Alternative Cures for Occipital Neuralgia

Occipital Neuralgia can be described as a medical condition that affects your occipital nerves, i.e., the nerves running from the top of your spinal cord through your scalp. An inflammation or injury in these nerves could cause you to experience severe headaches. Typically, an occipital neuralgia headache occurs at the base of your head from where it radiates to your scalp. You may feel the pain on one or both the sides of your head.

People often mistake occipital neuralgia for migraine, as their symptoms are quite similar. Some of the other signs and symptoms of occipital neuralgia are:

Pain behind the eyes
Sensitivity to light
Scalp tenderness
Neck pain, which worsens when you move it

Occipital neuralgia occurs when the occipital nerves get compressed because of an injury or inflammation. Some of the conditions that could lead to this include:

Diabetes
Infections
Tumors in the neck
Tightness or tension in the neck muscles
Inflammation of the blood vessels
Gout
Cervical disc disease
Osteoarthritis
Trauma

Very often, the cause of occipital neuralgia cannot be found, which makes the treatment more challenging. At first, your doctor may advise you to relieve the pain with home cures, like:

Heat Therapy: Apply a hot water bag or a heating pad directly on to the neck area. However, make sure that the temperature isn’t too high, or the condition may get worse.
Rest: Lie down in a quiet, dimly-lit or dark room for at least half an hour or until the headache gets better.
Massage Therapy: Get a professional masseuse to gently massage your neck once a week. This relieves the tightness and tension in the neck muscles, thereby reducing the frequency of the headaches.

Over the counter medicines are also quite useful in alleviating the pain. However, if these self-care measures do not seem very effective, your doctor may prescribe drugs like:

Muscle relaxants
Anticonvulsants
Antidepressants
Local nerve blocks
Steroid injections

Some of these medicines could have adverse side effects and therefore, they should not be used for a long period of time. In case drug therapy does not cure the condition, your doctor may suggest surgical procedures, like:

Microvascular decompression, an operation in which the blood vessels compressing the nerves are identified and adjusted.
Occipital nerve stimulation, where electrical impulses are delivered to the occipital nerve through a neurotransmitter in order to block pain messages.

While occipital neuralgia is not a life-threatening condition, it can be quite painful. Therefore, it is best to get it checked and treated by a doctor as soon as possible.

References

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: "NINDS Occipital Neuralgia Information Page
American Association of Neurological Surgeons: "Occipital Neuralgia."
Jan Brandes, MD, director, Nashville Neuroscience Group at St. Thomas Health Services; assistant clinical professor, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn

answered by M W

Home remedies for occipital neuralgia -

Take 2 big glasses of water every time you feel thirsty.
Do Anulom vilom in yoga pranayam for 20 minutes daily early in the morning or when you have neuralgia.
Take 5 sticks of cinnamon in 5 cups of water boil till it reduces to 1 cup then drink this water hot once in a day or when occipital neuralgia occurs.
Take a homeopathic remedy called as Spigellia 30, 5 pills once daily at bed time for 10 days.
After 10 days of the above medicine wait for another 10 days without medicines then take one dose of THUJA 1M [homeopathic] 1 powder dose only once a month 3 times.

answered by D M K

Home Remedies for Occipital Neuralgia: Are there any natural cures for occipital neuralgia?