What to do if you have a severe cold and headache

Many people always feel severe headaches, but they don’t know the reason, so they miss the best time for treatment. In fact, sometimes headaches may just be a precursor to a cold, because colds are the common causes of headaches. In addition to headaches, patients may also have rhinitis, respiratory tract infections or other problems that require treatment.

What causes cold and headache?

1. Cold headache is a neuralgic headache. The virus causes peripheral inflammatory substances in the body to cause pain and dilate blood vessels. The dilation of blood vessels pulls and stimulates the pain-sensing peripheral nerves of the blood vessels, thus causing headaches.

2. In addition, the pathogenic factors themselves can directly cause cold headaches, such as upper respiratory tract infection involving the paranasal sinuses leading to rhinogenic headaches.

What to do if you have a cold and headache

1. Pay attention to a regular, moderate life with a combination of work and rest. Try not to stay up late and ensure adequate sleep. An owl-like lifestyle of sleeping during the day and coming out at night is not advisable.

2. Pay attention to a reasonable and balanced diet, drink plenty of water, quit smoking and drinking, and eat liquid or semi-liquid, light, high-protein diet; avoid foods such as chocolate, coffee and cold drinks, because these foods contain substances that can cause blood vessels to constrict, which will aggravate cold headaches (cold headaches). Eat more soybeans, whole grains, walnuts and other foods, don't drink alcohol, and eat less spicy food.

3. Keep the room ventilated and reduce going out and physical activities. Deep breathing is effective for headaches caused by lack of oxygen.

4. Drug treatment for primary cold: symptomatic cold treatment drugs or antiviral drugs can be used for treatment.

5. Maintain a good attitude, relax, avoid tension and excessive brain use, which can also relieve headaches. Headaches are often aggravated by various psychological conditions, such as anxiety, stress, tension, fatigue and other psychological perceptions, so relaxing can also relieve headaches.

How to quickly relieve headaches

Although cold headache is just a symptom of a cold, it is still very uncomfortable when it hurts, and may even affect daily study and work. So how can you quickly relieve cold headache?

1. Massage acupoints: There are several major acupoints for pain relief. One is the Hegu point where the thumb and index finger meet, another is on both sides of the spine behind the neck, and the temple next to the outer canthus of the eye. Taking the temples as an example, when massaging, bend the index fingers of both hands into a hook shape, and massage the temples with both hands in a clockwise rotation at the same time. In addition, massaging your neck, back, head or shoulders can also be effective.

2. Soak your feet in hot water: The blood vessels in the feet and calves will expand due to the heat, drawing blood from the head to the feet, thereby reducing the pressure on the blood vessels in the head.

3. Massage the soles of the feet: The soles of the feet are connected to many meridians of the human body, and these meridians are also connected to the head. Therefore, massaging the soles of your feet can stimulate the meridians and reduce the onset of headaches. Especially the Yongquan point on the sole of the foot, which goes directly to the brain. Massaging it can guide blood downward and relieve headaches.

4. Use a hair dryer to heat the upper end of the shoulder blade between the Dazhui point and the Fengmen point on the back of the human body. Because warming the Dazhui point has an analgesic effect, you should make the skin slightly red, and be careful to avoid skin burns.

5. If the headache is severe, you can also take medicine to relieve cold headaches: a combination of acetaminophen and caffeine, such as the new headache version of ibuprofen caffeine tablets, which can directly reach the site of the headache and exert its effect, thereby quickly eliminating the headache and avoiding peripheral side effects.