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Are Your Painkillers Causing Your Headache?

What is the first thing you do when you sense an impending headache? Probably rush to your medicine chest and pop a pill automatically. If you are like many Americans, you may even pop a pain relief product occasionally or even routinely, in anticipation of a stressful day or as a preventative measure against a chronic headache.

Whatever the case, pause for a moment and analyze the pattern of your headaches. Have they become more intense lately, requiring more drugs than before? Are they happening more frequently, even daily? If you answered yes, then you may be getting rebound headaches, also known as medication overuse headaches or MOHs.

The effect is similar to what happens when at the slightest hint of a headache, you reach for your cup of coffee because coffee seems to cure your headache. You then become a more frequent coffee drinker, till one day, the situation reaches a point where, if you donnot get your coffee in time, you start getting a headache. With time, the frequency of the headaches increases and so does your requirement for coffee. And the whole vicious cycle continues. Although the caffeine is the culprit here, pain meds work the same way.

What happens is this. When you begin taking pain relief products more often than what the doctor prescribed or the label recommends, your body kind of adapts to the medication. Your system adjusts to the larger, more frequent dosages by becoming less responsive. And the next time you need a larger dose sooner to dull the headache pain. And as you up the dose, the frequency and intensity of your headaches increases, so much so that headaches become a daily phenomenon. You may even wake up with a dull headache that continues throughout the day.

Most people do not realize that over-the-counter pain pills are meant to give quick relief from occasional headaches. They must not to be taken indiscriminately on a regular basis for recurrent headaches because medication overdosing can set off a vicious cycle of rebound headaches. Once the rebound headache cycle has been triggered, the only way to stop it, is to stop taking the drug that triggered it. Period. It sounds simple enough, but is not always easy. Especially in the case of opium drugs, withdrawal must be closely medically supervised, because it is potentially dangerous.

For further rebound headache information, see Total Headache Relief or consult your doctor. Signs you may need medical help with rebound headaches include:

Your headaches get worse
You take migraine or pain relievers regularly or in greater than recommended doses
You get headaches 3 or more times in a week.

The doctor will recommend whether to stop the medication right away or to withdraw it gradually. Your headaches may become worse before they get better because of medication withdrawal symptoms, but if you persist, you can successfully break the rebound cycle.

Rebound headaches are usually accompanied by restlessness and irritability. Although any pain pill can trigger rebound headaches, some are more likely to fuel them than others. Common over-the-counter medications that contribute to rebound headaches are aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, more so if they come in combination with caffeine. Rx drugs containing the sedative butalbital, such as Fiorinal, Fioricet and Esgic, migraine medicines and opium-derived medications are also the culprits. Get the details on your pain reliever here.

Most natural headache remedies focus on prevention and ultimately, headache prevention is worth a pound of any headache cure. With a bit of attention, you can identify and avoid your headache triggers. Yoga, meditation, and other alternative therapies can improve your mental state and help control your stress. Also, making small lifestyle changes like getting sufficient sleep, eating meals in time, exercising regularly and quitting smoking can go a long way in preventing nagging headaches.