I often take painkillers (acetaminophen aka paracetamol), but I’ve noticed that it’s much more effective if I take them TOGETHER with my ADHD medication (ritalin aka methylphenidate) + my morning coffee. If I don’t take them AT the same time, the painkiller is far less effective.
I do not exceed the maximum dosage of painkiller (1gram per intake, mornings), but alone this would barely suffice to kill my morning headache.
My hypothesis is that since the LIVER has to convert all three, I am effectively overdosing on either substance (painkiller or ADHD meds), and damaging my liver in the process.
I know, but I’ve headaches since I was about 10 (now almost ~30), and the only causes for this that I can seriously come up with is: being sensitive af in general, which then leads to being (subconsciously) easily stressed, which then, results in headache. This happens during the day, but I also (more) frequently wake up with a headache for no reason. This even happens in the summer, when I’m not doing ANYthing (no school, university, work). I am generally perfectly healthy. I am hydrated, eat healthy, etc. I don’t exercise an awful lot, but when I do (for months), I barely notice any difference.
Being “sensitive” (whatever that means exactly) is the only weird but plausible explanation. Reading the other comments, though, like sleep apnea, I’m curious if that’s anything…
If you have the option, I would suggest going to a Dr before assuming anything is the only plausible explanation.
Personally, I found out about my neck / posture issues (even though outwardly I have decent looking posture so I never assumed it would be that), got some excercises from a physio and a completely different pillow, and that combo drastically reduced my headaches
But did you talk about it with a medical trained person ? In the end its just a damaged nerve in your neck or sonething that can be easily fixed with proper care.
I did many times but most of the time I was just advised to “try eating and sleeping better” which I kind of already did, but improving those did not make a difference whatsoever. I also went to many physiotherapists and one manual orthopedic doctor. Nothing was ever improved.
Except one time when I went to a acupuncturist who also added some spiritual woo, and that actually remedied a part of it.
That combined with what you mentioned about cannabis triggering your headache sounds like the issue might be your trigeminal nerve (my guess mylohyoid) or similar nerve branch in the neck area. Sleeping likely causes it because there’s constant pressure on it at night as you sleep.
An orthopedic pillow might help, something such as this for example: https://www.amazon.com/Osteo-Cervical-Odorless-Adjustable-Orthopedic/dp/B09964WTF5?th=1&psc=1
Alternative hypothesis would be it’s blood pressure related, perhaps orthostatic hypotension or fluctuating hypertension - you can test this by getting a good blood pressure machine and checking in the morning before you get up from bed without moving much, immediately after sitting up, immediately after standing, and then stay standing still for 1 minute and take again.
Probably don’t need the coffee by the way considering the medicine you take (Ritalin)
Wow interesting! I’ll be saving for a pillow like this. I thought about measuring blood pressure in the morning, as well. But I doubt these things come cheap. I’m curious though how you linked cannabis is causing headache to, nerves in my neck area might be causing headaches. I’ve been cooking up a lot of potential (intermediate) causes, but nothing like this.
Trigeminal nerve pain can be triggered/worsened by an enlarged vein pushing against the nerve at just the right spot. Cannabis causes hypotension via vasodilation, hence the potential trigger.
The thing is, veins don’t grow perfectly parallel, which means hypertension can also cause pain via vasoconstriction, if the vein slightly spirals around the nerve and also constricts; think like a snake wrapped around an arm and squeezing. So it’s possible both localized vasodilation and vasoconstriction are causing these headaches, considering the times the headache is worst ("cannabis use or after waking up) and mild but constant (after stimulants like caffeine).
If your pressure is a bit high during the day, a very small dose of a vasodilator drug taken after your medication would normalize it and that would, hopefully, stop the pain overall. You could still have orthostatic blood pressure issues too, but certain mild exercises can help with those too (assuming there’s no other underlying blood flow issues).
But there’s not enough data to say conclusively, hence taking your blood pressure as directed, as well as throughout the day sitting (after sitting at least 3 minutes without moving much) to see if there’s any abnormalities with it, as well as the orthopedic pillow. If the pillow helps it also narrows down the cause.
That said, if it’s the trigeminal nerve and you can’t control the veins there well through medication… Good luck I suppose. Most surgeons won’t want to cauterize because of mild (yet constant) pain. Acupuncture could achieve the same result, but that would be a scary gamble, because there’s also potential they hit the nerve wrong with the micro needle and instead worsen the pain. That would be a last result solution, assuming it’s the trigeminal nerve causing you issues.
Forgot to mention, don’t know where you live, but Omron makes good enough yet affordable blood pressure machines. Just don’t ever get anything for the wrist.
But caffeine is not causing any headaches. Did I accidentally imply that somewhere? It’s rather enhancing the painkiller’s effect. In fact, a few times I drank around 14 espressos just for fun and curiosity, and I never got any headaches. Although, normally, if I don’t also drink a glass of water immediately afterwards, I have a reasonable chance of developing a headache, which is not due to dehydration, oddly enough, because drinking other hydrating substances (like milk in the coffee) does not help; It has to be water. Another reason to think this is that the headache can already start a few minutes in, which is way too fast for dehydration to happen.
I know this doesn’t add any value (and probably only confusion), but taking coffee at certain times, as well as sugar and other kind of (especially processed) foods, does indeed lead to headaches, but these moments are just random moments during the day (or week) which I can only just intuitively feel; so I can feel when they are ‘at play’, it’s like I’m just more ‘vulnerable’ to certain substances at these moments. That’s the only difference. Took me years to realize. I know this sounds wacky as hell. Way too weird and vague. Especially considering I have no allergies or any other medical condition whatsoever (same for family members). (Yes perhaps ADHD but even I doubt that to some extend.) So perhaps best to ignore this last paragraph, because I don’t know what to make of it, except being just sensitive.
I’m living in west europe. These blood pressure machines are actually not that expensive. God, I feel stupid to not have searched for this sooner. I even see the Omron devices for ~70 euros. I’m in great student loan debt but I’ll gladly make room for this device
I did misunderstand about the association with the caffeine and your headache. But if anything, the new information provided, along with what you mentioned about water, narrows it down further to you potentially having some form of hypotension.
You very are likely dehydrated btw. Milk and juice are not hydrating - milk is only 88% water, but the sugars and fats included in the milk reduce how much of that water your body absorbs. Likewise many juices have so much sugar that it also lowers how much water to get from it in your gut, and if your blood glucose is already high it hydrates you even less. Speaking of, have you ever done a glucose test at a doctors? Either way, water would be your best option.
Coffee is a natural diuretic, meaning it dehydrates you faster as well. Dehydration causes hypotension as well (although in rare cases, such as me and my mother, you can experience paradoxical effects, just to keep in mind).
High blood glucose levels and unstable blood pressure are not commonly obvious medical conditions, which is why they’re annoying.
If you have doubts about your ADHD, speak with your doctor (not a psychologist) about it. You can also do some comparative tests on yourself (when on vacation of some sort) of before and after. Take such a test while on your medication, and then wait 3 weeks (to make sure your body is fully clear of the medication) then do such a test again (not the exact same test though). If there’s significant deviation, then you should probably keep taking the medication, but if there isn’t, then maybe talk with a doctor about it.
It’s important you don’t quit a medication such as Ritalin at once though, so the titration schedule should look something like this:
Day 1✓ 2× 3✓ 4× 5✓ 6× 7× 8✓ 9× 10× 11✓ 12+ stop
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, just someone with a lot of medical knowledge from self study from medical and pharmacological text books due to my and family members medical conditions. I recommend to a doctor first and foremost, but used to live in the USA, where going as needed is not financially viable for many, even with great insurance.
Lastly, if you shop around, you might find a good Omron device even cheaper on sale, if you’re on a budget. Even they’re basic models are well enough, since they are actually medically calibrated on good data sets.
Find another doctor, and another one after that…
Unfortunately, most doctors SUCK, if you have even a slightly complicated or unusual problem.
I have some chronic pain issues as well, some of which were solved and some are managed. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Have you tried getting a second opinion or maybe a different type of medical provider? I had headaches as well that turned out to be largely brought on by stress and also some bad posture. I did get an MRI+MRA just to be sure nothing was actually wrong in the brain itself, but techniques to reduce the causes were helpful to me. Good luck!
CBG can be really helpful for headaches. I use it for migraines and a lot of times i can wait until i get home to take prescription meds that make me feel weird. Lots of people use it as a preventative with about half the frequency/severity. Helps with migraine nausea too.
Another hypothesis is bruxism (teeth grinding). Some people have it during the day, others (like me) have it during sleep. Stress and anxiety makes it worse. I only discovered I had it because people heard me biting my teeth against each other while asleep. I went to a dentist, she made me a mouth guard that I use every night before going to sleep, and the morning headaches stopped since then.
I tried this as well. I bought a (DIY) mouth guard. Did not do much if anything, unfortunately.
This was at the same time I heard about injecting botox in your head skin and jaw to relax muscles. Sounds weird but worth a try
Ok, follow up question. If you don’t take a painkiller in the morning, how does the headache progress?
Usually it will not go away the whole day. Only in the evening that it starts to subside. And when I decide to take it, I need to do it in a specific way. E.g. direct lying extremely comfortably, but not sleeping, or it won’t be as effective. Or drinking coffee in front of my pc. And a few other ones. I don’t get why but I usually just feel what specific ‘ritual’ works best for any given moment. Sometimes I guess wrong and the headache won’t disappear. This combination with coffee and adhd med seems to work best though.
Migraines come during sleep like that, but if Paracetamol works no way is it a migraine. That stuff literally does nothing for any pain I’ve had, ever.
I agree with everyone here, this seems like a lifestyle thing - if your body is indeed sensitive to stress and relaxation, you are not doing it any favors with the paracetamol. Likely too stressed in day, too relaxed at night, the sudden change a trigger. Obviously you don’t want to fix that by being tense while asleep, so tackling the day stress responses make more sense. Do you exercise?
What happens if you just have either coffee or the Adderall in the morning, without the painkiller drug?
Not tested excessively, but quite sure it’s not relieving the headache whatsoever.
I do not exercise. Usually I cycle to uni about 40mins a day, 4 times a week. I’ve exercised more rigorously in the past, running each day, but the effect is not significant… So unfortunate. But exercise is quite wearisome
Have you seen a neurologist or headache specialist or only a GP? If there is a cause maybe it can be treated and you can find relief. I do get migraines, but not every day, not even every week. My other guess is allergies, but in any event, keep a good record of what you are doing and feeling, and bring the information to a doctor! I don’t think it’s wrong at all to post and ask though, you get more ideas and that will help.
Running doesn’t help me as much as a vigorous yoga class, the “flow” kind that is more athletic and movement based, then moves to static poses at the end. Or dancing, that works too. The cycling sounds like enough, honestly, anything that is regular and kind of exhausting, will relax your mind.
Only a general practitioner (a general doctor, right?). Although, no headache specialist, I have visited some people, like many physiotherapists, one manual orthopedic doctor, and one acupuncturist.
Yep, I try to record my input and output to some extend. My ‘journal’ up til now is really weird, vague, and incomplete. I can probably try a kind of (mentally) relaxing exercise but honestly don’t know what. Something like yoga indeed, but not sure if exactly that is something for me.