If you’re Jewish and celebrating Hanukkah and suffering from headaches
and if you aren’t Jewish but are also suffering from headache pain
try the low-cost reliever at the grocery store before reaching for aspirin
or something (more costly and harmful) from your doctor.

The grocery store Rx for headache relief:
Potatoes!

Researchers have just revealed that women suffer from headaches more than men
and if this describes you, make sure you check with your health-care provider to see if
there’s not something more serious going on, and if the doctor can’t find anything
and you want to go to the natural route, try Latkes or Potato Pancakes.
No, that’s not a misprint, eating a 1/2 cup or 1 cup of any root vegetable
could help you get more potassium. And this is important, because it
(potassium) relaxes and opens blood vessels in the brain and inhibits
production of a pain-triggering stress hormone. Eating potatoes,
along with turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips reduces headache flareups
by 24%.

More natural Rxs to help you deal with headache pain.
* Take More Magnesium
Just like potassium, it’s also recommended that you get more magnesium.
Magnesium relaxes the scalp and calms pain nerves, cutting your risk of
tension headaches by 55%.

* A Warm Bath-
If you’re taking warm baths because of the colder weather, you may want to
continue if you also suffer from headaches. Researchers aren’t sure if it’s the warm
water or the fact that you’re more relaxed that’s causing the headaches to end.
So, if you are able to enjoy a warm bath once or twice a week, also do some other
things that you find enjoyable as well, like–talking to friends and relatives on Skype.,
pasting things into a scrapbook, writing posts on a blog, listening to music from your
youth on Youtube or playing board games with the kids. Anything that relaxes you and
makes you happy.

* Gentle Exercise-
If running 3 miles a day or lifting heavy weights at Crossfit is your ideal of fun,
you may want to put these two types of exercise on hold and try something
gentler like yoga, Qigong, Tai Chi or walking indoors.
Gentle forms of exercise relax spasming scalp muscles and boosts your mood.
Plus, these types of workouts relax chronically sore and knotted neck muscles,
another major cause of tension headaches.

* Eat More Barley-
Your brain needs a steady influx of blood sugar to work at optimal levels
and to stay pain-free, so if blood sugar dips too low, it can double your risk of
tension headaches and migraines.
Eat whole grains with plenty of fiber like barley, brown rice, oatmeal and couscous,
in place of white foods, )flour, bread and rice) and your headaches should diminish
more easily.

* Avoid-
Or cut way down on foods that aren’t of sound nutritional value, (foods like white
bread, sugary treats, sugary beverages, high-fructose foods, etc) In addition to
releasing inflammation in all of the organs, this inflammation really winds up in
the brain region.

* Asian Medicine-
The Asians have been practicing different types of alternative medicine for
thousands of years and their cure for headache pain is massage. Sit in a relaxing chair
and massage your jawline, your cheekbones and in the front of your ears for 2 3 mins. t
twice a day, to relieve head pain.


* Get Help-
As mentioned earlier, if your headache persist for 6 or more days each month,
or if your headache’s hurt more than usual or comes with other symptoms
like vision problems or numbness, please see your health-care provider.


And now on to the recipe that’s eaten during the Jewish Holidays.
Today’s recipe is a latke, but it’s also more than a latke, in that it also
contains barley. And one last bit of info, this latke isn’t fried, it’s baked,
as frying foods in one or more inches of oil may also cause veins in the head
to swell.

The Recipe: Barley Potato Latkes!
Ingredients:
1 cup of cooked barley
1 cup of shredded Yukon Gold potatoes
1/2 cup of shredded carrot
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbs. of flour
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Plain yogurt and finely diced chives, (optional)

To make:
Preheat the oven to 400*F.
In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, barley, carrot and scallions.
Throw in the salt and pepper and then the eggs.
Coat a baking sheet with a little olive oil or spray it with Pam
cooking spray. Spoon a 2″ mound of barley and potato onto the baking
sheets and bake for 7 to 8 mins. Flip latkes and bake for another
5 to 6 minutes, making sure to keep an eye on them, so they don’t burn.
Remove from the oven and serve hot with the plain yogurt and chives.
Enough for 3 servings.

And one more tip-
Feel free to use shredded beets, turnips and parsnips along with the potatoes,
you’ll not only be relieving that head pain, you’ll also get other beneficial
nutrients into your system.

Good Luck, Good Eating and Good Health!

Sources:
* Journal of Alternative Medicine
* Michigan TMJ and Headache Institute
* Loma Linda University, California
* The Artisanal Kitchen, The Magazine
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