Better to take painkillers for headaches as early as possible?
Doctors agree
Created: 05/05/2022, 12:36 p.m
By: Juliane Gutmann
Stress, weather changes, drinking too little: there are various causes that can lead to headaches.
Sometimes a hat helps sleep.
Anyone who uses pills should know one rule.
It is often factors that can be influenced that trigger headaches.
For example, tense neck muscles, too little sleep, alcohol, bad air or worries and worries trigger the unpleasant pain in the head.
Addressing these triggers in a targeted manner can effectively prevent headaches.
Do you often suffer from moderate to severe headaches
?
Then a visit to the doctor's office is advisable.
The doctor treating you will get to the bottom of the cause through various examinations.
If the diagnosis "migraine" falls, appropriate therapy is initiated.
Only in very rare cases are headaches caused by dangerous underlying diseases such as meningitis or a brain tumor, as Austria's public health portal informs.
Rest and relaxation often help against headaches.
© Imago
In the case of mild to moderate headaches that do not occur frequently, rest and relaxation are often enough to get rid of them.
The German Society for Neurology (DGN) warns that people who have headaches often reach for painkillers far too quickly.
Non-drug measures, on the other hand, are often not used consistently, according to the DGN.
Endurance sports, relaxation techniques and stress management are enormously helpful for tension headaches and migraines.
If the appointment calendar is full or you have to be fit for an event that cannot be postponed, many people resort to pain medication.
Ibu or paracetamol
should be taken as soon as possible - right?
Survey on painkillers
Ibuprofen and paracetamol for headaches: when is the right time
If the pain is already fully "fledged", pills no longer work as well - this is a common assumption.
In fact, you shouldn't wait too long if you're going to use painkillers to treat headaches.
"
Take the medication on time
", so the appeal of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK).
Those who often endure pain risk that the body adjusts to the recurring pain experiences and develops a pain memory, TK continues.
This can result in chronic headaches.
To prevent this, one should not tolerate a headache until it is unbearable, but take the dose recommended in the package leaflet or by the doctor or pharmacist early on.
According to the TK, if you only take the pill when the pain is very severe, you also risk that it will not work as well.
The same applies to migraine patients: waiting is the wrong approach when it comes to taking painkillers.
As the pain clinic in Kiel informs, the migraine medication should be taken very early on.
Taking it late can mean that otherwise
very effective medication cannot exert its effect and the pain lasts for a long time
, according to the website of the Pain Clinic in Kiel.
The reason: Especially with migraines, the absorption capacity of the stomach and intestines is very often disrupted during the attack, which means that the active ingredients can no longer reach their site of action.
(jg)
