Ask A Healer Health Challenge Series

Minerals and Vitamins for One-Sided Headaches

Do your headaches always happen just on one side of your head? This nutritional information may provide relief.
© Neva J Howell, All Rights Reserved

Related: Migraine Headache Symptoms and Remedy > Relieving Neck-Related Headaches

This is part of an ongoing series on headaches, and specifically headaches that affect only one side of the head.

You may also want to read about common causes of headaches and left-sided headaches.

This is only a partial list. Check with your doctor for drug interactions and other tests that might help identify why you are having a left-sided headache.

Can vitamin or mineral imbalances really cause a lefti-sided or right-sided headache?

Ronald Roth, webmaster at Acu-Cell Nutrition and Analysis, believes it can and has developed a vitamin and mineral list for addressing left-sided headaches and a different list of minerals and vitamins to take if your headaches occur only on the right side of your head.

In fact, Roth's site is a goldmine of information on minerals, in particular, and highlights the importance of knowing your minerals and vitamins, if you choose to self-treat.

Just taking a handful of supplements every day can lead to an overabundance of some and a deficiency in others, particularly if a person is already deficient in some mineral when they start supplementing with lots of minerals and vitamins.

The information on one-sided headaches is down the page a bit. I'd suggest reading all the great information on different types of headaches in-between. He covers tension headaches, hormonal headaches, migraines, vascular headaches, food allergies that may cause the head to hurt and more. Great resource site for those wanting to educate themselves on specific symptoms that would lead toward investigating a specific cause of headaches.

Although the Acu-Cell site mentions a nutritional analysis that helps to determine which minerals may be lacking or existing in toxic levels, Ronald Roth has a note on the email page saying he no longer takes new patients. I could find no place on the site to contact Mr. Roth.

If you want a blood analysis done, to determine mineral levels and rule out mineral imbalances, talk to your doctor. This is an excellent option, provided you've got a doctor who will listen to you and give you the results you are looking for.

For example, the Acu-Cell analysis provided by Ronald Roth measures a wide range of nutritional levels including essential minerals, trace elements, stomach acid levels, antioxidants, B-12 levels and more. Additionally, the analysis reports on liver, thyroid, adrenal glands and lipid status.

If you want an outpatient option, a hair analysis can provide good information to start you on the path to adjusting vitamin and mineral levels. However, the analysis you get is only as good as the lab and the technicians doing the analysis.

This company offers a variety of home health tests and may be a useful resource

The regulating departments within our government look at hair analysis as fairly unreliable because reports vary from one lab to the next. This is considered to be at least partly because of contamination on the hair itself.

A person who recently got a perm, for example, will have very high levels of certain chemicals and minerals. While reading at toxic levels for a specific period, the test would not indicate a chronic toxicity.

I believe blood testing is the best option. I also believe the right hair analysis report can be a great help, provided you choose someone who knows what they are doing. This may involves some investigation online, googling hair analysis test or hair analysis kit, to find a company and test facility you trust.

Health Disclaimer: Hair analysis and nutritional supplementation to correct mineral imbalances are natural approaches to helping the body heal. They are not represented here as any type of substitute for medical care that may be needed. As mentioned previously, just taking minerals and vitamins by the handfuls can create more problems than it solves. Be wise with your health.