Tips

25 August 2011

Your Tips: Out for the Day

Now depending on how chronic your headaches or other symptoms may be, a day out of the house may seem like an ordinary thing or perhaps a great challenge. Some of you reading this only have the very occasional migraine attack. Others have regular though not frequent phases of cluster headache attacks. Others may have headache symptoms all the time.

So taking all that into account, here’s the question. How do you prepare for a day out of the house? What do you take with you? Do you plan ahead to eat at certain times or stop and rest every once in a while? What do you put in the car, or in a backpack or purse? Is there anything you plan to buy along the way? What plans or items have been the biggest help to you?

Think about this too – what do you bring in case of a migraine or headache attack, and what do you bring that may help you avoid a headache or migraine attack?

Leave your comments here our on our Facebook page, and share ideas that will help us all! 🙂

11 July 2011

The Practical Pillow Podcast

James Information, Tips 1

In this podcast, James talks about pillows – their importance in relation to migraine and chronic headache, a little recent research, and a review of two (or three) types of pillows.

[display_podcast]

Some things mentioned in this podcast:

Sleep Innovations Supreme Memory Foam Standard Pillow and X Memory Foam Pillow (UK)
Best reviewed buckwheat hull pillow: Bucky Buckwheat Bed Pillow
One I’m seriously thinking about ordering: Organic Buckwheat Pillow
The Chillow and Chillow UK
Other popular buckwheat pillows and buckwheat pillows in the UK
Other popular memory foam pillows and memory foam pillows in the UK
Why it’s important to get a new pillow
More on buckwheat pillows

7 July 2011

Your Tips: Finding Darkness

James Tips 17

I mentioned last week that 1% Thursday would be on hiatus for a while to give you a chance to share your own tips. Today we’re going to give it a try!

So here’s my question:

During a migraine attack, many people want to get in a dark room. So – how do you make that happen? How do you block light in a room? Or how do you find a dark place at work or at school?

Anything related to the topic of finding darkness is great. We look forward to hearing your tips! Comment below, and feel free to share on Facebook and Twitter too!

23 June 2011

1% Thursday: Cool Head

James Tips 1

Another study is saying what many of us have known for a long time. Cool head = Better sleep.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine were wondering if people who couldn’t sleep had brains that were too hot. Maybe their thinking was heating up their brains (or perhaps hot brains were making people think more!). So what if people cooled down their heads?

In this very small study of 12 insomniacs, patients wore a cap of cooling water (similar to the SootheAway Continuous Thermal Therapy Device). When they used the cap, they slept almost normally. And when the caps were set to an even cooler temperature, sleep clearly improved.

There are simple, and more complex ways to cool your brain. We’ve talked about a cold shower, but even wetting your hair could help you get to sleep. There are also pillows that tend to be cooler, such as the buckwheat hull pillow or the Chillow. You could also try to above SootheAway Device for a few minutes right before you sleep.

Oh, and sometimes just lowering the temperature of the room makes all the difference, if you can do it.

Keep a cool head at night. You’ll be glad you did.

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better. Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge. Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!

16 June 2011

1% Thursday: Alternate Drinks

James Tips 1

We drink a lot of sugar. Yes, even those genuine 100% real juices are full of – you guessed it – sugar. Oh, natural sugar, of course. And yes, I do buy 100% juices. But all those calories add up quickly, and the sugar in your body spikes and all kinds of problems come of it.

So the tip today is not to give up drinking juice, or other sugary drinks. Here’s just a place to start…

After you drink a glass of juice, or Coke, or even milk… drink a glass of water.

That’s it. Alternate.

It might not change your life drastically, but it will start you on the path to drinking fewer sugars if you’re used to it.

By the way, I said water. Plain, 100% pure, water. No flavouring added. Just water.

And if that’s a problem for you – well, you need to get to know and love water even more than the rest of us. If that’s a problem, you need to take this post more seriously than ever.

By the way, here’s another juice tip for you, and another..

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better. Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge. Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!