Give your painkiller a miss and try these super-easy hacks to get relief from that irritating headache.
Headaches often come unannounced and can kill your productivity and mood. To save time and get back to work as soon as possible, we tend to pop a painkiller almost immediately. Every shortcut has a side-effect and long-term painkiller abuse could lead to cardiovascular issues, damage your liver and can lead to several digestive issues. So, if you are someone who’s taking this shortcut, you need to stop doing that immediately and find natural ways to get relief from headache.
“Your headache is not a sign of a painkiller deficiency. Instead of masking the symptoms with meds that often do more harm than good, address the root cause and prevent your headaches altogether. Occasional headaches are common and are usually the result of dehydration, muscle tension, junk light, stress & lack of sleep,” says Tim Gray, health optimising biohacker, psychology specialist, entrepreneur and global speaker. Here are 5 simple tricks to say goodbye to that pesky headache without the need of a painkiller.
1. HYDRATE
The best thing you can do for your headache is to hydrate. But, hydration is more than just drinking water. In fact, drinking tap or mineral deficient water can actually dehydrate you by flushing your electrolytes down the toilet. In addition to H2O you also need sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. The best way to get these is by adding a pinch of Celtic Sea Salt to your water, drinking mineral water or using an electrolyte drink
2. ADDRESS YOUR POSTURE
Slouching at your desk and looking down at your device creates lots of tension and strain in the upper back and neck which can cause tension headaches. Doing some stretches, foam rolling, and giving yourself a pressure-point massage can go a long way to easing your headache.
3. OPEN A WINDOW
A stuffy room with little oxygen and a build-up of carbon dioxide can lead to fatigue, headaches, loss of concentration etc. Keep your room well-ventilated by opening a window.
4. REMOVE JUNK LIGHT
Fluorescent lights or flickering LEDs found in offices are a big problem. Unnoticeable to the human eye, this lighting has a flicker and the flicker itself is actually a migraine trigger. Turn off and remove fluorescent or LED lights if you can and replace them with incandescent or halogen bulbs.
5. GET OUTSIDE
Getting outside to take a break from whatever you’re doing, moving your body a little bit and doing some grounding in the fresh air and sunshine can do wonders for your stress levels, mood, inflammation and headache.
“These simple fixes will address most occasional headaches, however, if you struggle with chronic headaches and migraines, there’s likely a more complex underlying issue which needs to be investigated further and addressed depending on the root cause,” concludes Gray.
