Are your painkillers giving you headaches?
The pills people take to relieve headaches and migraines may be making things much worse, according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice). As many as one in 50 people suffer continual headaches because of “medication overuse”, Nice reports. The problem begins with taking the odd painkiller for tension headaches or migraines, which usually works. But some people take the pills more and more often, until they are on tablets for more than half the days in a month. Nice says that if this goes on for more than three months the medication ends up causing the problem it is intended to cure.
So what alternatives are there to continually popping pills? Many headaches are due to tensions in the neck and shoulders, bad posture or prolonged desk work or driving . For some people simply an inability to relax can cause their pain. Both Osteopathy and Acupuncture have been shown to often help with tension headaches and neck related head pain. Take a look at our head and neck pages for more advice on neck related problems or contact us for a chat about whether these options might be suitable in your case.