Are you part of the 45 million Americans who experience frequent headaches? Or the 18 million who have frequent migraines? Tired of your aspirin? Or worse it’s not helping anymore? We all get headaches from time to time. For men it’s generally when the mother-in-law comes by and for women its either the boss or the kids. But a nagging headache can drive you up the wall literally.

So what causes headaches? There are many reasons but let’s take a look at the common headache. There are so many cause of headaches that it would be next to impossible to list them all but I am assure we are aware that stress and sinus pressure are some of the leading causes. But what about the other causes we are not familiar with? Things like lack of water, dairy, pollution and yes nutritional deficiencies? Yes all these are major causes of headaches especially in the metropolitan areas.

Let’s take a look at water. 75% of our body consists of water (might be good to think about that next time before downing that Mountain Dew®). When the body does not have enough water to replace that which was lost either by sweating, crying, urination and other daily tasks the specific organs suffer, and those to suffer the most are the heart, liver, kidney and brain. The brain alone requires 25% of the oxygen breathed into the body. It also requires a large amount of water for different purposes including its personal “hot tub”. When there is not enough water surrounding the brain it can easily touch the skull causing slight pains that can get severe if not dealt with.

Another cause is pollution. In fact pollution is responsible for a lot more than just respiratory problems. It has been linked to things such as diabetes and cancer. When the air is much polluted and it is breathed in by the lungs, needless to say that pollution is collected by a lot of organs who were not supposed to deal with it, one of these being the brain. In some cases the sole cause of headaches is a polluted environment.

Dairy products are another big factor. In fact the main causes of migraines are dairy products. Dr. Mylek D among other physicians have recorded that among the top three causes for patients migraines dairy were dairy products.
Those who miss their morning coffee may want to check out if that might be a factor. Headaches (which should not be surprising) can be withdrawal symptoms from every day drugs like coffee and tobacco to more deadly ones like alcohol and narcotics.

The best solution is to find the main cause of the headache. Generally if that headache is coupled with constipation this means the person is not drinking enough water. This means put down the Sprite® and start drinking some water. Try and get your daily amount and if you do manual labor a couple more glasses won’t do you any harm.

Kiss stress dairy goodbye. You can live without your cream cheese and I’m sure there are enough substitutes out there that your body will rather. Pollution is also a big factor. For some this might mean getting more fresh air than they currently are. And since stress is probably the single biggest factor in headaches you already know what to do. Remember “stress is our reaction to stressors” as one doctor put it.

This along with a helpful diet should do the trick. It’s not as easy as popping a Tylenol or Aspirin but it’s a lot better in the long run and it won’t put a damp on your pocket.