Headache relief at home, before you reach for a tablet

A tablet is fine for a headache. But most of the headaches that hit at four in the afternoon are not the kind that needs one, and a few small things fix them faster than the tablet takes to dissolve.

Drink a glass of water first

Half the afternoon headaches in a Karachi office are dehydration. Drink a full glass, wait fifteen minutes, and see. If the headache started after a long time without water, this alone often ends it.

Balm on the temples

A menthol and camphor balm does two things: the menthol cools the skin, which distracts the nerves that are reporting the pain, and the camphor opens the sinuses if a blocked nose is part of the problem. MARK Balm is our version, in a wax base firm enough for a Karachi summer.

• Rub a pea-sized amount on each temple and across the forehead.
• A little on the back of the neck where the muscles meet the skull.
• Keep it well away from the eyes; the fumes sting.
• Sit somewhere dim for ten minutes.

For a headache that comes with a cold, add a small amount on the chest and under the nose.

Loosen the neck

Tension headaches start in the neck and shoulders. Slowly drop your chin to your chest, hold for ten seconds, then tilt each ear to its shoulder. Roll the shoulders back five times. It looks like nothing and it works more often than not.

Get off the screen

Twenty minutes with your eyes closed, or looking out of a window at something far away, resets the eye muscles that have been fixed at forty centimetres for hours.

When it is not an everyday headache

See a doctor if a headache is the worst you have ever had, arrives suddenly like a blow, comes with a stiff neck, fever, confusion, weakness on one side, or follows a knock on the head. Also if you have headaches most days: that is a pattern worth treating properly, not managing with balm.

A 25 g tin of MARK Balm is Rs 250 and lasts a family months. Keep one in the drawer and one in the bag.