Fit For Health Guide

July 18, 2008

Caffeine and Headaches

Filed under: Pain Relief — Guest Post @ 5:13 pm

Caffeine is one of the most common drugs in our culture, and one that everyone seems to get a little of once in a while. Occurring naturally in a number of foods from coffee to chocolate, caffeine is a stimulant that’s legal and unrestricted in purchase, which is a rare thing indeed in the world of drugs.

Caffeine and headaches have often been linked as a result of withdrawal symptoms from the drug, but it also can be beneficial when suffering from a headache. A little information will help you to understand how caffeine and headaches are linked.

As a Cause

As mentioned, caffeine and headaches are often linked together due to one of the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. You actually have to take a lot of caffeine in for headaches to start as a result of withdrawal, usually about as much as five cups of coffee a day.

Some people, though, will experience these headaches with less caffeine ingested over a longer period of use. It is interesting to note to the sufferers of caffeine withdrawal should note that this drug is unique in that it’s difficult to overuse this drug, and the symptoms of this withdrawal are much less severe than with other drugs.

To avoid caffeine withdrawal headaches, you can either try to slowly ease the use of products with caffeine in them. The former works well if you’re attempting to keep that pain from happening, but some people prefer to quit cold turkey and just get the headaches over with quickly, sort of like removing an adhesive bandage quickly.

As Headache Relief

Caffeine can be used as headache relief as well, however. One property of caffeine in headache medicines is that it helps them to work better, naturally complementing the effect of analgesics. That is why some painkillers, such as Excedrin, contain caffeine.

One of the benefits of taking painkillers with caffeine for headaches is that due to the synergy between caffeine and the drug, you don’t need to take quite as much, which is always a benefit.

One thing to note is that caffeine is also a trigger for some people with migraines, meaning that taking caffeine will give headaches to some people, and as such, should be avoided as preventative medicine.

Migraine sufferers should avoid coffee, chocolate, and even the painkillers with caffeine so they don’t risk further headaches. The link between caffeine and headaches is certainly unique, as it can be a cause, or help with a cure.

About The Author:

Ann Marier writes informative articles about family life and general health issues, Her lastest are about how to stop snoring. Click on http://www.headache.ultimatehealthinfo.com to read all the headache articles

July 7, 2008

Lower Back Pain Relief

Filed under: Pain Relief — Guest Post @ 10:05 am

Lower back pain caused by muscle spasms, muscle sprains, slipped disks, sprained ligaments or joint problems is something that most of us will experience at some point in our lives. Usually it occurs when you have preformed a strenuous activity like gardening, sports, heavy lifting or other activities that your back is not used doing. You need to remember that relief of lower back pain is possible, you only need to know how.

Exercise To Prevent Lower Back Pain

If you frequently have lower back pains you need to prevent this by doing exercises, the moment you are experiencing lower back pain, relief is all you can think about, the key is to think about it when your back isn’t killing you because the last thing you want to do when you have pain is to exercise. However there really are some exercises that can help you relieve pain in your lower back. The most effective one is to lay flat on your back with your knees bent in a 90 degrees angle or with your knees bent over the seat from a chair. Try to relax your back, than raise your left knee, very slowly, to your chest, wile you press your lower back to the floor. Keep this up for about ten seconds and repeat it with your right leg. You should do this exercise about ten times, 3 times a day, when you experience lower back pain to relieve it.

Rest Is Not The best Remedy

The natural reaction to relieve lower back pain is to take rest and to move as little as possible, that is fine if you do that for one or at maximum two days. After that you should start moving, if you take too much rest, it can stiffen your muscles, and make them hurt even more. So, it is really important that you try walking around for at least a couple of minutes every hour and rest in between. The best way to let your back rest is to take the weight and pressure off, by lying flat (on the floor) with a pile of pillows under your knees or the seat of a chair under your feet.

Options for a quick fix

There are days that you just can’t do the mixture of taking rest and do the exercises, and however painful it can be, there are some quick relief options. There are heating pads that can help you with muscle spasms to relax, and there are ice packs for joint problems and slipped disks. You can also get a back massage, from a professional or a friend with massage equipment. There are also many product these days in the form of wraps or ointments to purchase that can help you to quickly relieve your lower back pain.

And last but not least there are non prescription medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, and many other pain relievers that should meet your needs. When you have lower back pain very often or it remains longer than two weeks, you should make an appointment with your family doctor.

About The Author:

Richard Collins knows about back pain first hand. He has seen all kinds of doctors and done all kinds of therapies. On his blog at http://www.gottabackpain.com he talks about what can be done to alleviate the pain.

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