At 8:20, Heather Case's alarm wakes her with the sound of chirping birds, her first attempt to break the cycle of headaches she gets so often. "It's very serene and it kind of wakes me up."
At 8:45, as she makes her morning shake and breakfast, Heather knows the day will be loud and stressful. At 9 a-m the emails, the phone calls, the stress start at home.
9:20 a-m she leaves for work as a magazine executive. 9:45 she gets there and dives right in...checking email again, meeting with co-workers and scheduling talent. 10:30 a-m, the headache starts. "It will start here and it will feel like my head is sort of compressing in. I know I am in a bad place when it hurts just right here."
By 3 p-m, a lot of factors have combined to make things worse. "I won't get to eat, and then I get too hungry, and then it's later, and then my day progresses and them I'm at an event."
An unhealthy recipe that experts say affect more and more of us today...independent men and women. Tension headaches caused by real changes in our bodies. "Stress does cause a lot of chemicals to be produced in order to deal with the stress and some of those chemicals have effects on blood vessels. These headaches seem to be more common in women," says Dr. Alan Rothfield, pulmonologist.
6 p-m, she finally leaves work for a business party. "It's hard to say no because you want to sort of be present and thriving and communicating and networking and interacting with people but sometimes I just want to go home and get on my couch and do nothing," says Case.
7 p-m, Heather enters Amy's Aqua Club in Beverly Hills. It's filled with potential clients, agents, celebrities, all trying to get papparazzi and Heather's attention.
An hour and a half, her head is filled with noise, conversation, and drinks. Studies show avoiding alcohol and caffeine and getting some exercise might help Heather break the cycle and not suffer like she did all day.
9:15, it's been almost 14 hours.
"It's late at night, how do you feel?" "Throbbing headache, I just want to go home," says Case.
"When you get home what are you going to do?" "Take time for myself, decompress, and I guess get ready to do it all again tomorrow," says Case.
That was 11 p-m when she hit the bed.
A 14 or 15 hour day before she slept. Some are longer, and she took almost no time to eat and absolutely no time to relax or exercise. So those are the keys...take some time alone, breathe, relax, meditate, exercise. Studies show these reduce stress hormones and increase feel good chemicals.
Speaking of chemicals, many of us use caffeine during the day and alcohol at night, both mess those hormones up, avoid them and you will reduce headaches, and be better at your job and social life.
