Try Natural Headache Relief Instead of Tylenol

Headaches reportedly affect over 50 percent of the world’s population each year. Because of this, properly treating headaches is vital to our overall well-being. However, common analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications may not be the solution to your headache symptoms. In fact, a variety of natural headache relief treatment options exist to better serve your needs.

But why should we use natural remedies instead of standard medications like Tylenol and Advil? For starters, these over-the-counter medicines can induce a variety of potential gastrointestinal side effects, including:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Heartburn

And gastrointestinal issues aren’t the only side effects you have to worry about. In fact, Tylenol and Advil can worsen your headache symptoms, causing increased pain, itchiness, and dizziness. Worst of all, these medications can impair your blood vessels, making them unable to relax. This is a major cause of headache conditions like migraine disorders.

Instead, natural headache relief offers a critical alternative to chemical-laden headache medications. Drink water, use a cold compress, apply essential oils: all of these things, and more, albeit simple, have shown to effectively fight headaches and diminish your symptoms.

Treating Headaches With Natural Remedies

Finding a natural headache relief treatment that works for you is crucial. Headache symptoms can be incapacitating and make living your daily routine impossible. These symptoms may include:

• General Pain
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Photophobia (light sensitivity)
• Tenderness in the Scalp
• Tightness in the Head

With symptoms like that, the act of treating headaches shouldn’t come with symptoms of its own. That’s why it’s important we leave medications like Tylenol and Advil in the past and move forward with better, more natural remedies for headache-related symptoms. Let’s look at some of the best.

Drink Water: It’s That Simple!

It may seem cliche, but drinking water is one of the best natural headache relief treatments available. It’s simple, readily available, and cost-effective, making it ideal for treating headaches.

People who drink water more regularly even perceive less headache-related pain than those who drink less water. In fact, a 2012 clinical trial concluded that about 47% of people with a high water intake will suffer less from recurring headache symptoms like pain and inflammation.

In addition, there are a variety of natural supplements you can add to your water to achieve greater effects. One major cause of headaches – especially tension headaches, the most common form – is the tightening of blood vessels through inflammation. Adding an anti-inflammatory compound like CBD oil to your water allows you to take advantage of these benefits. In this way, CBD oil can loosen these restricted blood vessels, potentially offering natural headache relief in a way that Tylenol just cannot.

If you’re looking for other water-based natural remedies, you can also drink water infused with lemon juice and high-quality sea salt. Lemon juice, squeezed directly from a fresh lemon, boosts hydration and increases your bodily intake of vitamins and minerals. High-quality sea salt, on the other hand, offers a powerful method of natural headache relief. Here’s how:

• Fast salt intake raises serotonin, reducing pain and inflammation in the brain.
• High-quality sea salt contains an excess of magnesium, known to heavily reduce inflammation, unrestricting blood vessels.
• Sea salt can quell a variety of headache symptoms, including nausea, dizziness, photophobia, and more.

Drink water! It’s good for you.

Cold Compress: What Is It & How Does It Help?

A cold compress consists of one main ingredient: ice. By applying ice to the head or specific parts of the face, you can effectively curb headaches without ingesting any medications or supplements. This makes cold compresses an ideal natural headache relief alternative for those wishing to avoid pills, essential oils, or other ingestibles when treating headaches.

In addition, making a cold compress couldn’t be easier. First, you’ll need a “cold” source. Three popular sources include an ice pack, ice cubes in a ziplock bag, or a bag of frozen vegetables, preferably something small like peas or chopped carrots. To create your cold compress, simply:

1. Run a washcloth under cold water.
2. Wrap the damp washcloth around your cold source.
3. Apply to the area of pain. For headaches, apply the compress to the forehead or over the eyes (along the bridge of the nose).
4. Elevate: make sure your head is not resting higher than your heart.

Remember: you never want to apply the cold source directly to the skin, as this can cause other injuries.

Using a cold compress to treat headaches can effectively reduce swelling and inflammation in the blood vessels, diminishing your headache symptoms. Additionally, applying cold sources to the head is known to be relaxing, allowing you to unwind from your headache-related stressors.

Can You Treat Headaches With Essential Oils?

Essential oils can be used for everything from aromatherapy to sleep aid treatment, but did you know that they can also help with headaches and migraines? There are a variety of essential oils that possess anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, making them suitable for naturally treating headaches.

With this in mind, which essential oils should you use for natural headache relief?

• Peppermint Oil: contains natural menthol, which is known to ease pain and can be applied topically to the forehead and temples.
• Rosemary Oil: possesses powerful anti-inflammatory effects and can induce sleep, further helping to relieve headache symptoms.
• Lavender Oil: when used in aromatherapy, evidence suggests that lavender essential oils offer analgesic benefits, which can help with headache-related pain.
• Chamomile Oil: used primarily for bodily relaxation, which can ease the severity of headaches and reduce anxiety, a common cause of headaches.
• Eucalyptus Oil: used to treat sinus headaches because it reduces sinus irritation and blockage, primarily caused by sickness.

Use Natural Remedies to Treat Your Headaches

Over-the-counter medications like Tylenol and Advil may offer immediate relief from headaches, but at what cost? Switching to natural headache relief treatments provides an opportunity to treat headaches without the daunting side effects. Increase your health and wellness with natural remedies. Drink water, make a cold compress, apply essential oils: these things can provide powerful headache relief with none of the upsetting side effects, allowing you to achieve increased well-being.