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What treatments are available?

This chapter deals with the morę common treatments, sińce these can make a big difference to the health of the majority of people experiencing headaches or migraines.

Medicaland physical approaches

Most remedies for headaches and migraines areąuite simple and have little or no side-effects. In fact, the most common remedies, such as drugs to kill pain, are widely available, even without prescription, In some cases, prescription drugs are necessary, and in a very smali number of cases surgery may be necessary to remove some błockage or obstruction,

Orthodox medicine

The most obvious oforthodoxmedical therapies is thatofanalgesia, Indeed, the first response is usually to deal with the pain, and to consider the causes after that, There are a grea t many painkillers, varying in strength,method ofaction, and toxicity, The three main drugs widely available without prescription are aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen Jn theshort term thesecanbeveryeffective, but ifyour headaches las t morę than a fewdaysyou should stop tak ing them and see your doctor, T his is particularly importa nt becauseyour body can adjust to these drugs in such a way that over a period of time you can actually develop a headache when you stop tak ing them, j ust asyoucandevelop a headachewhen you stop drinking tea or coffee if you normally drink these beverages daily, Sometimes, especially when you are experiencing headaches due to some kind of allergicreaction - including such things as hay fever - your doctor may advise that you take antihistamines. These drugs suppress the immune system and stop your body reacting strongly to the a ller gen (in the case of hay fever,

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