If you thought tea was just for drinking because it tastes good, think again. Teas have an almost endless list of health benefits depending on the tea that you drink. You can get relief from a number of unexpected things when you drink tea – you can drink tea for sore throats, tea for relaxing, and tea for headaches.
Whether you have an occasional headache or are a frequent headache sufferer, you know that having a headache can completely disrupt your life. If traditional medicines aren’t cutting it, there’s no doubt you want to try every option available for you.
Maybe it’s time you turn to tea.
The Best Tea for Headaches
If you’re tired of always popping Advils or any type of pain reliever, or worried about the side effects, you need to give these teas a try. With tea, you don’t have to worry about any addiction to medication, either. You just have to drink a yummy hot drink.
Tea is great for headaches in general because of the relaxing effect of drinking a hot beverage, but some are definitely better than others. Reading up on which teas to drink is going to save you a headache later, since you’ll know exactly what to do.
Ginger Tea
When that headache comes on, brew yourself a cup of ginger tea. You may have heard that ginger aids in easing an upset stomach, but it can also work wonders as a tea for headaches .
Prostaglandins are compounds that our body releases in response to pain. But they also cause inflammation, which can be giving you a headache. Ginger helps to calm tension headaches when it blocks the release of prostaglandins. No prostaglandins could mean no headache.
Many people have reported their migraine headaches disappearing when drinking ginger tea.
Chamomile Tea
Chamomile tea has a reputation for making you sleepy and calm. Add in the fact that it can help with headaches, and it seems like the miracle tea.
Chamomile contains chamazulene. Chamazulene is a compound that has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. So, as with ginger, it can help to calm down headaches caused by tension.
Chamomile tea also is known to help calm anxiety, so if you’ve got a headache and feel unusually stressed out, this is the tea to try.
Feverfew Tea
Of all the teas found on this list, feverfew is one that you’re probably least likely to have heard of, but is still a great tea for headaches and is readily available.
If you’re specifically a migraine sufferer, this could be a great choice for you. Feverfew contains parthenolide, which also helps to inhibit the release of prostaglandins.
Feverfew tea is also thought to help ease the vascular muscles, which could be causing the migraine that you’re experiencing. Some people have experienced a lessening of the other side effects of migraines, which included nausea and noise and light sensitivity.
Peppermint Tea
Not only does peppermint tea taste great, it’s also full of health benefits. It’s known to be great for your skin, and also help to relax people.
But it’s also a good tea for headaches. If you’ve ever smelled peppermint leaves on their own, you may have felt a calming effect. This is much what’s happening inside your body when you drink the tea.
Peppermint also helps to reduce an upset stomach, which is one frequent side effect that headache sufferers likely know too well.
Wintergreen Tea
Wintergreen has long been used as a medicine to cure a number of ailments related to aches and pains in the body. And yes, one of them is for headaches.
Wintergreen contains methyl salicylate, which is closely related to the ingredients found in aspirin. So when you’re sipping on a cup of wintergreen tea, it’s like you’re taking some liquid aspirin in tea form. You can drink two to three cups a day safely without having to worry about forming a dependency.
Green Tea
Green tea is rich in antioxidants, and also in caffeine. In general, tea is likely to help with headaches just because of this factor. If you check many over the counter headache relief pills, you’ll notice they contain a boost of caffeine.
You can get that boost when you make yourself a cup of green tea. It’s important not to overdo it, however. There’s always a delicate balance when it comes to caffeine.
Sometimes, too much caffeine can actually be what’s causing your headache. It’s important to know your body well, so when you’re drinking tea, be sure to monitor how it makes you feel. It’s different for everyone.
Meadowsweet Tea
Meadowsweet tea has a fun name, but you’re going to love it for the properties it contains. It smells like almonds, for one thing. For another thing, it helps calm down your headache.
This tea contains salicin, which is the same compound that’s found in aspirin. It’s often called nature’s aspirin, which makes sense because it’s found in nature.
This a great alternative that’s often suggested in place of using aspirin. So you can stop popping pills and instead brew yourself a few cups of tea.
Go Tea Shopping
As mentioned, each tea might affect each person differently. While one tea helps to prevent headaches and relieve pain for one person, it might not have much of a strong effect on others.
With this in mind, you can safely mix and match teas and try to see what works best for you. You can experiment with trying different teas until you find the one that helps to reduce your headache.
Luckily, you can find all the teas you need to start getting relief in one simple place. There’s literally the world tea directory out there for you to explore. You’ll find tea for headaches, and literally any other tea you could possibly be searching for.
And once you get those teas, you’re going to want to learn how to brew the perfect cup, or find anything you need to know to make you a tea expert in no time.
