Essential Oils For Headaches
With 15 percent of Australians taking headache relief medication regularly, headaches are a common nuisance. There are different types of headaches and just as many causes, such as stress, medications, jaw problems, sinus congestion and eye problems.
But you don’t have to sit through the pain and suffer. Essential oils are a natural, toxin-free solution that may help ease the pain and discomfort brought on by headaches.
Benefits Of Essential Oils For Headaches
Depending on the cause of your headache, severity and length of time, different essential oils may assist in unique ways. Some benefits of essential oils for headaches include:
By targeting feelings of pain, discomfort and tension, you may find that your headache starts to ease with the help of essential oils.
Best Essential Oils For Headaches
Every essential oil has versatile properties, meaning that the same essential oil may be used to ease headaches in different ways. Below are some of our favourite essential oils for headaches:
Peppermint Essential Oil
Peppermint Essential Oil (Mentha Arvensis) has a deeply crisp and cool scent. As one of the more popular essential oils, it’s best known for its clearing and energising abilities. Because of its natural menthol content, Peppermint Oil has an antispasmodic (relieves, prevents or lowers the incidence of muscle spasms), pain relieving, anti-inflammatory and decongesting effect.
This makes it the ideal essential oil to help ease headaches and migraines.
How To Use Peppermint Essential Oil for Headaches
Peppermint Essential Oil can be used in several ways:
- Diffusing: To experience these Peppermint Essential Oil benefits you may add a few drops to an essential oil diffuser.
- Warm Bath: For those wanting to create a soothing environment, add a few drops of Peppermint Oil to a warm bath. The refreshing aroma will rise with the steam to help ease headaches, and inflammation and tension.
- Diluting: You can also dilute your Peppermint Essential Oil in a carrier oil, add your dilution to a roller bottle and apply to the forehead, temples and chest. As a general guideline we always recommend a 2 – 4% dilution for skin application and a 1 - 2% dilution for facial application.
Lavender Essential Oil
With its pleasantly sweet and floral aroma, it’s no surprise that Lavender Essential Oil is one of the best essential oils for easing headaches and related discomfort.
Lavender Essential Oil also has sedative properties that are known to relieve irritability and nervous tension.
How To Use Lavender Essential Oil for Headaches
- Diffusing: To experience these Lavender Essential Oil benefits, you may add a few drops to an essential oil diffuser.
- Essential Oil Spray: Another popular way to experience these calming benefits of Lavender Essential Oil is to dilute your oil in water, add to a spray bottle, shake the dilution and spray the mixture onto your pillow.
- Diluting: You can also dilute your Lavender Essential Oil in a carrier oil, add your dilution to a roller bottle and apply to the forehead, temples and chest. As a general guideline we always recommend a 2 – 4% dilution for skin application and a 1 - 2% dilution for facial application.
Chamomile Essential Oil
Chamomile Essential Oil is one of the oldest therapeutic herbs. Primarily recognised for its calming and soothing properties, it is now known to also provide relief to those experiencing headaches.
How To Use Chamomile Essential Oil for Headaches
Chamomile Essential Oil can be used in several ways:
- Diffusing: To experience these Chamomile Essential Oil benefits you may add a few drops to an essential oil diffuser.
- Inhaling: If you don’t own a diffuser or vaporiser, you can add a drop of Chamomile Oil to a handkerchief and inhale, ensuring that the oil does not come into direct contact with the skin.
- Warm Bath: For those wanting to create a calm environment, add a few drops of Chamomile Oil to a warm bath. The sweet aroma will rise with the steam to create a relaxing atmosphere and also help clear sinuses.
- Cleansing Shower: You can receive the aromatic benefits of Chamomile Oil by adding a drop to each corner of your shower. The aroma will rise with the steam to create a soothing environment.
Other Tips To Ease Headaches
There are other methods that may be helpful in lessening the amount of pain caused by headaches. You could take the time to visit a chemist or a health professional for medical advice.
Some of the more natural ways that may help ease headaches, include:
- Drinking more water
- Getting plenty of sleep
- Using a cold pack
- Relaxing with yoga or meditation
- Getting some light exercise
Where To Buy Essential Oils For Headaches
While essential oils are generally available to purchase at health, wellness and retail stores, it is important to keep in mind that the purity and quality of these essential oils will vary. That is why we recommend finding a reputable supplier.
Here at AWO, we have a wide selection of 100% pure essential oils and organic essential oils that are sold at reasonable prices. Because our stock is purchased in bulk quantities our costs are significantly less, which allows us to offer our high-quality products at affordable prices. We are also based right here in Australia!
Essential Oil Safety
Whilst essential oils are natural products, they are extremely potent and can cause serious harm if used incorrectly. For this reason, we recommend the following:
- In line with the Therapeutic Goods Act, we do not recommend ingesting essential oils without the guidance of a registered Aromatherapist or Naturopath.
- Avoid using Essential Oils during pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding.
- We recommend storing your Essential Oils in a cool, dry place at room temperature, ensuring that they are not directly exposed to sunlight and are out of reach of children or pets.
- Essential Oils can be very concentrated and are likely to cause irritation or reactions if applied directly to the skin. For this reason, it is important to first dilute your essential oils before using topically (on the skin). Our recommended dilution percentages can be found under the ‘Best Essential Oils For Headaches’ section.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any illness.