Taking in too much caffeine has been found to cause migraines. On the other hand taking in just enough caffeine has been found to successfully prevent migraines. What's the deal?

Caffeine withdrawal is the primary cause of caffeine-related migraines. Therefore, using caffeine as a preventative method in migraine relief can be done in two ways. The first is the easiest, and paradoxically also the most difficult. Simply limit your ingestion of caffeine to zero. No caffeine, no caffeine withdrawal. Get it? The second method involves a little work, but it does work. All that is required is to take in enough caffeine over intervals that occur close enough together to ensure that you don't go into withdrawal. Both methods have their advantages and their disadvantages, both require certain sacrifices, but more importantly both work to keep caffeine withdrawal at bay which keeps migraines at bay.

You would think that complete abstinence from caffeine would thoroughly rid yourself of migraine headaches. And yet this is not always the case. In theory, it works just fine, but as a relief program it suffers the same fate as sexual abstinence: Not everybody is capable of sticking with the program; the urges are just too strong to deny. Another problem is that the all too easy intake of caffeine without realizing you are doing it. Complete and total caffeine abstinence requires educating yourself on all available sources of caffeine. It's not nearly enough just to give up coffee and Mountain Dew. In order to successfully avoid caffeine you have to be aware of all the sources of caffeine. If you are going to take the route of giving up caffeine altogether, for instance, you'll have to be prepared to give up or use alternative non-caffeinated versions of: tea, chocolate, liqueur, pudding, pain-relief medications, energy drinks, diet pills, stay-away pills.

So perhaps, then, the route of maintaining caffeine intake appeals to you. The advantage here is that you don't have to print out a twenty-page list of all the products in the world that contains caffeine. You just merely need exert control over when you take in caffeine and how much you ingest. Once you establish that control, however, you can practically kiss your migraine goodbye.

This method involves the process of making sure you receive doses of caffeine It works best if you set out a pattern whereby you can intake the caffeine at regular intervals. Now don't get all excited about stopping by Starbucks throughout the day or going to the coffeemaker. Coffee and tea rely on caffeine infusion methods and therefore aren't the best method of ingestion in this particular method. Because of the diffusion, your caffeine amount varies significantly from cup to cup. Ideally, you should purchase either caffeine tablets or soda. Using these gives you much more precision over controlling the amount of caffeine you are actually taking in.

You can find caffeine tablets that contain 100 mg or 200 mg per dose. Save yourself a little money by purchasing generic rather than brand name tablets. As for soda, the amount of caffeine varies somewhat with Mountain Dew on the high end, though if you want to take the trouble to search them out you can also find higher-dosage soft drinks specifically designed to you a jolt. For instance, Jolt Cola!

The following caffeine amounts are found in 12oz servings of these soft drinks:

Mountain Dew: 55 mg of caffeine.

Coca-Cola: 34 mg of caffeine

Diet Coke: 45 mg of caffeine

Pepsi Cola: 38 mg of caffeine

Once you have decided how you are going to go about ingesting the caffeine, the next thing to do is make sure you keep a detailed journal of your dosing. Keep an accurate record of the date and time you take the dose, the amount of the dose, how you ingested the dose (tablet, soft drink, medication, etc.), the time of dose and the amount of dose, etc. Also note any headaches you get and be sure to include such information as date, duration of headache, severity, etc. If you don't see a change immediately, try altering it a little by either changing the times you ingest the caffeine or the amount. And make sure you keep to the regimen once you've found one that words.

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Taking in too much caffeine has been found to cause migraines.   On the other hand taking in just enough caffeine has been found to successfully prevent migraines.  What’s the deal?

Caffeine withdrawal is the primary cause of caffeine-related migraines.  Therefore, using caffeine as a preventative method in migraine relief can be done in two ways.  The first is the easiest, and paradoxically also the most difficult.   Simply limit your ingestion of caffeine to zero.  No caffeine, no caffeine withdrawal.  Get it?  The second method involves a little work, but it does work.  All that is required is to take in enough caffeine over intervals that occur close enough together to ensure that you don’t go into withdrawal.  Both methods have their advantages and their disadvantages, both require certain sacrifices, but more importantly both work to keep caffeine withdrawal at bay which keeps migraines at bay. 

You would think that complete abstinence from caffeine would thoroughly rid yourself of migraine headaches.  And yet this is not always the case.  In theory, it works just fine, but as a relief program it suffers the same fate as sexual abstinence: Not everybody is capable of sticking with the program; the urges are just too strong to deny.   Another problem is that the all too easy intake of caffeine without realizing you are doing it.    Complete and total caffeine abstinence requires educating yourself on all available sources of caffeine.  It’s not nearly enough just to give up coffee and Mountain Dew.  In order to successfully avoid caffeine you have to be aware of all the sources of caffeine.  If you are going to take the route of giving up caffeine altogether, for instance, you’ll have to be prepared to give up or use alternative non-caffeinated versions of: tea, chocolate, liqueur, pudding, pain-relief medications, energy drinks, diet pills, stay-away pills.

So perhaps, then, the route of maintaining caffeine intake appeals to you.  The advantage here is that you don’t have to print out a twenty-page list of all the products in the world that contains caffeine.  You just merely need exert control over when you take in caffeine and how much you ingest.  Once you establish that control, however, you can practically kiss your migraine goodbye.  

This method involves the process of making sure you receive doses of caffeine  It works best if you set out a pattern whereby you can intake the caffeine at regular intervals.  Now don’t get all excited about stopping by Starbucks throughout the day or going to the coffeemaker.  Coffee and tea rely on caffeine infusion methods and therefore aren’t the best method of ingestion in this particular method.  Because of the diffusion, your caffeine amount varies significantly from cup to cup.   Ideally, you should purchase either caffeine tablets or soda.  Using these gives you much more precision over controlling the amount of caffeine you are actually taking in.

You can find caffeine tablets that contain 100 mg or 200 mg per dose.   Save yourself a little money by purchasing generic rather than brand name tablets.   As for soda, the amount of caffeine varies somewhat with Mountain Dew on the high end, though if you want to take the trouble to search them out you can also find higher-dosage soft drinks specifically designed to you a jolt.  For instance, Jolt Cola! 

The following caffeine amounts are found in 12oz servings of these soft drinks:

Mountain Dew: 55 mg of caffeine.

Coca-Cola: 34 mg of caffeine

Diet Coke: 45 mg of caffeine

Pepsi Cola: 38 mg of caffeine

Once you have decided how you are going to go about ingesting the caffeine, the next thing to do is make sure you keep a detailed journal of your dosing.  Keep an accurate record of the date and time you take the dose, the amount of the dose, how you ingested the dose (tablet, soft drink, medication, etc.), the time of dose and the amount of dose, etc. Also note any headaches you get and be sure to include such information as date, duration of headache, severity, etc. If you don’t see a change immediately, try altering it a little by either changing the times you ingest the caffeine or the amount.  And make sure you keep to the regimen once you’ve found one that words.

Your child brings home a report card filled with low marks. Your dog just bit your neighbor, and the sink in the kitchen no longer works. You feel you’re under major stress. As a result, you find yourself tossing and turning at night, unable to get a good night’s sleep. This is truly unfortunate, because sleep can re-charge a person’s batteries, enabling him or her to better tackle the stressors that come along the road.

Stress-induced insomnia can take a variety of forms. For instance, you may have difficulty falling asleep in the first place. Or you may wake up hours earlier than you should. You may find yourself waking up several times during the middle of the night. Or you may even find that you feel tired when you wake up in the morning because you didn’t get good quality sleep.

One important point to remember is that you are not alone. Just about everyone suffers from lack of sleep at some point in life. That said, dealing with insomnia can be exhausting. You might feel run down during the day and have difficulty concentrating. You may turn to coffee in order to keep awake during the daylight hours, which can lead to a feeling of restlessness. You may even try taking a nap in the mid-morning or late afternoon, only to find that you have difficulty sleeping again at night.

While old age, depression, and substance abuse can all lead to insomnia, it might be said that the number one cause is stress. If your insomnia persists for a week, you should contact your doctor. He or she may prescribe medication to enable you to get to sleep more quickly. But you should be aware that there are other techniques you can use to deal with stress-related insomnia.

To begin with, try to determine the root cause of your stress. This might be your job, your home life, or even some of your recreational activities. Next, determine whether you are overscheduled. By eliminating some of your commitments, you might be able to seriously reduce your stress level. Then, do some problem-solving. How can you make a stressful situation better? It could involve engaging in positive thinking, changing your attitude about the situation, or coming up with solutions to resolve the situation.

There are also some concrete steps you can take to improve your sleep. For instance, make sure that your bedroom is conducive to sleep. This means finding the most comfortable bedding available, decorating your room with soft, subtle colors, and eliminating clutter or other signs of work in progress.

In addition, condition yourself to associate your bed with sleep. This means resisting the temptation to do work in bed, or study for your classes while lying down. You should even try to avoid watching TV programs in bed. The idea here is to eliminate stimulants from your sleeping area which could prevent you from falling asleep. If you like to read in bed, make sure that you read only fun, pleasurable books, not significant tomes that could keep you up at night.

One other helpful tip is to set up a regular routine prior to going to bed. It may involve taking a bath or shower to relax you or drinking some milk right before settling down to sleep. Also, try to get up at the same time every morning so that you are following an established schedule. In addition, make sure that you do not engage in drinking beverages with caffeine or alcoholic drinks after dinner.

Insomnia is one of the most dangerous side-effects of stress. It can rob you of your energy, strength, and endurance. It can make the simplest tasks difficult to handle during the course of the day. And it can even lead to major depression. If you find yourself having trouble getting to sleep at night, take immediate action. Don’t wait for your body to feel the stress of night after night of sleeplessness. The more proactive you are, the greater the likelihood that you’ll be able to combat insomnia, as well as the stress that goes with it. Refreshed and renewed, you’ll be able to take on the challenges that come your way, once you’ve gotten enough sleep.

When we are mad, we are consuming our energy and time on negative forces that may or may not prove results. Anger is an emotion that we all have and when we use anger to our advantage, it often takes us further than blowing up in an uproar. Anger that strikes, hits, punches, curses, assaults emotions and so forth are negative anger that causes more problems. Dealing with emotions and anger is never easy when we have probable cause to become ignited. When others hurt our feelings, attack our intellect, and take advantage of us it can upset anyone. We are facing problems that include, anger, prejudice, mental illnesses, substance abuse and crime everyday. However, negative anger can only hurt and rarely help anyone. For example, we can look back on September 11 when a group of men acting out on anger affected the entire world. Instead of resolving their problems, they added more problems to everyone’s life. See when you expose uncontrolled anger you are not only hurting your self you are hurting other people. Anger is increasingly causing more problems for our entire world. Since we are dealing with terrorist, serial murders, child and spouse abuse and other types of violence, we know that the world is heading for disaster unless someone comes up with the master plan to deal with all the anger surfacing the earth. We can see anger has interrupted many lives and continues as we engage in wars. We have professional leaders that are unable to deal with anger since when a problem occurs violence is the ultimate result. Looking back at September 11, we can see that anger played a large role on both sides. The terrorist from another country was mad and acted on their anger taking revenge and all this was based on a belief. The American government retaliated and now we are still fighting almost six years later and little was resolved. What if the leaders were able to negotiate and talk out their problems with each other? If both sides would have shown more responsible and maturity anger would not have caused the many problems it did in this event. We can ask is there a way that the problem could have been dealt with. Yes, there probably was, but anger took control. We can also look back in history and review the other wars that plagued our system. The wars always affect us all in some way. The anger that is issued by one party or group played a large role in everyone’s life. It affects the economy, the environment, parents, teachers, children and anyone that is touched by anger. If we are going to get ahead in life, we have to find a way that deals with anger on all individualities. Anger is a sign of mental illness, substance abuse and common society. Some of us act out violently while others of us find a more suitable way to deal with our problems. If we use anger positively we are sure to have a much more productive life. In a way, we all rely on each other whether it is directly or indirectly. If you have a problem with anger, there are anger management classes to rely on, or mental health experts waiting to help you deal with your anger. If you have substance abuse issues that contribute to anger then alcohol and drug classes are free of charge to help you learn how to deal with your stress and anger. The people that attend most these meetings have their own problems and have found a way to deal with them more effectively. Anger rules the world at this point since we are all touched by the violence that plagues our system, but if we all take the first step to dealing with our emotions and anger then our lives will benefit us all. If you know someone that is dealing with anger show the person some patients and help him or her find the help they need before it is too late. Remember negative anger consumes our time, burns our energy and often wastes our money.

Many people with migraines go for years without being properly diagnosed because they continue their erroneous assumption that what they are experiencing is merely a common sinus headache. One study found that a whopping 97% of people who described their headaches as sinus headaches were actually experiencing symptoms associated with migraines. The problem is that the symptoms of migraine headaches and sinus headaches often overlap, leading to confusion that can be very serious if your migraine goes undiagnosed. One reason behind this confusion may lie in the fact that the same nerves that carry migraine pain also travel to the sinuses. Pain in the sinuses, face or around the eyes can be felt during a migraine on one or both sides of the head. In addition, the nerves that cause stuffy or runny nose and watery eyes can be also be activated during a migraine.

Sinus headaches

Sinus headaches usually result from a sinus infection or allergies, or else follow hard upon the heels of a cold or the flu. The cause of sinus headaches are an inflammation of the sinus passages, which are the air cavities located behind and above your nose. The increased pressure that results from the closing of infection of the sinuses is what causes the headache. The pain is involved with a sinus headache can be quite severe and last for an extended period of time. They tend to begin in the morning after waking.

The usual treatment for sinus headaches is antibiotics but physicians are beginning to question the validity of this approach because of the building up of resistance to the drug when it taken repeatedly. Common sinus headache symptoms include pain and pressure around the eyes, an ache in the upper teeth, fever or chills and swelling about the face.

Heat and ice can be used to relieve the facial pain of sinus headaches with many doctors recommending hot compresses, hot drinks such as tea or broth, and even a steamy shower. A cool-mist humidifier can also be of tremendous help in keeping your sinuses moist.

Migraine headaches

So how do migraines differ from sinus headaches, then, and how do you determine which one you’ve got. To begin with, there isn’t just one migraine headache, but two. Migraines with aura and migraines without aura. Common migraine symptoms include pain that is prefaced by visual disturbances, a throbbing on just one side of the head that ranges from mild to extreme, nausea, vomiting, an increased sensitivity to both light and noise.

Migraines require a trigger to get your head to hurting. These triggers are wide in scope and can very significantly from person to person. Most migraines seem to be triggered by food. The most common food triggers seem to be wine, chocolate, aged cheese, processed meats, Chinese food and caffeine. Other triggers include flashing lights, loud noises, menstruation, intense exercise, weather changes, exposure to smoke or perfumes, lack of sleep, stress, or sex In addition, some medications such as birth control pills and estrogen replacement therapy have been proven migraine triggers.

So what’s the big deal with misdiagnosing a migraine headache as a sinus headache? Well, for one thing all that money you’re shelling out on medicine specifically marketed it not actually designed to treat sinus headaches will do you no good whatever if you are suffering migraines. In addition, if you are under the delusion that you are experiencing sinus headaches you may be unduly extending the life of your migraines by continuing to eat food triggers, or continuing to experience environmental triggers that you could and should otherwise avoid.

Basically, treating a migraine headache as it were a sinus headache is really no different from treating a toothache as it were a sinus headache. The problems are completely different, regardless of how similar they may seem and how much they may have in common physiologically. A sinus headache is a headache; a migraine is a disease that has as one its symptoms excruciating head pain. Do yourself a favor. If you are absolutely convinced you are suffering sinus headaches, go see a doctor who knows the difference.