Most of them involve natural means of conditioning your body or finding ways to take pressure off of pained body parts.

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Prescription opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin, morphine, and codeine are potential gateway drugs. Chronic use of aspirin, ibuprofen, and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding, and are responsible for as many as 16,500 deaths per year in this country alone.

What you need is a solution that gets rid of the pain and, even better, has beneficial side effects that promote wellness throughout your body.

To achieve successful pain relief, symptoms should continue to be treated. Pain is distracting, and you need to feel well enough so that you’ll be able to focus on a strategy to resolve the underlying cause and either lessen or eliminate it altogether.

These are natural pain relief measures you can use to help relieve symptoms of pain that have just occurred:

Injury: Ice for the first couple of days to reduce inflammation, then moist heat after the first to second day, which will boost blood circulation and promote tissue healing.

Strained muscles: Add magnesium (such as Epsom salts) or sodium bicarbonate to a hot bath to help relieve inflammation and soothe muscle strains.

To work on managing pain that is chronic or intermittent, there are a variety of options from which to choose.

Relaxation: When in pain, we tend to take shorter breaths. Be conscious of how you’re breathing and whether it’s shallow. Draw out your breath, as it will help relax your body. That dispersal of tension will also help disperse pain symptoms. Think of childbirth and how breathing methods have been used for years – It’s a way to work through the pain and relax.

Most doctors see their relationship with their patients as a partnership, where both of you need to work together.

Here are the top 10 things doctors want you to either stop or start doing, so that they can take better care of you.

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Stop talking on your cell phone while you’re in the exam room. Your health is an important thing…the phone call can wait.

Stop lying. From sexual practices to bad eating habits, many patients choose not to disclose the full truth to their physicians. Unfortunately, the only way a doctor can treat you to the best of their ability is if they have as complete a picture as possible about your particular health needs. Stop being so afraid that your doctor will judge you, and start telling them the truth.

Start describing what you’re feeling as accurately as possible. Is your pain sharp or dull? Is your headache more in your temple or towards the middle of your head? These details may not seem important, but they can help your doctor make the right diagnosis for you to start feeling better.

Doctors agree that if possible, you should describe the exact location of your problem, how intense the pain is, what may have provoked it and how long it’s lasted. To help you remember, write down your symptoms, as well as any questions that you may have for the doctor during your appointment.

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With the power of  alternative medicine, and several simple home remedies, you can take control of headaches naturally.

“It is easy to become reliant on drugs — we all live in a fast-paced nation, and there is little understanding when you miss obligations over a headache,” says Moshe Lewis, MD, a pain management specialist in Redwood City, Calif.

The next time you feel the pounding about to begin, try these 5 ideas to conquer headaches:

Acupressure. Performed by a qualified practitioner, acupressure can bring relief for headaches and a variety of other pain-related conditions, says Lewis. Japanese research explains that acupressure may work by stimulating the autonomic nervous system, which is why it may have an impact on headache and related conditions such as chronic neck pain.

Though recent studies haven’t been done, earlier research on 500 people with frequent headaches found that self-administered acupressure was helpful and worth trying because there are no negative side effects.

Ice. Applying ice or a cold pack to an injury is an age-old home remedy for all types of pain, and it may do the trick for migraines and other headache pain, too. Wrap your cold pack in a thin cloth to prevent your head from becoming too cold and apply it directly to your forehead.

Following are totally doable tricks that can offer big benefits. These little health moves can make you stronger, smarter—even happier.

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Stop a migraine. Have sex! Many people say a headache is a reason to not have sex. In fact, there’s data that in 66% of women, having sex at the initiation of migraine symptoms prevents the headache from coming.

Ease back pain. Strengthen your core. A lot of back pain is not just about weak back muscles; it’s about having weak core muscles. Get a 10 minute core workout DVD and do it 3 – 4 times a week. That way you’ll get the variety of exercises you need, without focusing too heavily on one area, like the abs.

Boost your immune system. Take 1,000 IU of vitamin D a day. D greatly affects your immunity, in addition to enhancing bone density.

Read: Healthy Mother’s Day Gifts

Why? Like most cultures, African Americans throughout history have discovered and adopted various natural remedies from their African roots, as well as those from Native Americans. Of course, these remedies passed from generation to generations, from mother to daughter, father to the son. The result? An amazingly rich list of natural therapies, healers and soothers.

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Note: Most doctors agree that the most ideal solution to most conditions and diseases is, when possible, a marriage of both natural remedies and a physician’s care, since it’s sometimes very difficult to control the quality and recommended dosages of different ingredients – or to completely understand what ingredients may conflict with other medications or health conditions. Therefore, be sure to consult with your doctor before starting any treatment.

Some of mom’s favorite natural cures include:

Apple Cider Vinegar

Of all the well-touted natural health remedies that exist today, very few are followed quite as religiously as taking a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar every day. Apple cider vinegar has been hailed as a cure-all supplement, from allergy relief to weight loss. Anywhere you look, you can find people who believe that drinking apple cider vinegar has helped them.

Just some of ACV’s well-touted benefits may include:

• Lowers cholesterol
• Weight loss
• Appetite supression
• Diabetes Management

Read: Apple Cider Vinegar: What’s It Good For?

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has a surprising number of health benefits, from relieving stress to bolstering your immune system. It’s rich in the lauric, capric and caprylic acids. These omega three fatty acids give it its antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti fungal properties. It can be used to cook food, moisturize skin, and treat infections.

Benefits may include:

• Improves skin
• Promotes weight loss
• Relieves stress
• Helps repair/grow hair
• Improves healing
• Fights Infection

Read: 10 Reasons You Need Coconut Oil

Onions

Onions are an important old folk remedy ingredient believed to help combat infections and reduce fever due to its anti-bacterial qualities. It’s important to note that onion use can lead to allergic reactions in rare instances, so caution is advised. Onion powder is usually less potent than fresh onion. It is very important to consult with your doctor if you experience a fever that lasts for more than a couple of days.

Onions may help to relieve:

• Coughs and colds
• Nausea
• Acne control
• Insect bite
• Insomnia
• Dental problem
• Fever
• Heat stroke

Many people believe that eating raw onions helps to prevent heat stroke during the summer. If you already have heat stroke, however, rubbing onion paste onto the soles of your feet may provide some relief, as well as putting onion slices on your feet can help ease a fever.

A special favorite of moms? Chop up those raw onions and roll them in a handkerchief, then tie them at ankles and wrists to break a fever. Or, cut up onions under the bed and close the door.

Cod Liver Oil

Of those Americans, about 50 million are women, according Campaign to End Chronic Pain in Women.

Today, a new study in the Journal of Pain reports that women seeking medical care for a wide range of medical problems in the hospital or clinics at Stanford University School of Medicine reported higher pain intensity, on average, compared with men with these same diagnoses.

Women reported more intense pain than men in 14 of 47 disease categories. Men did not report more intense pain in any category. Women with musculoskeletal disorders such as back, neck and joint pain, sinusitis and even high blood pressure reported more intense pain then men with these conditions.

Authors cautioned that this study cannot determine whether pain is actually experienced more intensely by women or whether women simply communicate better with their health care providers about pain.

But many other medical experts are skeptical about the Stanford study. They say the authors didn’t account for the possibility that if many women had additional diseases that caused pain, it could actually be the other diseases, and not their gender, which is responsible for the women having more pain than men.

“It’s a flawed study,” said Dr. Lloyd Saberski, medical director of the Advanced Diagnostic Pain Treatment Centers at Yale University. “Just how accurate is the data collected? Probably not too accurate.”

He said the study was “dangerous” and potentially misleading and adds “nothing” to doctors’ understanding of pain. Researchers did not control for factors such as coexisting depression and disease severity, he said.

Dr. Timothy Collins, assistant clinical professor of neurology at Duke University Medical Center, said researchers should have added this caveat: “Men consistently report lower levels of pain compared to women.”

“At least in the US, there is a culture expecting men to complain less, not admit to as much pain, where women are generally allowed to express pain and emotions connected with pain,” he said.

Dr. Carol Warfield, chairman of the department of anesthesia, critical care and pain medicine at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center agreed the study was interesting, but a “big point” was missed.

“There have been a number of reports indicating that in our society stoicism is often considered virtuous, especially in men,” she said. “Therefore, men may be less likely to report high levels of pain even if they perceive them. In other words, men and women may experience the same levels of pain but women are more likely to actually admit that they have pain.”

Does Communicating Emotion Help Or Hurt?

Studies have suggested that doctors do tend to treat women in pain differently than they do men.

Doctors will ask women more often questions such as, “Are you feeling emotional?” or “How are things at home?”

Mindy Meyer, a professional facilitator who has lived with complex regional pain syndrome and fibromyalgia for years, agrees.

“I don’t know if women actually feel pain more,” said the 45-year-old from Venice Beach, Calif. “If they test by putting you hand in an ice bucket and see how long you can keep it there, maybe women are smart enough to take it out sooner.”

“But how women and men communicate their pain is very different,” she said. “Women feel very connected to their pain and have and their emotions come out when describing it.”

Meyer saw 13 doctors before she got a proper diagnosis and the majority were men. “It’s very uncomfortable for them to see real emotion: ‘Tell me the facts, ma’am, just the facts.’ I see them tune out.”

Now, she consciously spares the doctor the emotional talk. “I can literally be in so much pain I am crying when the staff is in there, but I pull it together when the doctor is in the room and have no tears at all. And it’s not easy to have to do that.”

She said doctors need to listen more to their female patients — “feelings are a part of the equation. Patients shouldn’t have to shut things down.”

For Grace

The perceived need for better treatment of women in pain has led to the creation of For Grace, an advocacy organization that educates, supports and empowers women in pain through annual conferences and legislative outreach.

For Grace’s “Fail First” bill recently got through the California State Assembly’s appropriations committee on a 12-5 vote. If signed by the governor, it will allow women in pain much better access to pain medications, bypassing insurance companies.

What You Need To Know:

• Find your migraine triggers
A specialist can help you learn if your diet, environment, or lifestyle helps trigger your migraines

• Try magnesium
Taking 200 mg of this mineral in a well-absorbed supplement two or three times a day may help you have fewer migraines

• Check out feverfew
Take a standardized herbal extract providing 250 mcg of parthenolide a day to help reduce the frequency, severity, and length of migraine attacks

You may be inclined to try one of the many supposedly tried-and-true remedies. However, traditional hangover remedies are often ineffective, and some of them may actually make you feel worse. So what works and what doesn’t?

More Alcohol?

Even though the thought of a Bloody Mary may appeal to you, a Virgin Mary is a much better choice the morning after. The worst thing to do is to have another drink, though many people think the opposite.

The alcohol may temporarily help your symptoms but could hurt in the long run. Hangovers make you feel horrible because alcohol is toxic, and you need to give your body a chance to recover. That morning drink could lead to an even worse hangover the following day.

Greasy breakfast

There’s no scientific evidence that a heaping helping of bacon and eggs will ease hangover anguish, even though many people swear by it. Greasy food is just going to give you heartburn. However you should stick with easy-to-digest foods such as toast or cereal. You want to get calories right back into your system.

Eat light and stay hydrated. No specific foods are recommended, although honey sandwiches are helpful to some people.

Alka-Seltzer

Alka-Seltzer turns 83 in 2013, and the famous fizzy medicine has probably been used to treat hangovers for nearly that long. In 2001, the company even introduced a Morning Relief formulation specifically for hangovers.

All Alka-Seltzer varieties contain sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda), which will help settle a queasy belly by neutralizing stomach acid. Still, other ingredients, notably aspirin and citric acid, may irritate your stomach after a night of heavy drinking.

Hangover pills

There are lots of hangover “cures” in a bottle out there—such as Chaser, PreToxx, and RU 21—but very little evidence to back up claims. Hangover pills that have been studied are not effective, or only help against a few complaints…but not all.

A 2005 review article in the journal BMJ identified eight peer-reviewed, placebo-controlled studies of hangover remedies, and concluded that “no compelling evidence exists” to support their use.

Instead, take a multivitamin instead to restore the nutrients your body may have lost during a binge.

So what are the best, and simplest, ways to get rid of them?

Relaxation

Best for: Soothing stress before a headache starts.

How they work: Simple deep breathing and stretching (neck and shoulder rolls, in particular) relax tense muscles that trigger headaches, says Sheena Aurora, M.D., the director of the Swedish Headache Center, in Seattle. A pulse-point balm with aromatherapeutic ingredients, like peppermint, can help, too.

Remember: Stretching also improves poor posture, another possible cause of headaches.

Cold or Heat Therapy

Best for: Medicine-free relief from minor tension headaches (which, unlike migraines, aren’t debilitating).

How it works: Experts aren’t sure precisely why each therapy is effective, but cold slows blood flow and reduces inflammation, and heat increases blood flow; both of these may ease pain. “Go with your personal preference,” says Jason Rosenberg, M.D., the director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center at Bayview, in Baltimore. Apply a cold compress (a fabric-wrapped cold pack stays cooler longer) or a heating pad wherever you hurt; limit treatment to 15 minutes at a time.

Remember: You can also alternate the two in five-minute increments. Start with cold, then switch to heat.

Caffeine

Best for: Mild tension headaches.

How it works: “One way that caffeine may help is by blocking brain receptors to adenosine, a neurotransmitter that can cause blood vessels to dilate and create pressure,” says Rosenberg. Consuming caffeine constricts those vessels, relieving pain. Sip a cup of coffee at the first sign of a headache.

Misdiagnosis 1: Allergies
What it actually might be: Vasomotor rhinitis

Doctors usually blame congestion, watery eyes, and serious bouts of sneezing on allergies, but unless you recently moved or changed jobs, it’s rare to develop allergies in your 20s and 30s. Instead, your symptoms may be the result of vasomotor rhinitis, a condition triggered by nonallergen irritants, such as perfume, smog, and cigarette smoke, that inflame your nasal mucous membranes, says Patricia Wheeler, M.D., an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Louisville. The allergy medicines you’re prescribed won’t provide relief.

Ask Your Doctor: For a skin-prick test to identify any allergies. If the results are negative, ask to go over potential triggers with your doctor.

Misdiagnosis 2: Torn Meniscus
What it actually might be: Iliotibial-band friction syndrome

The average doctor’s first step in diagnosing severe knee pain is an MRI. The test is so sensitive that it almost always reveals tears in the meniscus, the cartilage in your knee joint. “Nine times out of 10, it’s normal wear and not the source of the pain,” says Ronald Grelsamer, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital of New York. Surgical treatment “will lead away from the real problem.” An MRI won’t reveal injuries to your IT band—fibers stretching from your hip to your knee—a source of knee pain that’s treated with physical therapy or orthotics.

Ask Your Doctor: For an Ober’s test, a physical exam that reveals injuries to the IT band.

Misdiagnosis 3: Sinus Headache
What it actually could be: Migraines

Researchers at the American Headache Society examined 100 people with brain pain and found 86 percent of those who thought they had sinus headaches actually had migraines. “If a doctor hears ‘facial pressure,’ he’ll assume sinus headache,” says Craig Schwimmer, M.D., an otolaryngologist in Dallas, Texas. But sinus meds can’t defeat the heavyweight of headaches.