Helpful things to prevent headaches and migraines include:
1. Stop smoking.
2. Come off the Pill.
3. Stop drinking tea and coffee.
4. Cut out alcohol.
5. Stop eating sugar.
6. Cut out tyramine-containing foods such as chocolates, yeast extracts and yeast products, liver, sausages, broad beans, pickled herrings and cheese.
7. Cut out histamine-containing foods such as sauerkraut, salami and sausage meat.
8. Don’t eat oranges-they contain substances that can precipitate migraines in some people.
9. Avoid foods containing additives such as tartrazine, benzoates and sodium glutamate.
10. Avoid wheat-containing and milk-containing foods.
• Noise and annoying surroundings can also cause headaches.
• True migraine can often not be prevented, unfortunately, as many sufferers know. Look through the triggering factors above and see if you can avoid at least some of them in your life.
• If during the summer months or in hot environments you tend to get headaches, be sure to drink more watery fluids. Aim to keep your urine pale yellow.
• Cluster headaches may be helped by anti-migraine medications. See your doctor.
• The answer to tension headaches is to learn how to relax.
• Hangovers can be prevented by following this list of tips. Drink a pint of water or other non-alcoholic drinks for every two pints of beer or two ‘shorts’ you take. Take an antacid in the morning to settle your stomach. Take 1 g vitamin Ñ with the water you drink last thing at night-the vitamin will help your liver to cope with detoxifying the alcohol. Take a simple pain-killer if you have to. Don’t mix drinks. Don’t drink alcohol to cure a hangover (‘hair of the dog’) because this only makes the final effects worse.
• Avoid foods that give you headaches.
• Have your eyes checked by a good optician just in case poor eyesight could be giving you tension headaches.
• Have your blood pressure checked if you are over 40 and have repeated headaches for which you can find no explanation.
• Massage your scalp. A US researcher has found that he can prevent headaches by a special hair-brushing technique. It involves massaging the scalp, which could, of course, be done with one’s fingers, but he found better results using a hairbrush. Use a natural brush which is stiff but not as rigid as a typical hairbrush. Synthetic bristles are too sharp when moved across the skin. Ideally the brush should be one that can be held in the hand comfortably. When buying a suitable brush use it on the skin on the back of your hand to test it. Move it in small circles to make the skin move but not so as to cause an abrasion or irritation to the skin.
The next thing, having found a good brush, is to make the scalp massage a regular part of your everyday routine, spending 90 seconds on it, morning and night. Starting at the temple just above the eyebrow, press the brush against the skin and rotate it in small circles so that the upper part of the circle goes towards the back of your head. Move up the skull with each pass from front to back of your head so that after three circles you are at the top of the head. Continue these small circles all over the scalp right down to the hair line.
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