Olidhealth.com – Generally, Headache is a common disorder that everyone may experience at least once in their lifetime. Despite that, Some headache symptoms could have different severity for each individual. Moreover, The cause of headaches is related to nerve disorder, but sometimes it is also linked to other diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. If you get this disorder, there is a quick step to get rid of a sudden headache such as getting a nap, inhaling essential oil, or taking some over-the-counter headache medication if necessary. Read this article to get the information about how to get rid of headaches quickly.
What Is a Headache In General?
In General, a headache is a pain in the head that specific nerve functions have been disturbed. It is hard to get a correct early diagnosis about headaches but it can be differed by where place the pain appears and how frequently it happens [1]. In medical terms, there are many types of headaches (over 100 types of it), though we simply enough to know about common headaches such as:
- Migraine (One side headache or both sides with mild-to-severe pain intensity)
- Tension-type headache (Pressured headache with low-to-mid pain intensity)
- Cluster headache (Continually headache with severe intensity and long pain duration)
- Secondary headache (uncommon headache that caused by disease, infection, or medication)
Headache can be affected for every person regarding age and gender. Knowing its symptom could make the right decision to get rid of the headache quickly.
What Causes a Sudden Headache to Happen?
Every individual may have a personal trigger to sudden headaches, but commonly it couldn’t be sure. Several conditions like chemical exposure or sudden blood sugar spike may initiate headaches. Moreover, headaches also happen if you mistreat medication for another disease [2]. There are several causes that headaches could occur.
- Trauma in the head or head injury
- Having anemia or blood loss
- Allergen or chemical exposure
- Second-hand smoke
- Eating food that spike blood sugar or blood pressure
- Alcohol misuse
- Sudden noise or flashing light
- Repeatedly have bad posture during activity
- Sudden mood change caused by depression, etc
How To Get Rid Of Headaches Quickly
Imagine if you have an important task to do and you get a headache. You may be frustrated at the moment to think about how to eliminate headaches. Moreover, sudden headaches may occur repeatedly if you don’t get proper early treatment. Some of these quick steps may help you to get rid of it.
Try To Napping or Sleep
Little napping between your work time is alright if you get overwhelmed by workload and get persistent headaches. If you get a sudden headache, close your eye and clear your mind to get some space. Napping on the desk is an optional way to get rid of headaches but bed posture may make it worse.
If there is an infirmary in your workplace, you can help your headache by lying down for a moment to relieve tension. Consuming herbal tea may help you to relax your mind and induce sleepiness. Besides, Sleep deprivation also causes severe headaches during the day. Getting enough sleep and maintaining proper sleep could prevent headaches to relapse on the other day.
Tuck Off Any Pressure On Your Head
Quickly remove any pressure accessory on your head if you get a sudden headache. Tension-type headaches may occur because of that. Too long muscle tension on the hair because of the tight knot with a scrunchie or wearing a tight headband also causes sudden headaches.
In rare cases, wearing a hat or glasses with a fastener may occurring headaches. Give some light massage after wearing off these items and if possible lay down in a supine position to ease blood regulation within the head.
Light Massage To Relieve Tension
Some light massage on the head, upper neck, or shoulder in the lower neck may relieve headache at the moment. Pressuring in your forehead and moving it along the scalp up to your back head for releasing tension in your head. This attempt is also good to smoothen blood flow and induce hormones to reduce the stress that affects your body.
Cooling Your Head and Body
Sudden migraine could be handled by compressing with a cold pack or ice in a towel. Put it to your forehead or back upper neck periodically for at least 10 min. The cold temperature could damper your sensitivity, negate the pain, and relieve the migraine. This kind of treatment is reported in 2013 and help an individual who has regular migraine symptom [3].
Use Hot Or Warm Pack
Besides the cooling pack, compressing with a hot or warm towel could alleviate headaches, especially tension-type. The warm temperature could improve blood flow, calm nerves, and reduce headache pain. If you have leisure time, taking a warm shower may prevent tension headaches from relapsing.
Drink Water To Stay Hydrated
Drinking some water in an early sudden headache may help you to prevent it from escalating since dehydration could worsen the headache. Moreover, Dehydration is also one of the migraine causes. Low water intake (less than 1 liter a day) could lead to water deprivation and cause severe migraine as well as secondary headaches [4]. Regularly take adequate water to prevent headaches to relapse.
Limit Light Exposure
Some people may have sudden headaches if too much light exposure. Moreover, flickering light also makes you have sudden dizziness and doesn’t good for people migraine [5]. To treat this quickly, all you can do is reduce its exposure and go to the low-light room. Let your eye rest a bit and calm your mood. furthermore, using stuff to block light sources is fine as long as it is not hampering your activity such as sunglasses.
Taking Over-the-counter Headache Medication
Consuming over-the-counter (OTC) headache medication is an alternative option to get rid of headaches quickly. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin are common medications that could relieve tension headaches [1]. Moreover, It’s not necessary to take this medication for mild headaches since it could be gone naturally. However, mild-to-severe headaches like migraine may need extra medication.
Prescription medications may need in migraine such as triptan-type medication. Furthermore, some people who have frequently taken OTC medicine may have resistance effects for headaches and tend to take a higher dose. Consuming it too much doesn’t help at all and could make it worsen. Consider using the medication in regular uses.
Caffeine Food To Relieve Headache
Sipping some coffee or caffeinated tea like black tea may reduce headache symptoms. However, its effect may have pros and cons to treat headaches. A study in 2017 found that caffeine is a good analgesic food and improves other medication effects to relieve migraine [6].
The cons are could worsen headaches in some cases. People who have regularly consumed a high amount of caffeine drink may doesn’t have any effect to drink this, but stopping caffeine consumption makes their headache aggravated. You should take some consideration for consuming this drink moderately to get rid of your headache.
Eat Chocolate As Pain Relieve
Consuming chocolate after getting a headache may relieve it for a moment since chocolate also has caffeine on it. Take the dark chocolate with little sugar addition is better than sweetener chocolate because it could trigger severe headache by blood sugar spikes. There are also many considerations about the effectiveness of chocolate for reducing headaches. Chocolate contains magnesium and various vitamin that are good for migraine, but in a small case, it also elevates the risk of migraine, based on research in 2020 [7]. If you have tolerant of this food, consume dark chocolate to treat sudden headaches.
Essential Oil For Sudden Headache Treatment
Eucalyptus and lavender oil is the best essential oil to get rid of sudden headaches because of their aromatherapy effect. Lavender is rich in antimicrobial and is used to treat insomnia as an analgesic medication. Research in 2012 found that applying lavender oil and inhaling it could relieve migraine [8]. Moreover, Eucalyptus mixed with peppermint oil also have the benefit for ease headaches by applying it to the forehead. It could enhance blood flow and relax muscle and mind [9].
However, this treatment is not good for individuals with asthma and allergy since they are sensitive to scents and fumes. Be sure to know how to apply this essential oil for treating your headache.
Conclusion
A sudden headache could occur in some people who have the condition. How to get rid of it is depend on its type of headache. Tension headache could be treated by compressing some warm towels, drinking water, and massage on the head. While migraine is a severe headache that may need OTC medicine or go herbal with essential oil. Sometimes, headaches could relapse periodically. Keep your body with physical activity that may help prevent it in later days.
Reference
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590146/ – Headache in general and how to treat it with medication.
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1124385/ – Type of headache and causes.
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3727573/ – Cooling neck method for treating headache and migraine.
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8280611/ – Relation of drinking water and headache symptom.
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3571449/ – Flickering light could worsen migraine symptoms.
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5655397/ – Benefit of caffeine for headache treatment.
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146545/ – Study about chocolate to treat or trigger migraine.
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22517298/ – Lavender oil for treating acute migraine.
[9] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23196150/ – Essential oil like eucalyptus and peppermint oil to treat headaches.