These Are The Essential Oils That Can Ease Your Migraine Pain
Getting migraines is not fun at all. From the different accompanying side effects to the actual pain, migraines are no simple matter. While sometimes we can downgrade migraines to simple headaches, the American Migraine Foundation estimates that migraines affect over 37 million men, women, and children in the United States. Unfortunately, many times migraines are overlooked by both physicians and patients. This underreporting can lead to many not getting the adequate diagnosis or treatment that they need.
While there are ways you can prevent or stop migraines from happening, they are of little to no use once a migraine is already happening. Instead of constantly reaching for your aspirin, there's another way you can mitigate your migraine pain. Using essential oils is another way you can help soothe the mind, depending on the scents that you use. Like any fragrance, scents can sometimes help impact the body in different ways. Learning which scents can help with migraine pain relief is another tool at your disposal when tackling migraines.
Essential oils you need for your migraines
The top five essential oil scents you want to have in your toolkit for migraines are lavender, peppermint, rosemary, chamomile, and eucalyptus, according to Excedrin. Apart from being good at managing migraines, lavender is a great essential oil for helping you get quality sleep. This combination is perfect for those nighttime migraines. Peppermint has a cooling property that can help stop those throbbing pains and bring proper blood flow to that area. The rosemary herb is known for being an anti-inflammatory that also has pain-relieving properties. Chamomile, like lavender, is known for its calming properties as well as for being excellent pain relief. Lastly, chamomile is known for clearing sinuses and lowering blood pressure, two components that can lead to migraines.
Thankfully, there are multiple ways you can use essential oils when you are suffering from a migraine. Women's Health suggests putting a few drops onto a cold washcloth and applying it to your forehead. If you prefer heat, you can put it on a warm compress around your neck. You can also put a few drops onto a cotton ball that you can hold underneath your nose.
Regardless of how you apply it, you want to ensure not to put on too much essential oil, since the strong scents can further trigger your migraine. You want to ensure you are purchasing your essential oils from a reputable company that has high quality.
Other holistic migraine relief
While essential oils are a great way to tackle migraine pain, they are only a part of the puzzle. If you opt for a holistic treatment for migraines, you want to ensure you are doing an entire treatment — only by doing everything at your disposal will you be able to get the relief you want.
Besides essential oils, GoodRx recommends treatments such as acupuncture, piercings, botox, massages, and CBD oil. Acupuncture, piercings, and botox all follow the same concept — by applying remedies to certain pressure points, you can help alleviate some of that pressure before it turns into a migraine. Massages and CBD oil can be used to keep your stress and anxiety levels low and prevent migraines. These two forms can also help alleviate pain relief that can later become migraines.
When dealing with migraines, you want to ensure you are doing everything you can to stop them from happening. Psych Central recommends taking magnesium supplements to ensure you are keeping your levels at an optimal level. Low levels of magnesium can lead to nausea and muscle contractions which can lead to headaches or migraines. As cliche as it may sound, drinking water is one of the simplest ways you can help relieve migraines. The body's organs need hydration to continue working properly, making it important to get the right amount of water. Nothing good can happen when you're dehydrated.