Constant Headache Causes and Solutions

Oh, My Aching Head!


From throbbing temples to aching eyeballs and that pressure so tense it feels like your head is about to explode. I don't have to tell you about the misery of headaches.

Your children, your boss and the IRS can cause terrific headaches. I can't help you there. However, metal toxicities may be the source of your agony. Fortunately, they are relatively easy to fix. In fact, different kinds of headaches happen based on the specific metal toxicity. Change your eating habits and your headaches should vanish.

Front headaches:

Women are much more likely to suffer a frontal headache, which I describe a pain located directly behind the eyes. The chief reason is frontal headaches tend to arrive during PMS week.

Too much copper and not enough zinc cause frontal headaches. A woman's copper level rises during PMS week to prepare her uterine lining for shedding. If her body already has too much copper, this increased load will throw her body out of balance. Headaches are just one result of too much copper.

The solution: Eat more high zinc foods. This advice may not be politically correct, but lean protein has the greatest single impact on zinc absorption. Lean protein consists of lean meat (that's tenderloin, not greasy hamburgers), lean pork, chicken and turkey without the skin, fish, shellfish and eggs.

If you are a vegetarian and suffer from these headaches, you might want to start eating protein two days before PMS is scheduled to begin and then stop eating meat once your period starts.

Of course, you must avoid all foods high in copper. That includes many of the foods you crave at this time because of the copper piling up in your tissues. No more chocolate, peanut butter, mushrooms, avocados, grapes, crab, lobster, shrimp, pecans, walnuts and almonds.

Unless you are severely toxic with copper, changing your eating habits during the third week of your cycle should alleviate these symptoms. So will the wild yam cream.

Men, of course, can become toxic with copper, too, especially if they drink water traveling through copper pipes or spend a lot of time in swimming pools that use algaecides, which are always made of copper. For you guys, just change your eating habits to prevent the headaches in the future.

Band headaches:

These headaches feel as though a tight band is squeezing your head tighter and tighter. Mercury poisoning is typically the cause here.

If your body has too much mercury, other symptoms may be present, too. These include a metallic taste in your mouth, dizziness, difficulty speaking, excessive salivation and forgetfulness.

Contaminated fish is the most likely source of dietary mercury. Mercury is also found in skin lightening creams. Mercury is also a potent fungicide. It may be an ingredient in the stuff you sprayed your yard with last week-end.

Fireplace season will soon be upon us. Don't burn newspaper in your fireplace. Paper products like newsprint contain mercury to inhibit fungus. When you burn newsprint, mercury vapor is given off during combustion.

Zinc once again is the hero here. If you increase your zinc level relative to your mercury level, the headaches should disappear. Also, take one 18 milligram iron tablet with a vitamin C rich food like orange or tomato juice at night before bed. Increasing the iron to mercury ratio will help, too.

Finally, eat lots of garlic. Garlic is especially high in amino acids that contain sulfur. These amino acids are very powerful in helping the body eliminate mercury.

Temporal headaches:

A temporal headache is one that causes either side of the head to pound. The pain is usually located right behind the ear.

Cadmium is the villain here. Cadmium is a toxic metal that is given off by burning petrochemicals, plastics and tires. Battery factories are a good source of cadmium but so is burning tobacco. (Here's another good reason to quit smoking.) Cadmium is used as a stabilizer in PVC pipes and as a pigment in paint. (Hello, fellow home improvement addicts.)

Farmers also use cadmium laced fertilizers for their crops. Soil concentrations of cadmium continue to increase. This means that the cadmium content of foods grown in these soils increases, too.

What's the super nutrient to fix this problem? You guessed it! Zinc!

When your body gets rid of copper, you might suffer from brownish "liver" spots as your body sheds the toxicity. You typically feel nothing when you precipitate mercury from your tissues. But removing cadmium from the body can produce flu-like symptoms. Be warned.

Parietal headaches:

A parietal headache causes pain at the top of the head that radiates down the sides. This kind of headache is more common to men than women. The villain here is too much iron. Too much iron is also associated with migraines, nausea and visual disturbances.

You can get too much iron in many ways. Over supplementation is one cause. Taking too much iron is one explanation. Taking too much vitamin C will produce the same results since vitamin C enhances iron absorption. (You know that because you're eating an orange with your iron supplement, right?)

Too much drinking can be damaging since alcohol causes increased iron absorption. Red wines and imported dark beers also have much iron. That's why many people get headaches when they drink a robust Cabernet wine but do not suffer with a crisp Chardonnay. Liver diseases like cirrhosis can also lead to iron overload.

Herbs can contribute to an iron toxicity. Peppermint, chickweed, comfrey root, licorice root and golden seal all have high iron levels.

How do you fix this? Drink tea. The tannins block iron absorption. Also, indulge in dairy products, especially milk and cheese. They can cut iron absorption by 60 percent. That's because the body can only utilize iron if the stomach has an acid environment. Take an antacid, which has calcium, to reduce the acidity in the stomach

Dull headaches:

Blame a lead toxicity for these. You know about lead water pipes. Now you can't buy a house built before 1978 without receiving a lead paint report from the seller (a new federal law added to the one outlawing lead based paints in 1971.)

Don't store things you eat in pottery. Lead can leach into the food from the ceramic crock. Cosmetics and hair dyes still contain lead.

Increase consumption of calcium rich products to mobilize the lead from your tissues. That includes dairy products, green leafy vegetables like cabbage and kale, as well as broccoli and cauliflower. Iron also forces lead out of the tissues. Drink more red wine? You could. But I'd eat more red meat, the best source of iron available. Also, cook with a cast iron skillet.

If you suffer from headaches, the best way to permanently remove them is to have a Tissue Mineral Analysis. This laboratory analysis will test 35 different trace elements and heavy metals, including the copper, lead, mercury, zinc, iron and cadmium in your body. You will know exactly what toxicities you have. Then, the report, which I call a road map to your body, will scientifically prescribe an eating plan just for you to correct your biochemical imbalances. It will also tell you what supplements to take to mobilize these heavy metals and get them out of your body!