What gets rid of headaches fast?

Ever been cruising through the week—grinding out work presentations like it’s your job (wait, it literally is), sweating your stress out at the gym, maintaining your friendships like a pro—when the pulsing pain of a headache brings your whole world to a screeching stop? Odds are the answer is yes. In the United States, a whopping 96% of people will experience a headache at some point in their lives, and if you have a vagina, you’re even more likely to have to deal with this pain in the head.1

According to the World Health Organization, most people can expect to experience at least one headache per year, but not all headaches are created equal. Head pain can throb, stab, or squeeze. It can be constant or intermittent, ranging from barely noticeable to the worst pain of your life. And while the average tension headache clears up within four to six hours, migraine attacks—which are not just headaches—can drag on for up to 72 hours.2

Where does this pain actually come from? The weird thing is that there are actually no pain receptors—called nociceptors—in your brain tissue. So the sensation of pain occurs when nociceptors are activated in supporting brain structures (shout-out to blood vessels, muscle fibers, cranial and spinal nerves, and the brain’s outer membranes, known as the meninges.)1

With that said, most headaches have more than one cause, with genetic and environmental factors contributing to differences in how individuals experience head pain. Let’s talk about what kinds of headaches to know and how to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

The Third Edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-III) is a tool used by physicians to diagnose headaches. It sorts primary headache disorders—headaches that can’t be explained by a condition, illness, or injury—into these four categories:

• Tension-type headache (TTH): This is the most common type of headache, and typically only causes mild to moderate pain. They strike on both sides of the head and are described as a dull, pressing, or band-like tightening.2
• Migraine: Migraine is a neurological condition that can cause head pain that’s often described as throbbing and may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, sound, smell, or touch. Migraine attacks affect around 12% of people.3
• Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (TACs): TACs are rarer than migraine and TTH. They include cluster headache, which causes excruciating pain near the eye or temple that intensifies within minutes and lasts up to three hours, according to an older study published in the journal Neurology.4
• Other primary headache disorders: While rare, other primary headache disorders include primary stabbing headache, which causes sudden, stabbing pain, and new daily persistent headache, which appears out of the blue, is daily and continuous, and lasts for more than three months.

Secondary headache disorders are also common, but they’re a symptom of other problems like altitude sickness, infection, or caffeine withdrawal. When it comes to secondary headaches, treating the underlying condition should help with headache relief.

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The average headache won’t put you out of commission for hours on end. “It’s a mild-to-moderate headache that really does not limit you from any activity,” Rashmi Halker Singh, MD, a board-certified neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, tells SELF. “You probably don’t think twice about it. You’d probably never even think to see a doctor for it.”

These types of headaches don’t require much in the way of treatment. In fact, they often go away on their own without any intervention at all. With that said, if a mild-to-moderate headache is bothering you, simple at-home remedies and natural approaches can usually help, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Try one or more of the following:

Apply ice or heat.

If you’re used to sitting hunched over a computer all day, you may start to notice your shoulders creeping up as your stress levels rise. This muscle tension can trigger a—you guessed it—tension-type headache. So one way to combat the pain is to relieve that tension by applying a hot or cold compress to your head, neck, or shoulders. This may be enough to relieve both your muscle and head pain.

Drink water.

Whether you had one too many margaritas last night or you left your trusty water bottle at home (you know, the giant one with motivational phrases), dehydration can be a big player for headaches. Upping your water intake could be all it takes to ease your symptoms. It’s best to sip water at regular intervals throughout the day to stave off dehydration and the ugly headaches that follow.

Have a snack.

You don’t have to tell us twice [reaches for the trail mix], but eating a snack between meals—like fresh fruits, a handful of nuts, or vegetables with hummus—may help prevent or alleviate a headache. That’s because when your body has low blood sugar, meaning you don’t have enough glucose in the blood for energy, it can trigger a headache.

Take a break.

Remember that muscle tension we talked about? Stress is a major contributor to both muscle tension and headaches, and sometimes the best medicine is taking a step back. Try scheduling short breaks into your day to take a walk, look out the window, pet your dog, or grab a cup of coffee (as long as that isn’t a headache trigger for you).

Pause to stretch.

Don’t just take a break to stretch when a headache is already starting to creep in. It’s important to stretch throughout the day, especially if you work at a desk. If you’re not sure how to stretch, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has a list of workplace stretches and exercises to get you started.

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Let’s say you’ve tried all the tips above to no avail—the headache is still pounding away. Now you might need some chemical help in the form of medication.

Grab an over-the-counter pain reliever.

When at-home treatments don’t alleviate a mild-to-moderate headache, taking an OTC pain reliever usually helps. For many common headaches, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the medication of choice. NSAIDs work to relieve common headaches by targeting chemicals associated with inflammation and pain. They include acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen.

But experts warn about taking too much OTC medication, which—paradoxically—can lead to a condition called medication overuse headache. Basically using too much of this type of medication too often can cause changes in your brain that lead to more headaches. “Ultimately, if someone does need to use an OTC pain reliever more than twice a week, getting started on preventive medicine to help reduce how often they have headaches is a good idea,” Dr. Halker Singh says.

Talk to your doctor about prescription medications.

Sometimes OTC treatments aren’t enough and, in that case, prescription medications are recommended. For tension-type headaches, your options will look a little different than if you’re struggling with migraine attacks.

“If someone has frequent TTH attacks, where it’s occurring on a weekly basis, sometimes low-dose antidepressant medications can actually be helpful,” Amaal Starling, MD, a board-certified neurologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona, tells SELF. However, she says, “the vast majority of people with TTH don’t even go to the doctor with their symptoms because they’re so mild.”

Most people who see their family doctor for headaches are actually experiencing migraine attacks. That’s because, unlike a tension-type headache, migraine attacks are typically more painful and disruptive to your life—enough so that you’ll feel the need to seek medical attention. Thankfully, there are prescription options for migraine too.

“This is actually a very, very exciting time in the world of migraine,” Dr. Halker Singh says. “After decades of research, we finally have a better understanding as to why people have migraines and that has led to the development of drugs for the disease of migraine.”

Triptans—medications that calm nerves and block pain signals in the brain—can help right away with migraine attacks, as they are meant to be taken at the first sign of an attack to help reduce symptoms. They are available in several forms, including oral medications, nasal sprays, and injectables. For people who get a little barfy when they have head pain, nasal sprays and injectables may be a better option. Other prescription medications for acute migraine pain include dihydroergotamine, lasmiditan, and calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonists (gepants), which can reduce head pain, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound two hours after taking them. Daily preventative medications, such as beta-blockers, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants, can also be used to reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine attacks, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Try an at-home device for migraine attacks.

While this may sound a bit like science fiction, devices to treat migraine attacks are actually based on real science. Non-invasive, drug-free devices are a recent breakthrough in the prevention and treatment of migraine. Some are meant to be used for prevention and treatment, while others are only effective during a migraine attack.

“The way that brain cells and neurons work is through electrochemical communication with each other,” Dr. Starling says. “When the electrochemical function is abnormal, as in migraine, we can adjust or normalize function by using chemical manipulation, which is medication, or electrical manipulation, which is devices.”

In essence, what these devices do is alter the electrical environment of our brain cells or our neurons to ease the symptoms of migraine, she says. Using one is simple, you’ll just put it on your head, arm, or neck (depending on the device), and an electrical impulse will be delivered. Most of these devices are prescription-only, so if you are interested in hearing more about how they work, and whether they might be a good fit for you, talk with your doctor.

Check out these behavioral therapies for migraine.

If medications or devices haven’t worked for you, or you’d like to try a more natural approach, you still have choices, like talk therapy and biofeedback. Though these aren’t likely to be a quick fix. “I encourage every single one of my patients to maximize all of the biobehavioral techniques that we can use to treat migraine along with medications or sometimes, if preferred, even before we try medications,” Dr. Starling says.

So what exactly does biobehavioral intervention mean? It basically refers to different types of therapy that help manage stress, which can be a pretty big trigger for headaches and migraine attacks. Dr. Starling, who coauthored a 2019 study on these therapies in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, says a few have shown some benefits for migraine.

For one, cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of talk therapy typically used for mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, has been shown to reduce the severity and frequency of migraine attacks.5 Biofeedback is another type of therapy that allows a person to see measures of their bodily functions like temperature and heart rate (so that they can consciously calm themselves). This can reduce the “fight or flight response that happens when someone is exposed to pain from a migraine or other headache disorder,” Simy Parikh, MD, a board-certified neurologist and the director of the Advanced Headache Diagnosis and Management Program at the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia, tells SELF, which may help to ease symptoms sooner.

The thought is that these types of therapies help people by “retraining the brain,” Dr. Starling says, “which means it helps people to cope with the symptoms of migraine, but also may stop or prevent the symptoms from occurring as frequently and as severely as before.”

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An easy way to remember migraine prevention techniques is through the mnemonic device SEEDS. Doctors use this tool regularly in their clinical practices (and it can also be useful for regular old headaches):

• Sleep: In general, you should try to sleep and wake at the same time each day, avoid screens before bedtime, and get out of bed when insomnia strikes.
• Eating: Eating a variety of healthy foods is recommended. When possible, avoid skipping meals, which may trigger headaches in some people.
• Exercise: Regular exercise—including between 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity three to five times per week—is an excellent way to prevent headaches.
• Diary: Monitoring your symptoms in a diary, calendar, or app can help you and your health care provider learn more, including how frequently headaches occur, how severe they are, and how often you take medication for them.
• Stress: Stress is a fact of life, but management techniques such as CBT, biofeedback, and relaxation can help to reduce how much it impacts you.

Dr. Parikh specifies that the guidelines aren’t meant to be followed to the letter. “If someone skips a meal or they don’t get enough sleep, that’s okay,” she says. “The important thing is not to blame yourself for triggering a migraine.”

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If head pain ever gets in the way of your day-to-day life—even if it only strikes once a month—it’s helpful to see a doctor. With that said, there are a lot of factors that can get in the way of making that appointment.

Dr. Starling says people sometimes don’t want to see a doctor because previous treatments didn’t work for them. “Sometimes people stop engaging with health care professionals because they feel a little bit hopeless,” she says. Her plea to patients is: “Please reengage with health care professionals regarding your migraine disease because we have so many new options available.”

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