Many individuals struggle with headaches on a daily basis. These can range in severity from mildly irritating to debilitating. Unfortunately, despite how common the issue is, doctors don’t understand a lot about it. However, depending on the type of headache you experience, yours may be caused by certain triggers. These triggers can be behavioral or environmental, and figuring out which triggers cause your headaches can take some time. Fortunately, there are some ways to overcome these headaches so that they no longer impact your life.
Visit a Dentist to Treat TMD
Some individuals have a condition called TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder). This disorder affects the joint of your jaw and the muscles that surround the area. While it’s not fully understood what causes this condition, it is sometimes caused by injuries like whiplash. Additionally, it may be caused by things as simple as stress, which causes people to clench their facial muscles.
It’s not uncommon for some individuals to grind their teeth a lot while they are sleeping. This causes them to wake up with a headache. Fortunately, your dentist may be able to treat TMD issues. They may recommend that you wear a bite plate while you sleep or they may prescribe medication, which will be dependent on the cause of your TMD. For example, they may prescribe muscle relaxants or anti-anxiety medication. For serious cases, they may recommend undergoing surgery.
See a Chiropractor to Deal With Tension or Stress
Many people live stressful lives today, and this stress may be the cause of your headaches. Stress is often carried in the muscles, especially those in the neck and shoulders. It’s as if your body is trying to literally carry the weight of your worries. However, it only ends up causing you more pain. This tension in the muscles can lead to a tension headache.
The best way to deal with this stress often includes making certain lifestyle changes. These may be simple changes like getting more sleep or exercising regularly. However, sometimes, changes may need to be more life-changing. You may even need to take a new job or move to a different location in order to escape the stress you’ve been dealing with.
However, there are other options to help combat these kinds of headaches quickly. Seeing a chiropractor may be particularly helpful. They can use a variety of different techniques to relieve tension in the body that’s been caused by stress. By relieving this tension, you may also be able to get rid of your headaches as well. They can also recommend techniques and exercises that help prevent stress from building up in your muscles again.
Talk to Your Doctor to Eliminate Allergies
There are several different ways that allergies cause headaches.
Things like pet dander, pollen, or dust mites can make your allergies act up, causing you to become congested. While this can be miserable enough on its own, for those that have severe congestion, they can develop daily headaches.
Taking allergy medicine can help. There are a variety of different types of medications available such as nasal sprays or cetirizine tablets. Some of these medications can be purchased over-the-counter without the need for a prescription from a doctor. However you may also need to talk to your doctor, especially if you’re having difficulty identifying which allergens trigger your allergies.
Talk to a Nutritionist About Food Sensitivities
Food intolerances or sensitivities can also cause headaches, though this is often less predictable. A food or ingredient that used to cause you no problems at all may suddenly trigger headaches and other problems every time you eat it. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to figure out which food or foods are triggering the headaches.
You can talk to a nutritionist about your diet to figure out which foods cause you the most issues. They may have you keep a food diary for a while. This can help you identify which ingredients are most likely at fault for your headaches. Your nutritionist may also put you on an elimination diet. This type of diet eliminates all likely food triggers from your diet. Slowly, you’ll begin to reincorporate potential food triggers back into your diet until you find which foods or ingredients are causing you problems.
Common trigger foods that cause people problems include sugar, grains, dairy, eggs, citrus, artificial sweeteners like aspartame, and processed foods.
Reduce Screen Time to Eliminate Eye Strain
Excessive screen time causes strain to the eyes and may increase your likelihood of getting headaches. If you spend hours on your phone or computer each day, you may find that they can eliminate daily headaches by reducing their screen time.
However, if you can’t reduce your screen time due to work requirements or other limitations, there are still some things you can do to help reduce eye strain. First, remember to rest your eyes. The 20-20-20 rule recommends taking a break every 20 minutes to look at something at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds. You can also go into your screen settings and adjust the amount of blue light in the display. Finally, if your screens are simply too bright, you can dim them or set them into dark mode.
If you have been dealing with headaches on a daily basis, you aren’t alone. The key to overcoming them is identifying the cause. Once you eliminate these headache triggers, you may be able to get rid of those daily headaches for good.
