Getting rid of headaches

This Week in the HSI Forum

I have a friend who claims he’s never had a headache in his life. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? There are days when I would gladly trade heads with him. For the rest of us, however, headaches are nuisances that we do our best to cope with. That’s why an HSI Forum thread titled “Neat trick to get rid of a headache” caught my eye.

With a posting titled, “Clear your head of pain,” a member named Jam starts the tread off with this advice: “Next time you have a headache put your hands on your head and breathe deeply, do this for a couple minutes and it will go away.”

Sounds simple enough. But how does it work? After a couple of members ask Jam to explain further, she offers this: “It’s basically just about getting the lymph in your lymphatic vessels to move so that oxygen can get to your cells so that you can heal. You can do this by jumping on a trampoline but an even better way is to do deep breathing. Any deep breathing is fine just try your best to fill your lungs completely, get your chest working and fill up the top part of your lungs for each breath.”

A member named Linda Sue suggests this breathing advice: “When you take those breaths, breathe into the DIAPHRAGM!” But for a more detailed technique on proper breathing, a member named CeeDee offers this: “Lie on your back and place one hand on the upper part of your chest and the other hand on the upper abdomen. Take a deep breath, if the hand on the upper part of your chest moves, you are breathing incorrectly, the hand on the upper abdomen is the one which should rise and fall as you breathe. This is called belly breathing, it inflates the lower part of the lungs, normal shallow breathing only inflates the upper part of the lungs.”

Did you have any idea breathing was so much work? A member named PB&J wonders if he should breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, or vice versa? He says, “If I’m going to deep breathe for 5 minutes, I want to do it correctly.” And according to Jam, he was on the right track with his first choice: “Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth is the best way.”

A few posts later; success! A member named Jeff writes, “It stopped my minor head and neck ache!” But a member named Vernon reports that the technique did nothing to relieve his “blinding migraine headaches.”

In that case, there are a couple of other techniques in this thread that Vernon could try. A member named Bob writes: “Drink 2 glasses of water and add a pinch of sea salt. Relief usually occurs in minutes.” And for a more fragrant method, a member named Annie suggests using peppermint oil: “Just put a few drops on temples, forehead and back of neck. Cures mine within minutes! Also smells good. Peppermint oil also gives an extra boost of energy. When my husband and I were traveling from Conn. to Mo. and were driving long periods of time, peppermint oil kept us from getting drowsy.”

Other topics on the HSI Forum this week include:

• Diabetes, HBP
• Gingko biloba
• Try pepper for that wound
• Ringing in ears
• Need hints on flaxseed
• Restless legs

You can easily reach the Forum on our web site at www.hsionline.com. Just click on “Forum,” and join in with any of the dozens of discussions about nutrition and natural health care.