do the talking. Developed in Asia over 2,000 years ago, acupressure works when your fingers press points on the body that release muscular stress. Get a shiatsu massage, or do it yourself by using the following moves the next time your head is pounding. Unless you're pregnant: Lots of experts warn against using these points if you are.

• Belly of your temporalis muscle: Located in the center of your temple region. Rub this region with your first and middle fingers pressed closely together until you find a tender muscular zone. If you have trouble locating this point, place your fingers against your temples and then clench down on your molars a few times. You should feel the main muscle belly of your temporalis muscles bulge in and out.

• Behind the ears: Locate the points at the base of the skull on the back of your head, just behind the bones in back of your ears, and apply rotational pressure with your thumbs for 2 minutes.

• Between the eyes: Pinch the tissue just above the nose with your middle finger near one eye and the thumb near the other; slowly push upward, so you feel the pressure near your eyebrows.

• The hand web: Using the thumb and index finger, apply a pinching pressure to the soft fleshy web between the thumb and index finger of your opposite hand.