Cyou name one person who has never had a headache? Taking self medication and buying pills over the counter is not uncommon even among educated people. And Siddha practitioners say it should be avoided.
Causes
Headache, also known as cephalalgia, is pain anywhere in the region of head and neck. It can be a symptom of a number of conditions. Causes for chronic headache are numerous like eye diseases, ENT pathology, neurological causes like neuralgias and tumors, hypertension and metabolic disorders. But the common headaches are due to tension, sinusitis and migraine like vascular headaches. Headaches also due to loss of sleep, inadequate food intake, constipation, some infections like typhoid and as premenstrual too.
In Siddha...
Derangement in any three human disposition is responsible for headache; mainly elevated pittha will be the cause for most types of headaches. There are internal and external medicines for treatment. Laxatives like kumari ennai can be given for headache due to constipation. Take a cup of milk (200 ml) and add a teaspoon of athimathura chooranam, a teaspoon of sombu or perunjeeragam. Heat it till it boils. Drink this preparation for any type of headaches. Trikatugu chooranam (chukku, milagu and thippili) can be taken with honey.
External medicines
Nocchi leaves can be used for steam inhalation in sinusitis. It is a safe and effective therapy for sinus headache. Neer kovai maathirai is a medicine readily available in the pharmacy. Apply it on your forehead and around the sinus area.
Head baths
Elevated pittha type of headaches can be relieved by a simple head bath with gingili oil. Take 50 ml of gingili oil and add 5 gms of seeragam (cumin seeds). Heat the mixture so that the cumin seeds are fried. Apply this from head to foot. Wait for 30 minutes and then to take bath in warm water.
But if you find yourself suffering from frequent headaches and reaching out for pain killers more often than once in week, it could be an indication for a deeper ailment and should be investigated thoroughly.
(Government Siddha Physician, Ariyalur)