HEADACHE: CAUSES, AND ASSORTED CURES
Two aspirins might be the traditional headache treatment, but there are other cures.

Gary Addis
Associate Editor

Gary Addis

Tight delivery schedules. DOT hassles. Equipment breakdowns. The never-ending war in the Middle East. Wasted votes/twice counted votes. A stack of unpaid bills. Family members who can't get along. With all the stress you face on a daily basis, brother and sister, you ought to have a headache!

So how do we treat a headache?

We take two aspirin. Or two Tylenol. Or two Ibuprofen. Too often, though, the standard dosage of an over-the-counter drug is not enough. But while two aspirin may cure your headache, four may eat a hole in your gut--and four may not be enough.

A doctor's prescription might or might not cure your pain. But strong medicines usually cause drowsiness. And for commercial drivers, drowsiness and driving do not mix.

RELIEF IS AT HAND

If you'd rather not pop a pill every time life sits heavy on your shoulders, take matters into your own hands. Try the massage techniques recommended by Elliot Greene, former president of the American Massage Therapy Association.

Start by spreading the fingertips of both hands across the crest of your forehead. Apply enough pressure to manipulate the scalp. "Don't try to plow a furrow in your skull," says Greene. "But don't merely stroke the skin. Your fingertips should be moving, stretching, the scalp itself." After a few seconds, move your fingertips farther back on the scalp and repeat. Continue until you've massaged your entire scalp from front to back, including the area above and around your ears.

Next, grasp a small amount of hair in one hand. Gently lift the hair away from your scalp and lightly twist the skin. By increasing blood flow to the muscles of the scalp, this stimulation helps relieve scalp muscular tension. Repeat until you've covered the whole scalp.

Now massage your temples and forehead, making concentric circles with your fingertips. Rhythmically, "dig" the balls of the first finger of each hand into the bridge of your nose. Press, and release, press and release. Lightly stroke the hollows of your eyes. Repeat these massage techniques for several minutes, or until you feel your headache subsiding. You can also rub the back of your neck. Apply hard pressure to the juncture of the neck and skull.

Finish with a trapezius-to-shoulder rub: With your right hand, lightly squeeze the muscles of your left shoulder and trapezoid for several seconds. Release and squeeze several times. Now massage your right side with your left hand. Breathing deeply and regularly during the entire massage will help you stay relaxed.

Oh, one other area that deserves attention: your feet. That's right, I said feet! When your head starts pounding, lavish some tender, loving care on your aching underpinnings. An established but under-utilized pain remedy employs a one-two punch of heat combined with cold to reduce the pounding in your head.

First, fill a bucket or tub with hot water--as hot as you can stand it--and immerse your feet up to the ankles. This draws blood downward, away from your pounding head. As you're soaking, hold an ice pack or cold cloth to your forehead and temples. I

f your headache derives from sinus congestion, you might try this additional technique: cover your head with a towel, bend over the tub, and breathe the steam rising from the water. Be careful not to burn your tootsies or freeze your face.

NATUROPATHIC REMEDIES

Many doctors who specialize in naturopathic remedies for common ailments of the skin and muscles close to the skin recommend that you lightly flail your neck, shoulders, cheeks and forehead with a peppermint stick. (A stick of raw, unprocessed peppermint, mind you, not a peppermint candy cane, which might make you very attractive to bees.)

If self-flagellation sounds too painful, Los Angeles aroma-therapist Michael Scholes suggests that you add a dollop of pure peppermint oil to a commercial facial moisturizer. Whenever you feel a headache coming on, rub a drop of this aromatic mixture into the skin beneath your nose, and behind your ears. For times when you'd rather not smell like a giant stick of chewing gum, you can inhale the fragrance straight from the bottle.

COFFEE...GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU?

At the first sign of a headache, whip into the next truckstop, café or rest area. Sidle up to the lunch counter, or vending machine, and buy yourself a cup of hot, preferably strong coffee. According to Dr. Vance Warden of Alabama's Pain & Wellness Center, caffeine, a natural ingredient of coffee, hot chocolate and most brands of soft drinks, acts favorably on blood vessels.

Since the primary cause of most headaches is restricted blood flow through the brain or muscles of the scalp (due to muscular tension), anything that increases the flow of oxygen and other nutrients through this tissue is a good thing. In fact, studies show that a cup of coffee or tea will boost the effectiveness of aspirin and other pain relievers by as much as one-third.

PUT IT TO BED

You're a trucker with a tight schedule: you can't always park for the night in the middle of the day. Instead, force your mind to relax. Granted, you have a headache: if you could relax you probably wouldn't have a headache. But buckle down real hard, concentrate, imagine. Imagine that you are an innerspring mattress. That all the muscles in your head and neck are like the tightly coiled springs that put the bounce in your mattress.

Now imagine that all of those springs begin to loosen, to unwind. As they do, the muscles that make up your "springs" will become more relaxed, and your discomfort will gradually decrease. Concentrate on this visualization technique. Perform this exercise for 30 seconds, every hour on the hour.

No, driver, no one is suggesting that you park on the shoulder once every hour. Since this relaxation technique--exercise, if you will--is conducted in the dark recesses of the mind, you can safely continue to drive. Do keep your eyes open, however. And at least one hand on the wheel!

A HEADACHE ON THE MENU?

Your home life is perfect? Your delivery schedule is liberal, and you still make plenty of money? Your uncles and cousins control the DOT of every state you travel in? In other words, your life is stress-free? But you're still burdened by blinding headaches? Perhaps your eating habits are the culprit.

Here's an experiment you can try. The next time you're near a health food store, pick up a bottle of the B vitamin niacin (50-milligrams per tablet of pure niacin, not its less virile form, niacinamide), and swallow two or three tablets on an empty stomach. Within ten minutes you'll being to experience a burning, itching sensation; your skin will begin to flush as blood floods the veins and capillaries closest to the surface.

Okay, now having proved the power of the foods we ingest, I invite you to drink a tall glass of water and your discomfort will subside. A mild headache mill linger for an hour or so, however.

Another naturally occuring headache inducing nutrient is the amino acid tyramine, which triggers the release of enzymes that trigger the release of hormones that dilate blood vessels. To increase water pressure shooting from a hose, what do you do?--you squeeze down on the hose, narrowing its opening, and the resulting high pressure deluge will blast bugs off your windshield.

Obviously, if veins and vessels and thousands of tiny capillaries are made to shrink, blood pressure will rise. Ask my hypertensive wife about the headaches caused by any increase in her already high blood pressure.

Experts agree that the most potent dietary headache activators are manmade. Bacon is loaded with nitrates. Many other processed meats contain, by volume, a higher percentage of preservative chemicals than the ratio of antifreeze-to-water in your radiator. Since these chemical compounds are foreign to the body, they can cause severe allergic reactions, including an excruciating headache.

A scoop of double dutch chocolate ice cream packs a double whammy. Not only is chocolate rich in the amino acid tyramine, but if you're cold-sensitive, each frozen spoonful sends waves of pain directly to your forehead and temples. Other notable dietary sources of tyramine include cheddar and other aged cheese; red wine; scotch and bourbon whiskey; and dark beers.

Although as already mentioned a cup of coffee may ease your headache pain, drinking a pot of this cogent brew can have the opposite effect. As you may already know, a coffee-induced headache is a killer.

BY ANY OTHER NAME, A HEADACHE IS STILL A HEADACHE

TENSION HEADACHE CLAIM TO FAME: The most common type of headache. SYMPTOMS: Feels like a tight band around your head. CAUSE: Tight muscles in the face, neck and scalp, usually caused by stress.

MIGRAINE CLAIM TO FAME: A headache has to be pretty nasty to earn the epithet "migraine." SYMPTOMS: A throbbing pain, usually on one side of the head. Usually accompanied by nausea, vomiting and hypersensitivity to light and sound. CAUSE: Uneven levels of the brain chemical serotonin, which causes the blood vessels in the head to alternately constrict and expand, putting pressure on surrounding nerves, and simultaneously restricting oxygen flow to the tissues. Migraine headache symptoms can be aggravated by the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle.

SINUS HEADACHE SYMPTOMS: Pain around the bridge of your nose, jaws and ears. Usually starts in the morning and gets worse throughout the day. CAUSE: When you have a sinus infection, trapped air and phlegm press against the swollen, tender lining of your sinuses. High altitudes (when you're not used to them) definitely increase the severity of and the frequency of what I call sinus headaches.

According to a staff spokesperson of the National Headache Foundation, however, sinus headaches are surprisingly rare; supposedly, even people suffering from severe sinusitis rarely get headaches from it.

CLUSTER HEADACHE CLAIM TO FAME: The most excruciating of all headaches. SYMPTOMS: A piercing, throbbing, burning pain that bores into one side of the head, around or behind the eyes. Can occur several times each day for weeks or months at a time. CAUSE: Unknown. A STRANGE FACT: About 93 percent of those who get cluster headaches are men. Husbands, does this suggest anything to ya'?