Q. I have had an ice pick headache for days. I just read on your website that a spoonful of mustard might help, and at this point I am desperate to try anything.
I never buy into home remedies like this, but as they say, any port in a storm. So I swallowed a spoonful of yellow mustard 15 minutes ago. Now I have no more stabbing pains.
A. Ice pick headaches are described as sharp sudden excruciating pain. It is somewhat unusual for them to last for days.
Some time ago we heard from an individual who found that swallowing a teaspoon of yellow mustard offered relief from long-lasting ice pick headaches. We are glad to learn it helped you too.
Other Remedies That Might Help
Ice pick headaches are a variant form of migraine, so it is possible that some of the other unusual home remedies people have found helpful for migraine headaches might also be helpful. These include deliberately inducing “brain freeze,” a headache triggered by drinking extremely cold liquid or eating ice cream or a slushy. Although it sounds paradoxical, triggering an ice cream headache early on, just as a migraine is starting, seems to derail the migraine for some people.
Another approach that readers have found helpful is consuming hot spicy soup. Some are gumbo enthusiasts, while others prefer hot and sour Chinese soup. There are even some individuals who simply use cayenne pepper to ward off an incipient migraine.
