“Happiness is…. The moment you realize your headache is gone.”
Headaches really suck. There really is no other way to put it. They can range from a slightly painful nuisance to a full-on, lay on your bed in a dark room wishing you now longer had a head kind of pain.
The most important thing to understand is that the headache is a side-effect of a deeper problem. That’s right. Headaches are just the symptom that you experience in relation to a deeper problem.
Most people try and attack the headache with some type of drug or quick fix and then wonder why the headache eventually comes back. Here’s is what you should really get to understand. If you do not remove the root cause then you will continue to experience the symptoms.
Now that should naturally lead to the question: What are the common root causes of these headaches?
Let’s start with what a headache actually is. A headache, medically known as cephalalgia, is a pain that is continuously felt in the head or neck region. Headaches are not actually felt in the brain because the brain doesn’t have any pain receptors. The pain is caused by disturbances to the pain-sensitive structures surrounding the brain which in results causes a “aching” head.
The American Academy of Neurology states that here are four types of headaches:
- Vascular – considered to be caused by blood vessel swelling and or increased blood flow.
- Muscle contraction (tension) – known as tension headaches caused by tightening/tensing of facial and neck muscles. Statistics show that nearly 90% of all headaches are tension headaches.
- Traction – Common causes are eyestrain and over-stressed eye muscles. In a small percentage of cases, traction heachaches are caused by organic diseases involving structures of the head, metastatic tumors, abscesses, or hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood.)
- Inflammatory. – triggered directly by other disorders in the body. Systemic inflammation, sinus infection, and even stroke can result in inflammatory headaches.
Now that you know what the 4 types of headaches are, let’s uncover the real culprits behind them.
- Deficiency – Several nutrients are absolutely critical to maintain the normal functioning of the body. Headaches are extremely abnormal, and often the result of being radically deficient in one or more of these nutrients.
- Magnesium
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- B Vitamins
These are just a few of the main nutrient deficiencies that cause headaches (and most people have no idea about this). Make sure to have these major nutrients covered, and stay connected to the information on this site for more.
2. Chronic Dehydration – Cell dehydration can literally damage your DNA. Because of this, your brain and nervous system take dehydration very seriously. Just a 1% drop in normal fluid balance in your body is enough to cause headaches, fatigue, and damage DNA.
3. Sleep Deprivation – Pain researchers at Missouri State University discovered that lack of REM sleep decreased the production of proteins that suppress chronic pain. They also found that lack of REM sleep increased the production of the “P2X3 protein” that’s been linked to the initiation of chronic pain. What we have here is a recipe for disaster.
4. Inflammation – No matter where the origin of the inflammation resides if you’ve got an underlying problem anywhere in your body, it can result in a headache. For example, you might have something as obvious as physical trauma to your leg, “pulling” more blood flow and nutrients that’s causing your headache. Or it may be something not so obvious, like an underlying infection such as gum disease or E. coli that’s heating up your body and disturbing your immune system.
With all of this data we can conclude that over 99% of all headaches are caused by nutrient deficiency, dehydration, sleep deprivation, inflammation, and/or allergic reaction. Don’t wait around for the headache to show up. Take action to put your mind and body in order so that your body’s not forced to give you symptoms to alter your behavior. The headache is not a symptom that you’re deficient in Tylenol. The headache is intelligent feedback from your body that you need to change.
Lifestyle is an important factor in preventing headaches in the first place, but for acute headaches and instant relief check out this product right here.