I have a tension headache for about one year now.
The doctor said that the only way for the is to take antidepressants.
Before doing that I want to try one last thing.
I made some research and I found out that the best herbs for treating
tension headaches are guarana, ginseng and white willow. I plan to take all three of them.
I already found proof in the internet that there is synergy between guarana and ginseng. Is that so?
Also how about white willow? Does the combination of the three is a good idea?
I would be happy to recieve some advice.
Hi Lucy,
I am unfortunately not aware of the effects of the plants you mentioned against headaches. But if you want to make sure that they may be helpful, I would suggest you to make some extensive research in the Pubmed search engine. The Pubmed search engine will allow you to confirm that there is indeed solid scientific evidence behing what you may have read elsewhere.
However, what I do understand in your message is that your doctor has made a diagnosis for depression, because he wants to prescribe you antidepressors. If my assumption is correct, he believes that your headaches are a somatic (physical manifestation or symptom) of your depression. If you then want to research an natural alternative to combat depression, you may want to read about 5-HTP, a natural product which is produced inside your own body, and which then turns into seroronin when it crosses inside your brain through the blood circulation. A lack of serotonin is thought to be behind most depressions and their associated symptoms.
Many people claim to have alleviated their depressions and associated symptoms by taking natural 5-HTP supplements in pill form. Again, please read about this on the Pubmed website to get the whole picture, and also read user comments on forums across the Web. I can testify to the fact that when my own mom was diagnosed with depression associated with disempowering headaches, a 100mg daily dose of 5-HTP for about 2-3 weeks was all it took to make the headaches dissappear; they have not returned since. This is just an anecdote and I cannot promise you that you will achieve comparable results, but I want you to know that it is possible.
Good luck and enjoy reading and informing yourself further.
Greg.
Thank you very much for your advice about Pubmed! I will check it out!
Well, I wasn't actually diagnosed with depression, but the doctor said that the antidepressants just are proven to work on tension headaches as well. But the thruth is my mood is not exactly the best, since my head hurts all the time. I will check this 5-HTP as well. Thank you very much! 
Same here, not much I can suggest besides taking one at a time to see if they work. If you take all 3 at the same time you won't know which one helped you.
Hope you find your answer and get well soon. ;-)
I thank you too Greg, I've never heard of this 5-HTP, good to know.
so nice to hear from other people about things that have helped.
im on nasty drugs for issues and just dislike it so much and doctors are pushing more drugs.
Lucy, I know any pain is bad and makes us feel so awful in many ways.
i have finally found meditations, guided ones and finally learning how to create my own in my head. It has taken me so many years to find what helps. I've bought books, so many books, finally someone said buy a guided meditation on cd. And then I took a class at a yoga studio on meditation. Very helpful.
its hard to make time for it, but when I hurt, I'm so glad it helps most of the time. It's also helping me learn to enjoy the little things. I stress easily and more so now on my drugs, but I'm determined to get off these things. I certainly smile a whole lot more these days!!
I had headache of sorts last few days, I inhaled an essential oil and was pleasantly surprised the head ache subsided for a bit, did it again little later and it helped. Also, believing things WILL help really assists the body to believe it too. I've been really researching the affects of our thoughts/beliefs too after hearing others who basically healed themselves of things.
Best of luck to you and feeling better.
Acupuncture is another choice. Try some of the minerals such as magnesium, Selenium and Zinc.
Meditation and deep slow breathing for several minutes through your nose might help too.
If you sit at a desk most of your day try breaking it up by standing or walking around to relieve tension. Stay away from anti depressants. They will have no good effects long term.
Yes, for selenium just take 1 Brazil nut daily but make sure you are not taking other vitamins or foods that have selenium. For Mag and Zink their is one suplement that has these 2 plus B6 - It's called ZMA, many good options available.
Tried that already. Doesn't work.
Tried it. Mg, Zinc and Selenium don't work. I meditate and do yoga.
Then go fo the herbs, but try one at a time. ;-)
There are unwanted commercial ads interrupting my attempts to answer
Give up ALL WHEAT, in every form. Search for blogs where people report no more headaches after giving it up
But you still have the headaches, right? We are all diferent, what work for some don't work for others. So you need to try everything at least once and at the end of the rode if nothing works then you need to take the medications which shoud be the last option because is most cases they cause more side effects that will lead to more problems. ;-( Sure, your Doctor wil just ask you if you headaches are better.
Try eliminating foods from your diet to see if your allergic. Keep the gut free of bad bacteria.
Thank you -- is that an app?
I'm never quite sure what app means. It's a free gizmo I downloaded and I never see any ads.
Thanks for the advice. I will try them one at a time. I will try alternative medicine, but my patience is not limitless. I know for sure, that pills work. The doctor prescribed topiramat for my migraine attacks, which were very sever. Sometimes 3 days straight I was out of it from pain. I have (or had) a combination of migraine and tension headache. Topiramat is normally prescriped against epilepsy and it has bad side effects. Fortunately it works. But I regret taking it. If I can heal without going through this again, it would be amazing. I plan to try Ayurveda in august. I have given myself this deadline - if till october nothing works, than unfortunately I will have to deal with antidepressants.
Thank you for the advice. I will search and inform myself about that. I consume wheat very rarely though and I am vegan, so I doubt that is the reason, but I will check it out nevertheless.
I will keep more attention to that. Thank you.