Headache Hell

You’re tired. You’ve got a pounding headache. All you want to do is fall asleep so you can make it through work tomorrow. What better way to accomplish this than by popping a pill, right? It kills two birds with one stone – reducing the pounding pain, while delivering a chemical sedative to lull you off to sleep.

This seems to be the method of attack for so many people that aren’t on board the all natural way of living: If it hurts, take a pill for it.

The problem with this is that pain relievers like Tylenol, Advil and Excedrin come to be depended on, relied on, even. So much so that the overuse of these and other drugs stop solving headache problems; now they cause headache problems.

It’s called Medication Overuse Headaches (MOH) and it’s a condition as plain as its name: where a reliance on headache medicine causes chronic headaches, up to 15 headache riddled days a month, on average.

The chronic nature of these harrowing headaches is becoming increasingly common throughout the United States, not to mention the world. So common, in fact, that 60 percent of people with chronic headaches in the country are attributable to MOH. But like I said, the frequency of diagnoses of MOH is booming in other regions as well.

One such region is Taiwan, specifically Taipei (the country’s capital city located in the far northwestern corner of Taiwan). Doctors say that 1 in every 100 person living in Taiwan has MOH, a startling statistic for a condition that was relatively unknown not too long ago. Doctors believe the prevalence of MOH most likely stems from the use and abuse of cold medications in the country, as many people are downing an entire bottle of cold medicine instead of the recommended dose.

Denmark is another country where hellish headaches have been on the uptick. Other than tension and migraines, MOH is the third most common culprit for chronic headaches. Other regions of the world where MOH is anything but AWOL include Canada, Japan and Spain.

But there are other regions of the world where MOH is not thriving, and they just happen to be regions where over-the-counter drugs are either discouraged for political or religious reasons (some psychological), or because of mores already well-established within the society itself. In Moldova, for instance, a study on migraine prevalence found that two-thirds of people without MOH rarely used headache medications due to phobias they had about them.

MOH is also uncommon in India. Researchers from the Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai believe it’s likely due to the all-natural methods the Indian people use to treat headaches and other maladies through things like healing balms, herbs and other alternative medicinal methods.

While many companies are struggling right now, the pharmaceutical industry is not. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the pharmaceutical industry’s employment rate has expanded 11 percent between 1998 and 2008, making it one of the fastest growing manufacturing industries. Meanwhile, chronic headaches are on the uptake around the world.

Coincidence? I think not.

There are lots of all natural methods to combat chronic headaches, methods that not only work but will help wean you off of these headache-inducing drugs that are also addictive. Please read about them in my article “How to Get Rid of Your Headache the All Natural Way.”