All over the world millions of people suffer from headache, which varies from a bearable pang to intolerable pain, which is usually caused by the heightening of intracranial pressure or migraine. Even absolutely healthy people can have headache quite often, due to the weather change or overfatigue. This pain is usually over without any medicine, or after taking some painkillers.
Due to some unexplained reasons, women suffer from headache more often then men.
If you have durable, reoccurring headache, you should visit a neuropathologist and do the medical examination, because chronic headaches can indicate some serious imbalances or injuries.
Migraine
Migraine is a pulsatory headache, which appears periodically, usually when you get up. During the sleep, you don’t feel the pain. Due to its strength, migraine can vary from moderate to unbearable. Such pain usually affects one part of the head. Migraine can last up to 72 hours. You can also feel sick, vomit, hardly bear bright light and loud sounds. Doctors haven’t defined the reason of the migraine yet. It is known that people, suffering from migraine, have hyperactive areas in the brain stem. There is a theory that changing hormone level influences this part of the brain. This may be the reason why women suffer from migraine more often then men (for example, menstrual cycle, pregnancy and other hormone factors).
Hormone fluctuations – is only one of the explanations. The other reasons of migraine can be stresses, hunger, sleeplessness, smells, bright light, spicy food, food preservatives, weather changes and so on. Susceptibility to migraine is usually inherited.
A patient, suffering from migraine, is usually prescribed Computer-Aided Tomography (CAT), and various blood tests.
Headaches, due to heightened or lowered blood intracranial pressure
Most often such pain arises due to the brain tumors and intracranial haematomas. Such pain is characterized by vomiting, sleepiness, giddiness. It usually arises at the night or in the early morning. CAT is prescribed for precise diagnosis of such pain. It is usually treated with surgical operation.
There is also another form of headache, which arises due to the heightened intracranial pressure, but without any tumors in the brain. Usually young women with excess weight suffer from this headache. They can also suffer from visual impairment.
The symptoms of such pain are – pain in the area of forehead, back of the head or the whole head. It can be provoked by weather changes, overwork, stress.
«Horton» headache
Men often suffer from this type of headache. The pain is characterized by pangs, it is very strong and gnawing. It usually spreads around the eye, to the temple and forehead. Pangs usually happen at the same time. In this case you are not allowed to take alcohol.
Tension headache
This type of headache is usually caused by tension. There are emotional (stress, experience) and muscle tensions (neck muscle tension). People suffering from this type of pain are prescribed CAT, and a visit to a neuropathologist or even psychiatrist, because tension headache can be caused by concealed depression.
Headache as a result of concussion of the brain (craniocerebral injury)
Such pain can last for many years after the injury. You can also feel alarm, irritability, lowering of attention, giddiness. A patient is often worried that he is getting worse and begins to suffer from depression. In this case, patients need sanatorium-and-spa treatment, painkillers.
Neck headache
Neck headache can be moderate as well as very strong. It is localized from neck to the back of the head, to the temples, eyes. You can also feel sick and dizzy. It is usually caused by sharp neck moves, weariness, cold, osteochondrosis.
It is easier to treat spasmodic headaches then migraine. But almost every headache can be cured with a help of medicine, which you can use at home.
Headache treatment
- If you have a headache, you can use patent painkillers, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, paracetamol, tempalgin and other medicine.
- Hot shower can help to weaken spastic headaches, because hot water relaxes the muscles on the back of the neck and head.
- Cold compresses cool the painful area, the blood vessels narrow and the pain pulsation lowers. Cover an ice bag with a towel and put it on the painful area for about 10-15 minutes.
Alternative treatment
- Pyrethrum – is a medicinal herb, which was used hundreds years ago to treat the headaches. It maintains the components, which take away the blood vessel spasms in the brain. If you use fresh pyrethrum, take one leaf per day. The dose of pills or capsules shouldn’t exceed 300mg per day. Use 40 drops of tincture of fresh herb.
- It’s interesting that such aromatic spice as rosemary prevents some headaches, that are caused by stress. Rosemary can resist the spasms of blood vessels. The best way of rosemary use is to drink it as a tea. Pour one teaspoon of dry rosemary leafs with one glass of boiling water, cover, wait for 10 minutes, filter and drink.
- There are other means of folk medicine. You can find them in special reference books.
Long-term decisions
- If you have an active life style, drink more. Some people doing the physical exercises, often have migraine. It can be caused by the dehydration. To prevent it, you should drink about 2 liters of water per day.
- Usually, brain cells of the people, suffering from migraine, get insufficient amount of necessary components, which means insufficient amount of energy. The only way to heighten the production of energy and to prevent headaches is to “feed” brain cells with vitamin B2, known as riboflavin.
- Try to reduce the dose of caffeine, it can help to reduce the frequency of headaches.
- Try to have a good sleep. Make sure that in your bedroom it is quite dark and quiet, that nothing will disturb your sleep. When you are sleeping, your organism renews, and the brain too.
- Try to have more rest and to spend more time outside. The lack of oxygen is another reason of headaches.
Medical treatment
- Every patient, suffering from chronic headaches, needs a medical examination. It is necessary to find out or to exclude the dangerous types of headaches and to prescribe the treatment that will be the most effective, will give the best results and save your money and time. The types of examinations that can be prescribed:
- A visit to an ENT
- A visit to a neurologist
- A visit to a psychiatrist
- Bulk blood test
- Special blood tests
- Radiography of cervical spine with functional tests
- Brain CAT
- Paranasal sinus CAT
- Head and neck vessels ultrasound
- Ask your doctor about sedatives. Medicine for migraine is divided in two groups: the medicine that prevents migraine and the medicine that can quickly remove the pain during the pang. Usually to stop the pang of the migraine doctors prescribe such medicine as symatriptan, risatriptan, paratriptan and zolmitriptan.
- Manual therapy. Professionals, knowing the technique of manual therapy can find and eliminate the reason of pain in few visits.
- Massage
- Acupuncture
- Botocks medical injections. Injections of Botocks medication in mimic muscles lead to durable medical effect – tension headaches are eliminated, the mimic wrinkles are removed.
Remember that every pain is a kind of a signal about an imbalance or injury of the organism. Headache, as well as any other pain, is just a symptom. If you prefer a self-treatment, you should know that abuse of medications can lead to serious liver, kidney, gastrointestinal tract diseases, allergy. Don’t disregard specialists, experienced doctor can help to find the reasons of headache, to make the diagnosis and to prescribe necessary treatment. We have only one health and we should take care of it.