Just to throw in something that's probably going to strike most as something totally bizarre (coffee enemas): I've suffered very intense headaches for decades. Pain medication was a toss up as to whether it might moderately relieve some of the pain, or almost immediately send me into a "rebound" headache, where the pain became twice as bad.
I tried so many kinds of non-drug therapies, with little effect. I then discovered that coffee enemas would almost always give me literally instantaneous relief, and I could normally expect the relief to last for several hours at least. I eventually learned that coffee enemas were used in World War I by German medics out on the battlefield.
They often didn't have anesthesias available to do surgeries, and so this was a major problem. I can't vouch that this story is true, but apparently they were low on clean water one day, and couldn't give the normal pre-op enema. As a last resort, they used some left over coffee. Lo and behold, the patient was able to endure the surgery and remain relatively pain free for several hours afterwards. After this, CEs apparently became routine for pre-op enemas and post-operative pain.
I'm famililar with some of the physiological reasons why this works, with the top two apparently being coffee enemas' ability to dramatically increase the body's glutathione levels (major detoxification enzyme) by about 6 fold. Secondly, is its ability to stimulate the vagus nerve, which has a parasympathic (calming response) on the brain and nervous system. The New England Journal of Medicine also reported in 1922 that in some clinical trials, CEs were found to be very effective in treating depression.
My understanding is a normal water enema will also stimulate the vagus nerve, which is why people with heart conditions need to be aware that any enema can stimulate energy in the heart area and rapidly increase the heart rate.
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