Things to look out for during hay fever season and how it contributes to your headaches and migraines!

It is absolutely prime hay fever season, and there are so many things to do with hay fever. They can add to your headaches and migraines and lots of things that you may not have even known or even suspected. Let's go through some of them. 

When everybody thinks of hay fever, they tend to think of a runny nose or a really congested nose, sneezing, itchy eyes, scratchy throat and those sorts of things. But sometimes hay fever can actually be a lot more subtle than that. 

If you've got some congestion, you can get some really mild congestion through your frontal sinuses up here, and it can make your breathing a little bit stuffier, but not as stuffy as you might think. If you try to take a big breath in through your nose, then it might sound a little bit more blocked, not super clear or alternatively, it might just feel more congested. It's not just a pure breath coming in and out, it will also be harder to breathe. 

When your frontal sinuses are blocked, you take your thumbs and come underneath the ridge of your eyebrows, then it is usually quite an intense pain and you can use a moderate pressure to test that. It can be a sharp pain, it can be a relatively intense pain, and that's telling you that the frontal sinuses are blocked. When your frontal sinuses are blocked, then it can actually lead to quite intense brain fog. So thinking that your thoughts are slowing down or  harder to process things, it can also add to more pain in the forehead region.

You can also get congestion in through your auxiliary sinuses, but when your auxiliary sinus is blocked, then that's when you tend to get more of the real stuffiness or dripping. But if you're just having that general stuffiness where it's a little bit harder to breathe, that's when it tends to be the frontal sinuses.

Sometimes you can get some eye irritation and if you're having eye irritation, it can make it harder to focus on screens. You can also get that little bit of an itch in the back of the throat that doesn't have to be a full scratchy throat. It can be a little bit of an itch in the throat.

But if you are having hay fever symptoms, like general congestion, it can mess with things. Not just because you're having stuffy sinuses, which can give you pain, but it can mess with some other things too. So if you're not breathing as well as what you could do, then you can be using your accessory breathing muscles. 

If you're not breathing quite so well, then it can alter how you're sleeping. You may not be sleeping as well. You may be mouth breathing when you're sleeping. You can also mouth breath during the day as well, which then can cause some jaw tension too. You may also be snoring throughout the night. You may experience more clenching because of your altered breathing.  All these sorts of things can lead to an increase in headaches and migraines. 

So if you're getting some sinus problems due to hay fever, they might be more mild symptoms than you suspect, then all these things can lead to an increase in headaches and migraines. You need to look out for more general stuffiness, a little bit of a tickle in the throat, and some eye discomfort,

But if you're noticing that you’re getting some kind of different symptoms or the pain is more sensitive around the center and the front of your face when usually you’re getting pain in like your brain fog seems much more severe than it was before, then you may have some hay fever or some sinus associated issues going on.

The best thing to do is to speak to your doctor. Alternatively, the pharmacist is the best course of treatment for you. But hay fever certainly is rampant. We've had a lot of wind here in Melbourne. The temperature is changing all over the place. The flowers are in bloom. So it's always best to check out to see whether hay fever, or sinus issues may be affecting you because they can certainly add that extra layer of pain towards your headaches and migraines.

Anything that we can do to make migraine headaches better is all the better. So do you think that hay fever might be affected? Let us know and hopefully these things will help to make your headaches and migraines a bit better as well. 

You can speak with our practitioners to learn more about how hay fever can impact your overall well being, ways to help it and how it may/may not be impacting your headaches and migraines. Visit us at melbourneheadachesolutions.com.au or book a consultation at 03 9486 7543.