Last night I was hit by a headache after coming home from work. Yeah bummer, just when I had finally found some free time to do whatever I liked, this throbbing pain came along and spoiled the night. Maybe it was due to the hectic day at work, or due to poor quality sleep the night before I don’t know, but no one seems to be 100% sure what exactly triggers a headache or a migraine. So I proceeded to drink a lot of water, but that didn’t seem to help. I guess I wasn’t dehydrated or anything. Then I remembered something that I had read online a while ago… it was an article about hand reflexology, and how massaging certain so-called ‘pressure points’ on your hand could help alleviate a headache. Well, reflexology probably has little scientific basis, and in this day and age, we know that there are no such things as ‘meridians’ or ‘pressure points’. But I thought it couldn’t possibly hurt to try (I mean, I was already hurting anyway!). Call me crazy, but after firmly squeezing the area between my thumb and index finger, the throbbing in my head went away almost instantly. So that stuff seems to work after all… since I don’t think a placebo effect could kick in that quickly. It was totally gone. But here’s the catch, after about the half a minute, the headache slowly crept back in, though not as intense as before. So I lay there on the bed massaging that magic point on both hands whenever the headache started to return. Eventually, I fell asleep, and after a short nap, the headache was only about 10% of what it was originally. Guess I didn’t need the Tylenol this time. Hmm… maybe reflexology isn’t a bunch of BS after all. Perhaps it a case of having the rights moves, but using the wrong reasoning?
Headache Tips:
1) Drink plenty of water (could be dehydration induced)
2) Massage the area of the hand(s) between the thumb and forefinger
3) Massage any tense muscles, esp. of the neck, shoulders, head
4) Dim the lights
5) Lie down and stop moving too much (the throbbing pain coincides with your heartbeats)
6) Take a nap
7) Take an OTC analgesic (e.g. Tylenol, Advil) if it’s bad
8) If nothing works, or if it’s a bad migraine, maybe you need to see a doc
Prevention tips:
1) Sleep well
2) Don’t stress out too much
3) Stay well-hydrated
Tags: curing headache, headache, reflexology, throbbing
