KRIS MADDEN

I suffer from the occasional headache and migraine and yesterday happened to be one of those occasions. I learned that what I had yesterday is considered a TTH, or Tension Type Headache, which is different from a migraine because it occurs bilaterally (both sides of the face).

I tried shielding my eyes from bright light and resting—no good.
I tried meditating and relaxation techniques—no good.
I tried two pills of ibuprofen—no good.
I tried not wearing my glasses and staying away from digital screens—no good.
I also tried standing on my head for several minutes at a time, thinking that a rush of blood to the head and then back out again might flush out whatever it was that was causing the pain. But again—no good.

Then while looking up information on headaches I found that the most common cause of TTH, other than stress, is dehydration. So I filled up my water bottle and chugged 32oz of high quality H2O, and within minutes I could the pain begin to dissipate and a few minutes later and it was completely gone. While I might have given credit to the ibuprofen for the relief, the relief didn’t come until several hours after I had taken the ibuprofen, in contrast to few minutes that relief followed after gulping down a bottle of water.

Consider this a lesson learned that I will be drinking much more water in the future.

On a side-note I also found out that getting too much sleep can cause headaches as well as getting too little sleep. This may account for reason why I tend to have my headaches on Saturday and Monday, because those are the days that I sleep in more, and conversely sleep less when the week starts.

Take care,

Kris Madden