If you’re looking for natural medicine as a treatment for headache during menstruation, there are different methods you could use:

• Herbal supplements and Essential Oils
• Manual therapies where you work on any tight muscles in your back and neck. These may need the assistance of a family member or friend.
• Vitamins and minerals

Herbal Supplements and Essential Oils

PMS before and during your menstrual cycle doesn’t have to be difficult and if you use a combination of these strategies when you get a migraine or headache, you can have success over them. What remedy should you use first? It depends on what you have in your immediate environment.

Do you have any adaptogen herbs (shizandra, ashwaganda, ginkgo, suma), anti-inflammatory herbs (curcumin, cat’s claw, ginger) or anti-headache herbs (willow bark, feverfew, butterbur)? You can always try 2 “00” capsules of any of these to start, then read up on them to see what is the maximum dosage. Maximum dosage differs for each herb.

Herbs work to reduce the intensity of a headache. Taking 1-2 capsules of the herbs are the best strategy, and it’s one that gives you plenty of time to look up more specific info on our site here on each one of the herbs.

Do you have the essential oils such as lavender, peppermint oil, or even eucalyptus? Adding a few drops of one or more of these will be great to add to a few ounces of almond oil, then mix and apply generously onto your forehead, neck, and upper back.

Manual Therapies

Could you spend a few minutes on the computer to look up trigger point locations in the head, neck, upper back and shoulders to know where to press on your own body? It’s easier to see pictures than to explain them, but here are four very common locations:

• About an inch down from the base of the skull, 1 inch off the midline
• An inch down from point #1
• The point halfway between the top of your shoulders and the spine
• The front of your neck underneath your clavicle (collar bone)

It’s easy to find and press on the trigger points you find in your neck. By holding them for 1-2 minutes, you will notice that a time will come when the trigger point fades away. After this happens, go find another and repeat the process.  It may take four or five different pressings on them to get them to dissolve.

Do you have any hot or cold packs? Why not place them on the back of your neck and/or your forehead for 10 minutes for relief? The heat will ease up the trigger points. Cold packs numb the pain on your neck and warm hot packs will increase the blood circulation to the neck and head to add more oxygen.

Vitamins & Mineral Supplements/Period Vitamin

Do you have vitamins and minerals in your cabinets such as calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, vitamin E, and B complex?

These nutrients will either act as antioxidants to quench free radicals that can make a headache rage, or they will act directly on the muscles to make them relax.

Do you have a period vitamin that combines vitamins, minerals and herbs together to support your body during your period? Sometimes it’s easier to take a whole combination rather than use individual nutrients, trying to guess at the amounts you should take. The creator of the period vitamin did all the work hiring experts to determine which are the best dosages of these nutrients that you should have to support your body during your period.

Sometimes all you need is a reminder because when you have a headache, the pain can be so pounding that you might forget everything you know to do and begin start acting like a victim! We all go through times like this!

Find what you have in your home to start treating yourself. You must find your own cure. The more you can do for yourself, the closer you are to feeling normal again.

Vitamins and minerals and a period vitamin also help to prevent and relieve headaches. A vitamin and mineral combination such as a period vitamin may even be doubled in dosage for a short period of time while you are searching for relief.

These natural treatments should always be your first line of defense against a headache. Empower yourself and use them, and achieve success in combatting your PMS headache.