When we have an ache or a pain, we go to the doctor, get our meds, and call it a night. But there is a step we often miss in between lying in bed and going to sleep — having an orgasm. The “big O” is not just a fun way to spend a night; it also contains great healing properties that treat anything from headaches to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) cramps.

An orgasm is “the miracle cure” to staying healthy and balanced. Natural chemicals such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin are released during an orgasm, making us feel happy, flushed, warm, or sleepy, says Brown University Health Promotion. When they enter the bloodstream, these chemicals can induce both pleasure-enhancing and pain-relieving sensations.

Our pain threshold raises during an orgasm, making us more equipped to block the pain. This can help us lessen some of life’s more common pains and discomforts. Next time you have pain, aim for an orgasm instead of reaching for an aspirin. It's a free, fun, healthy way to alleviate some of life’s most common ailments.

1. Headaches

Next time you have a headache, reach for your partner and not the medicine cabinet. Orgasms can relieve migraine pain or cluster headaches, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Cephalalgia. The researchers found you get relief no matter who your partner is, which position you use, or which type of sexual activity you engage in. However, achieving a full orgasm is necessary in alleviating the pain.

2. Hiccups

A case of the hiccups that just won’t go away no matter what you do could physically and mentally drain you. Before you take a spoonful of peanut butter or try to scare yourself silly, try to have an orgasm instead. A 2000 case report published in the journal Canadian Family Physician said a healthy 40-year-old man made his intractable hiccups disappear for 12 months when he reached the moment of ejaculation during intercourse. This also works for women, according to a 1990 study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, which found “digital rectal massage” and orgasms can be a cure-all for intractable hiccups. The vagus nerve needs to be stimulated to alleviate hiccups, which is done during sex.

3. Morning Sickness

Sex is what gave you morning sickness, and it can also be what alleviates it. Gordon Gallup, a SUNY-Albany psychologist, believes in the “hair of the dog” concept when it comes to curing morning sickness — ingesting semen, specifically the impregnator’s semen, so the woman’s body can build up a tolerance to what’s already in her body.

Gallup, who presented his findings at the 2012 Northeastern Evolutionary Psychology Society, proposed the woman’s body initially rejects the father’s semen as an infection and reacts to it by vomiting, the NY Daily News reported. However, the woman will become immune to the semen by swallowing it and could ebb morning sickness in subsequent pregnancies if the second child has the same father as the first. This remedy proposes oral sex may treat one of the most troubling symptoms of pregnancy.

4. PMS Cramps

Cramps can be one of the most temporary debilitating symptoms women experience every month. Before an orgasm, a woman’s uterus is more relaxed, but at the moment of climax, the blood flow increases, helping to relieve the cramps. The uterine muscles contract during an orgasm while releasing chemicals in the brain that act as a natural pain reliever. Judith Golden, a registered sex therapist in Toronto, told Best Health magazine, “The strength and intensity of an orgasm can relieve cramps.” Women who masturbate often report it helps relieve menstrual cramps and even improve the symptoms of PMS, such as irritability and crankiness.

Orgasm therapy can keep you healthy, fit, and pain-free without the need for going to the medicine cabinet.