constantly taking over-the-counter
medications for pain whether it's joint
pain low back pain headaches ibuprofen
tylenol excedrin all those medications
are fine to use on a very limited basis
they come with wrists no doubt like
anything but if you find yourself
constantly turning multiple times per
day multiple times per week than you
could be suffering from a condition
known as rebound headaches or medication
overuse headaches so what happens is the
criteria to be considered a medication
overuse headache is going to be you have
more than 15 days with a headache it
could be just that low-level headache
that never quite goes away more than 15
days in a month on you check that
criteria secondly is that you've abused
those medications like I talked about
earlier for more than three months so
generally what happens is that that
headache
initially gets better that that is an
effective solution in the short term but
over time as you continue to abuse those
medications your headache can actually
develop or it can worsen so if you're
taking it for a low back pain maybe you
start to get a headache that's probably
why as you're abusing those medications
the good thing is is that we have a
solution so the solution is first and
foremost we need to kind of get rid of
that medication a lot of times it gets a
little bit worse before it gets better
but in the long term we're doing the
right thing secondly is we need to
support those patients with
pharmacological and non-pharmacological
solutions so you may be you talk to your
doctor about an abortive medication if
you're suffering from migraines this is
a little bit more evidence-based and
constantly eating those over-the-counter
meds and then non-pharmacological that's
what chiropractic that's the soft tissue
that joint manipulation the stuff we
talked about the at-home exercise the
solutions in the office and at home and
then lastly like we need to be
supportive we need to understand that
taking those medications aren't isn't
the long-term solution so we need to
support that patient prevent relapse
understand like the excedrin the
ibuprofen that is not going to provide
this solution so if you have any
questions about rebound headaches
medication overuse headaches I am here
to answer them I'm here to support in a
very non pharmacological way without
drugs without surgery hands-on treatment
at home
after society is is caffeine beneficial
for headaches seems like a pretty
straightforward question unfortunately
the answer is very very messy so the
best available evidence kind of says
that caffeine is okay and beneficial in
the acute treatment of a headache so if
you take it sporadically you get a
headache every once in a while you kind
of take some over-the-counter medication
you have a little caffeine whether in
that pill with like an excedrin or you
take kind of cup coffee maybe a soda of
some sort increasing the caffeine with
the over-the-counter medication actually
has a relieving effect when used in the
acute treatment short-term but over time
those medications that are we kind of
find the caffeine we kind of find in an
excedrin and other over-the-counter
medications for headaches it actually
could potentially add to the withdrawal
symptoms and will be a negative effect
so we talked about rebound headaches and
medication overuse headaches in a
previous video the caffeine within those
medications can kind of contribute to
that I think anybody that is a coffee
drinker or a caffeine consumer
religiously can tell you about their
withdrawal symptoms of not getting that
daily caffeine you kind of just feel
tired irritable headaches so chronically
using caffeine for headaches it's
probably not a good thing it can
contribute to the medication overuse but
in the short term if you get a headache
every once in a while kind of using a
little over-the-counter medication with
the little caffeine is probably safe and
effective I would encourage you to seek
out other healthcare solutions
non-pharmacological chiropractic self
treatment myofascial release all of
those things could potentially help
reduce your headaches in a little bit of
a safer way rather than kind of
consuming those medications so let me
know if you have any questions once
again science it's messy but our best
answer is caffeine good for the
short-term acute headache not good for
the long-term because it can kind of
produce and lead to some of that
medication overuse now Peters your
Thommy chiropractic providing solutions
to pain a performance sports
chiropractor here in Omaha Nebraska I
wanted to talk about the association
between water intake and migraine
headaches
it seems crazy but we there's not really
a great official recommendation on how
much water you should drink in the past
we've kind of used that 8 by 8 rule 8
glasses of 8 ounces of water so 64 fluid
ounces in a day but it's largely this
media darling rather than founded in
medical literature but there is an
interesting study that looked at
migraine headache sufferers and
increasing fluid intake it was in the
journal of clinical neuroscience a very
respected journal and what they found is
that if they told female migraine
sufferers to increase their fluid intake
regardless of what they were drinking
for 1.5 liters per day these patients
experienced less frequent headaches less
severe headaches shorter duration
headaches all of those super positive
things anybody with a migraine would
take that in a heartbeat
for something as simple as just
increasing fluid intake water intake by
1.5 liters so I would encourage you
there's no set number that you need to
hit but 64 fluid ounces a day is a good
place to start if you already drink
plenty of water you can try to increase
it just a little bit and see if you
experience the positive effects
mentioned in this study otherwise reach
out to us we have other non
pharmacological solutions soft tissue
release joint manipulation at home
stretching we are here to help you
[Laughter]
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