Essential oils and headaches 

Generic name for all head pains. Cephalalgia is found in conditions as diverse as meningitis, typhoid fever, brain tumors, high blood pressure etc. Some headaches have been given special names because of their very distinct characteristics, such as migraine .

Thousands of people regularly suffer from headaches or headaches . Between half and three-quarters of adults between the ages of 18 and 65 worldwide have experienced this symptom in the past year. More or less intense, of varying duration, this pain can be very disabling on a daily basis.

What are the different types of headaches?

The exact location of the pain, its duration and other accompanying signs vary depending on the nature of the headache. Nausea and blurred vision can appear when the pain is severe.

Tension headaches are the most common: they cause pain around the head (the feeling of being caught in a vice), which sometimes radiates into the neck.

Migraine is recurrent and manifests itself in attacks. It causes one-sided, pulsating pain (like a throbbing), always in the same area, which intensifies with physical activity. It can last from a few hours to several days.

Auras that sometimes appear before the migraine attack can be visual (spots in front of the eyes, blurred vision, etc.), sensitive (tingling in the arm or mouth) or aphasic (language disorders); these symptoms usually go away when the headache sets in.

Cluster headache , which is rarer, is manifested by attacks of stabbing pain, very intense, localized on one side of the face (usually around the eye and temple, but also in the teeth, ear and neck). The pain is often accompanied by tearing and a feeling of a stuffy nose on the affected side. Usually caused by stress, high blood pressure, or medication.

Many disorders can promote the onset of headaches: a dental problem, lack of sleep, an ENT infection, stress, vision problems that are not detected or corrected, certain medications, high blood pressure, hormonal fluctuations ( premenstrual syndrome), etc.

A clinical study shows that Peppermint Essential Oil (ET) is as effective as a 1 gram dose of Paracetamol in relieving headaches associated with nervous tension. According to the WHO, headaches related to nervous tension are pains that affect more than 80% of the population of industrialized countries. It is the nervous tension headache, a headache secondary to psychogenic factors which are mainly dominated by stress, fatigue and anxiety. Most often, patients self-medicate by taking pain medication such as paracetamol . Ophthalmic migraine is a pathology whose symptoms can be reduced by taking essential oils. The use of some of them would favor the disappearance of the crisis.