Natural Health Alternative Blog

A good friend of the family recently quit a seemingly successful corporate job. The pay was excellent, as were the benefits.

It was unexpected, as she had been so excited about starting. Once hired, she only lasted a few months before she turned in her notice and left.

She didn’t speak much about it and I never brought it up. It wasn’t until we were all together for dinner one evening and a less tactful friend suddenly brought it up. My poor, cornered friend confided that she left because of chronic headaches. (more…)

“I can’t remember if I was depressed about my migraine headache or I had a migraine headache because of my depression,” joked one client.

Joke or not, the idea that depression and headaches are somehow linked is not off the mark at all.

At first blush, one tends to reason, “Of course she’s depressed – she’s in pain!” This, however, is not the only reason.

One recent study showed that 67% of people who suffer from chronic depression (depression lasting longer than six months and generally not attributed to any one depressive episode, e.g., death of a loved one) also suffer from migraine headache.

This number is too high to be ignored. Keep in mind that this study was evaluating chronic depression, not migraine headache.

So, depression causes or at least triggers headaches, especially migraines, right? Not so fast. Another study showed that 40% of those experiencing chronic depression also experienced chronic pain such as headache or back pain.

Moreover, this same study reported that for those who experienced pain with depression, the depression lasted an average of six months longer than with those who did not experience pain.

Still other experts believe that many people (4 times as many women than men) report tension headache symptoms but it’s believed the headache is actually masking the symptoms of depression.

While it’s not clear whether depression causes headaches or headaches might cause depression, it is believed that they may both share the same biology.

Evidence suggests that both conditions involve serotonin receptors and transporters. In fact, research showed that treating one condition with medication for the other did show some promise.

This is the part where I get on my “soapbox” and preach – be careful! Medications to treat both migraine headache and depression can have very serious side effects and can be largely trial and error.

In fact, the FDA has warned against combining certain antidepressants and migraine headache medications because it can cause a potentially life-threatening condition known as serotonin syndrome.

I highly recommend that you talk to a professional about your symptoms if you are suffering from chronic headache and/or chronic depression but don’t be afraid to ask for natural treatment options.

If you suffer from migraine or tension headaches, I highly encourage you to try my Migraine and Headache relief program. The all natural breathing and relaxation exercises are highly effective and results have been proven!

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I have received more than one communication from clients who have claimed that they received relief for their migraine headache by using my Migraine and Headache Relief program, where no other medication or remedy was able to help.

This is of course, always great feedback. Along with this feedback I noticed a pattern of women writing to me telling me they experienced migraine headache after receiving an epidural during childbirth.

This struck me as interesting and after much research, most evidence points to there being no link between migraine headaches and receiving an epidural.

Great, but if there’s no link why do so many women suffer from migraines after an epidural? Up to one percent of women report this problem. Many of these same women report having never had migraine headaches before.

It is extremely rare to develop migraine headaches as an adult. Most experience symptoms during late childhood or early adolescence.

What I did find in my research though is the condition known as a spinal headache. This occurs when the protective layer of the brain, called the dura and spinal cord (which contains cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF) is punctured by a tiny needle in order to deliver spinal anesthesia.

In one percent of cases, this tiny hole can allow CSF to drain enough for the brain to perceive it as pain. This headache actually has a technical term - post-dural puncture headache, or PDPH.

The symptoms of PDPH can include double vision, sensitivity to light, hearing problems, nausea and pain or stiffness in the neck. Do any of these symptoms seem amazingly similar to another condition?

That’s right! The headache, while not technically a migraine headache, still feels just like a headache.

This can also occur in one percent of epidural cases. While the incidence shouldn’t occur at all – there is no intentional puncture to the dura in epidurals, it can happen accidentally.

While there’s no evidence of women with a history of migraines having a higher chance of a spinal headache, it can be especially hard to determine whether or not the headache is a migraine or a spinal headache.

The average time to heal from a spinal headache is two to four days although many women have reported symptoms lasting for months. Again, for those who have a history of migraines, this could be an actual migraine triggered by lack of sleep and stress over a new baby.

Regardless of your reason for migraine headache, I highly recommend my Migraine and Headache Relief program. It’s all natural, safe and the results are amazing!

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I have written extensively about Migraine headaches and one topic that is hard to ignore is the effect of diet on food. I’ve also written about certain foods to avoid but recent research into food toxins and their affect on health in general really produced some interesting results.

While certain research will tell you that the foods to avoid (Aged cheese, citrus fruits, chocolate, nuts, cured meats, fatty foods, fried foods, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, pork, seafood, seafood, alcohol -especially red wine, food additives such as MSG, asparatame, and caffeine) are to be avoided as triggers, still other research indicates that these items are toxic to the system for certain people.

This can be confusing since there is such thing as toxic headache. While considered a type of vascular headache (headaches which involve an abnormality of the arteries in the brain in which they constrict and dilate rapidly and pain is the result) like migraine headache, its cause can be conclusively traced to some type of food poisoning whether a bacterial infection or an environmental toxin (e.g., pesticide, breathing car fumes).

This type of headache is not by definition a migraine (it usually involves a fever), many of the symptoms are the same including nausea, vomiting and headache. With migraine, however, the headache is unilateral (one side) and throbbing.

Additional symptoms typically unique to food poisoning and not migraine include abdominal cramping, diarrhea and muscle pain. Symptoms can appear between a few hours of ingesting the toxin but may take up to three days.

It may seem like it would be easy to distinguish between food poisoning and migraine headache would be easy, this is not always the case. Yes, one could say that the odds are against eating the same food over and over and developing food poisoning; however, what if your food preparation habits need examining (e.g., consistently undercooking certain fish or poultry, or you work in an environment where you are consistently breathing in the same toxic fumes?

Additionally concerning is the fact that food poisoning causing toxins can be especially harmful to one’s health if that person already has a medical condition affecting one of the major organs, an already weakened immune system or if that person travels frequently to areas where contamination to food is more likely to occur.

In order to avoid certain food toxins (especially if you are susceptible to food poisoning) make sure you are thoroughly rinsing your fruits and vegetables (even bagged lettuce). This will help eliminate fertilizers or pesticides which likely haven’t been cleaned before packaging. Additionally, keep in mind that eating out, even in “nice” restaurants has its risks. Even though I love to go out to eat either with my wife or with friends, I know that I cannot completely trust the hygiene or health of the person preparing my food.

If, migraine or tension headache is the cause of your distress, I highly encourage you to try my Migraine and Headache program. The results are amazing and it will help no matter what’s the cause of your headache.

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