Grow your own headache remedy
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
That a headache can often make it difficult for us to think clearly is nothing to do with ‘pain in the brain'! In fact, the brain tissue lacks pain receptors and the headache is caused by disturbance to the pain-sensitive structures around the brain. Cephalgia is simply the sensation of pain anywhere in the head and/or neck.
A headache is a symptom. It might relate to a serious infection such as meningitis or encephalitis - or it may accompany a nasty cold or other relatively simple ailment. The morning-after-the-night-before, certain foodstuffs, cigarette smoke, particular scents, anxiety and depression are among the many different triggers that appear to cause some people to have headaches.
The most cited factor in today's fast-moving world is ‘Stress' - with a capital ‘S'. Increasingly prevalent in all age groups, recurring headaches are one of the symptoms associated with stress. Tension headaches are caused by the contracting of the layer of muscle around the skull which, in turn, causes a decrease in the flow of blood to the head. The result: a nasty ‘tight band' effect that can be very uncomfortable and decidedly enervating.
Stress related
Because so many headaches seem to be stress-related, we tend to think of it as a ‘modern' problem - but that is entirely wrong. Documents exist outlining the treatments used in Medieval Persia. The Lancet, no less, published a paper in 2002 that stated many of the approaches of the medieval physicians are still practised today - and that still more could be used in modern medicine. The Romans, the Ancient Greeks and the Chinese used all manner of plants and herbs to alleviate headaches - and some of those plants are used in modern-day pharmaceuticals.
There can be few homes without a medicine chest that includes a packet of at least one well-known analgesic - and more often than not, there is a veritable collection! But more and more people are interested in producing their own herbal remedies and, when it comes to headaches, one very easy-to-grow plant is well documented as a cure: Feverfew. (From the Latin ‘febrifugia' - ‘a substance that allays fevers’, botanical name Tanacetum parthenium). No less a personage than Culpepper described its many virtues....'effectual for all pains of the head’....'also for vertigo’ – the latter delightfully described as ‘a fuming or swimming in the head’!
Native to Yugoslavia, Feverfew is incredibly easy to grow, has spread around the world - and almost always manages to self-seed prolifically in just the right places. Pretty daisy-type white flowers with – depending on the variety - green or golden-yellow leaves, the plant resembles a miniature chrysanthemum.
Well documented research undertaken in recent years indicates that Feverfew is effective in the prevention of migraine – and can also reduce the symptoms of an existing attack. Some people make it into a salad-type sandwich.
