Rebound Headaches--A Personal Story

I want to talk about a personal story today. The story of a person who suffered from one long rebound headache. This person was my mother. My mom had headaches periodically throughout her life, like many of us do. When she turned about 40, they started increasing. At the same time, her usage of over-the-counter headache medication started increasing too. She used several different brands so I don't think it's fair to pick on any on in particular here. Maybe I should just pick on them in general. She also like her Chinese food that was loaded with MSG.

As can be expected, as her increase in these so-called medications increased, so did her headaches. Was this a coincidence. I don't think so. She got to the point where she was taking two at a time, every day, and sometimes more than once a day.

Two questions are critical at this point. Were these medications that she was taking leading to analgesic rebound headaches? Were all of these medications really decreasing the amount of migraine headaches she received? The way she suffered nearly every single day for the last 15 years of her life show me without a doubt that she was suffering terribly from the rebound headache syndrome.

But what about migraines, if she only had small headaches that didn't bother her much were they not worth it? If the headaches were only small, I would tend to agree. The issue was they were not only small, insignificant little blimps on the radar screen. Sure, she would have a small headache every day, but just about every week she would have a migraine. And sometimes they would last 2-4 days.

When a person gets deeply the rebound headache cycle, they come to fear migraine headaches so bad that they will do nearly anything to avoid them. The common medications do appear to alleviate migraines. Sometimes they do (for a period of time), but not always. When a person gets in the cycle bad enough I don't think they do anything to help. They cause more harm than a person who rarely or never has headaches can ever imagine

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What's the solution? We have to stop taking the drugs. A good exercise program , being careful what you eat and drink and a good nutritional supplement can do wonders to combat headaches.

Here's to Feeling Outstanding!