Many different conventional medicines are used to treat and prevent migraines; some are strong drugs with many potentially serious side effects. We recommend that you opt for conventional treatment only if your headaches persist after youíve tried self-care methods and professional homeopathic treatment.

Other Headaches
Less common than muscle-contraction and migraine headaches are the various types of headaches caused by infection, inflammation, and structural changes in the face and head. Many of these are serious conditions requiring medical treatment.

For information about acute sinus headaches, see the section on sinus conditions in Chapter 4 on colds and coughs.

Homeopathic Medicines for Headaches of All Types
Use homeopathic medicines at home when you or your children have mild to moderate headaches.

Itís often difficult to choose the right medicine for a headache. So many headaches are made better or worse by the same factors, and many remedies cover these common modalities. Often the personís general symptoms are your best guide in choosing the medicine. Use only the strongest, most definite headache symptoms in your case analysis, and compare them to the symptoms we list here. If you still have trouble picking the right medicine, we recommend you choose between the first three we cover, Belladonna, Nux, and Bryonia. One of these three medicines will help the majority who suffer from acute headaches that have few specific symptoms.

Casetaking Questions

Onset of symptoms:
Did anything seem to trigger the headache? For example, exposure to cold or wet weather or to a draft, eating too much or eating something in particular, alcohol or drugs, emotions, overwork, or lack of sleep?

Character of the pain:
Where in the head is the pain centered, and where does it radiate? What is the character of the pain (throbbing, aching, burning, etc.)?

Associated symptoms:
Has the headache affected the patientís appearance? Is the face pale or flushed red? Are the pupils dilated? How is vision affected? Have digestive symptoms such as nausea or vomiting developed? Does the headache seem related to the menstrual cycle, occurring prior to, during, or after the periods?

Modalities:
What time of day is the headache worst? What makes the pain better or worse? How is it affected by hot or cold applications, heat and cold in general, pressure, light, and noise? How does motion, and position (lying, sitting, or standing) affect the pain? Does motion of the eyes affect the pain?

Remedy Summary for Headaches
If you find it hard to select a medicine from those listed here, choose among Belladonna, Nux, and Bryonia.

Give the medicine: Up to every two hours; once improvement begins, repeat only when symptoms are worse again or improvement has ceased for an hour or so.

When to try another medicine: If the symptoms are no better after two or three doses of the first medicine you try.

Essentials