Your daily choices and habits can have a profound effect on how you are feeling and your general level of vitality. Headaches and migraines are among the most common body signals that people deal with, significantly limiting the quality of their lives. There are a lot of things you can do to safeguard yourself from headaches and not let it negatively impact your life.
Here are five simple suggestions that can reduce your experience of migraines and headaches, and improve your health in general.
While they may seem basic, it will take some discipline to apply them on a regular basis in your daily schedule. Let’s have a look.
1. Get Out of Your Chair
Sitting for long periods of time in a fixed posture can contribute to muscle tension and spinal stress. If you have to sit and face a computer for long periods of time, break that pattern by moving around as much and as often as you can.
Stand up, walk around, and stretch at least one time per hour that you spend seated. Maybe take a quick walk around the office or head downstairs to break up the monotony of sitting for long periods of time.
Related Article: 3 Simple Things to Improve Your Work Productivity in Office
2. Say No to Sugar
We all know that eating high quantities of sugar is bad for us for a number of reasons. One consequence of a high-sugar diet that you may not be aware of is sugar’s impact on inflammation inside of you.
Consuming simple sugars regularly can promote an inflammatory state in your body. High levels of inflammation can increase the likelihood that you’ll experience flare-ups of pain, especially migraines and headaches.
Reduce or eliminate your consumption of simple sugars including sweetened beverages (especially diet soft drinks, because they contain artificial sweeteners), rice, bread, cookies, pastries, most packaged snack foods, and pasta.
Feel free to eat healthy carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables in abundance.
3. Take a Break
Prolonged periods of focused mental effort can also lead to mental stress and anxiety, which are leading causes of migraines and headaches. Take frequent breaks from your mental exertion.
If you change your focus from the stressful, difficult thing you are working on to something more positive and soothing, even for a short while, you will feel better as a result.
Your mental focus has a profound effect on your physical state; change your focus and you change your health.
Related Resource: Managing Your Mental Stress
4. Control Your Caffeine
Caffeine speeds up your nervous system and stimulates the stress response system in your brain. Eliminating caffeinated beverages from your diet will help you feel more at ease, relaxed and free, and as a result, reduce the ‘fuel’ for headache flare-ups.
Caffeine can also become addictive and lead to chemical changes in your brain that can be associated with headaches. Caffeinated beverages can also lead to dehydration which can accelerate the onset of headaches.
Many headaches are related to stress and tension and caffeine can put you over the tipping point, causing the flare-up. Try drinking less coffee throughout your day.
5. Hydrate!
Optimal water consumption is one of the most basic habits we can have to promote health and wellness. Drink one to two litres of water every day. Staying hydrated will have a profound, positive effect on how you feel and how you are performing in your life.
Bonus Tip: Your Spine is Critical
Spinal problems can lead to many types of aches, pains, and health challenges. Spinal dysfunction and nerve irritation can cause neck pain, shoulder pain, lower back pain, and certainly headaches.
The most common problematic region of the spine related to headaches and migraines is the upper neck or the upper cervical spine. The upper cervical spine is one of the most important structural regions of your entire body.
Here is a picture of a misaligned upper cervical spine.
This example depicts a physical misalignment of the first and second bones of the upper neck.
This type of problem will irritate the delicate nerves in that region and, in many cases, lead to headaches and migraines.
Through the nerves of this region, the upper neck is related to a number of connected body systems, including your immune system, digestive tract, your hormonal system, as well as the regulation of your energy levels. The upper cervical spine is critically important.
Spinal misalignment is known as subluxation and is a very common condition. The key thing to understand is that a subluxation is a physical misalignment of the spine that can cause nerve irritation.
Doctors of Chiropractic are experts in correcting subluxations.
Get Your Spine Checked!
A comprehensive spinal examination is always the first step in determining if chiropractic is right for you. We have helped thousands of people feel better and function better. Chiropractic just might be the answer you have been looking for.
Schedule a no-obligation spinal checkup to find the cause of your migraine or headache.
Align your spine, maximize your life with chiropractic.
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