Make healthy lifestyle choices

A healthy lifestyle can promote good overall health. It also may help prevent all types of headaches, including tension-type headaches. Here are the basics:

• Eat nutritious foods on a regular schedule. Don't skip meals, especially breakfast. Drink plenty of water each day.
• Exercise regularly. Exercise releases chemicals in the body that block pain signals to the brain. Talk with your health care provider about exercise and choose activities you enjoy. They might include walking, swimming or cycling. But be sure to start slowly. Exercising too intensely can cause some types of headaches.
• Get enough sleep. Wake up and go to bed at the same time every day — even on weekends. Relax before you go to bed. If you don't fall asleep within 15 minutes, get up and read or do something soothing until you're drowsy. Avoid medicines that contains caffeine or other stimulants that can affect sleep. This can include some headache medicines. Also keep in mind that sleep apnea can cause tension-type headaches, especially if you have headaches in the mornings. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which breathing stops and starts throughout the night. Seeing a health care provider and getting treatment for sleep apnea can ease its symptoms.
• Avoid large amounts of caffeine. Caffeine may help curb headaches. But heavy daily caffeine use can lead to headaches. Generally, getting more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day — more than about four cups of coffee — can cause headaches and irritability. Regular caffeine use also increases the risk of headaches. Even quitting caffeine can cause headaches. This may happen whether you quit suddenly or cut back gradually.
• Be mindful of common pain medicines. You can buy pain medicine at the store. But using this medicine more than nine days a month can make headaches harder to treat. If this is the case, see a health care provider.
• Quit smoking. The nicotine in cigarette smoke reduces blood flow to the brain. It also triggers a reaction in the nerves at the back of the throat. These changes can lead to a headache.