Typically, the elephant in the room with headaches, is almost always stress. There’s some kind of stress. It’s either physical stress, chemical stress, or emotional stress. Those are very big contributories to all the different types of headaches. Migraines are often related to stress and lack of sleep.
Poor hydration often contributes to headaches which is a very common cause in children a lot of times where they’re really just not drinking water. Other folks will tend to get triggered by caffeinated drinks or sugary beverages, things of that nature. Making sure that you’re hydrated is a great lifestyle change to help make sure that you’re less likely to get those headaches.
The other big contributory factor is people not getting enough sleep. Stress kind of feeds right into that one. When we’re stressed out, we secrete a little more cortisol and adrenaline, which makes it a little bit more difficult to sleep. But people don’t have regular sleep routines. Sometimes they’ll go to sleep really late at night. They’ll go to sleep earlier in the day when they’re tired, they’ll take naps and all these can really disrupt our sleep habits. All the experts out there just talk about how proper sleep, rest, which is really when your body heals, is a great way to make sure that you’re not getting headaches, you’re not getting over tired. So, set yourself up to win by scheduling your sleep and going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time. Not having big meals before you go to sleep will definitely enhance your sleep quality, and that’s also another great way to prevent those types of headaches.
Then obviously avoiding food triggers. Food triggers are caffeine, chocolate, nuts, aged cheeses, things that have a lot of nitrites in them, things of that nature. Also, fast food that is just excessive with salt and artificial sweeteners. All these contribute and there is a lot of research showing how they contribute to headaches. So really learning what you can eat and what you can’t eat and which ones contribute to your headaches are great lifestyle modifications to make sure that you’re not just forcing these headaches on yourself. Regular eating, not skipping meals, especially breakfast, and then stress.
We all overcrowd our schedules. We’re constantly worried about things that don’t happen, and when we are constantly in this fight or flight, our body’s cranking out cortisol and adrenaline. So, finding a way to relax, particularly exercise, yoga, anything that’s going to burn out that cortisol that our bodies are secreting. Regular exercise is a great way to prevent headaches and keep your body chemistry on a nice even keel.
I would say those are the major lifestyle things that we can do. So, it’s really just the basics. Hydrate, get good sleep, avoid the food triggers, don’t skip meals, minimize your stress and watch out for medications and additives and things in our food. Those are the typical things that I like to speak about when we talk about lifestyle.
Seeing a chiropractor and keeping good alignment and less irritation to the spinal nerves, particularly the upper cervical, is a great way to help people with headaches. We see so many people that come in with headaches and stress-related syndromes that just respond beautifully to chiropractic care.
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Dr. Gregg D. Rubinstein, D.C., is a Midtown Manhattan chiropractor with over 30 years of experience providing customized chiropractic treatment services to a wide range of clients in the Midtown Manhattan/West New York City area. Dr. Gregg Rubinstein and 57th Street Chiropractic can be reached at (212) 977-7094 and is located at 119 West 57th St. in New York, NY.
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