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Headache is a common ailment, but it should not be taken lightly, as it may be a symptom of a serious illness. For example, pain in the back of the head can be high blood pressure, and a headache on the right or left is a common symptom of migraine. What are the types of headache? Find out what diseases the headache in the back, in the temples or on the top of the head can indicate.

Headachemay be an illness in itself, but it is quite common to find thata headache is a symptom of another illness . Regardless of how we experience a headache, e.g. as:

  • pain in the back of the head
  • pain in temples
  • headache on the right side
  • headache on the left side
  • throbbing headache
  • dull headache
  • disintegrating headache

it is usually somehow related to the circulatory system.

The brainbecausecannot hurt , because there is no so-called free nerve endings receiving pain stimuli. But there are manyin the three(hard, spider, and soft) meninges that surround the brain, which also have a very dense network of blood vessels. As the vessels dilate, they irritate the nerve endings in the meninges, and this is what causes us suffering.

Check also: Migraine is a strong opponent - how to defeat it?

Headache - types

Headachemay occur asprimary diseaseorsymptoms secondaryto other disorders. There are at least several types of headache, depending on their location or specific symptoms.

Due to the location, we distinguish:

  • pain in the back of the head- located at the base of the skull. It can have many causes, but the most common are injuries and overloads in the cervical spine and hypertension (then it is characteristic that the headache in the back often occurs in the morning - but it is not always the case). More rarely, pain in the back of the head indicatesmigrainebasal or a brain tumor located in the occipital part.
  • right or left headache- this one-sided pain is a characteristic symptom of migraine or cluster headache. Sometimes it is a result of overloads and tensions within the right or left shoulder.
  • headache in temples- usually indicates migraine oris a symptom of a tension headache. Secondary causes of headache in the temples include head and neck injuries, blood vessel diseases, bacterial and viral infections and brain tumors.
  • headache in the front area of ​​the forehead- it is also a very common symptom of migraine and tension headache, but it can also be associated with inflammation of the paranasal sinuses (then we are dealing with sinus headache).

Due to the nature of the headache, the following can be distinguished:

  • group headache- these are unilateral attacks of pain in the orbital-temporal area at the same time of the day. It is a deep, severe headache lasting 30-180 minutes, often accompanied by tearing, flushing or Horner's syndrome. Anxiety may also appear
  • migraine headache- often throbbing and one-sided, lasting 4-27 hours, sometimes accompanied by aura, nausea, photophobia, disgust with sounds or smells. This pain intensifies during exercise, decreases when lying in a dark room, disappears during sleep
  • tension headache- intermittent or continuous, mild, bilateral and oppressive pain in the occipital or frontal area, spreading over the entire head. Worsens at the end of the day

Find out more about the types of headache

See the gallery of 9 photosWorth knowing

Headache in statistics¹

Over 35,000 patients go to hospitals with a headache. It is as much as 10 percent. all hospitalizations concerning 30 major diseases of Poles. In four voivodships stretching from the south-east to the north-west - from Podkarpacie to Wielkopolska - the indicators are the highest. Severe pain requiring treatment most often affects a 44-year-old resident of Podkarpacie. In turn, the entire western belt from Lower Silesia to Pomerania can boast of the smallest number of patients treated for headaches.

Source: www.medycyna-rodzinna.esculap.com

Headache - what does it mean?

Medical statistics show that the most common symptoms are the so-called tension headaches, which are not caused by any disease, but are disease in themselves.

There are many factors that can trigger this type of pain, for example :

  • no sleep
  • exhaustion
  • hunger
  • uncomfortable position causing muscle tension
  • and above all emotions

Stress initiates the process of producing certain hormones, incl. catecholamines and cortisol, under the influence of which muscle tension increases, heart rate increases and pressure increasesarterial.

The body's defense reaction is thendilatation of blood vessels , thanks to which the pressure is lowered and the risk of e.g. a stroke is reduced. However, dilated vessels cause a headache.

How to deal with such pain? The fastest way to do this is with a tablet with paracetamol, ibuprofen, and acetylsalicylic acid. But if you reach for them too often, you can get addicted to them and get the so-called drug-induced headache.

Therefore, it is worth trying other measures that relieve tension in muscles and nerves:

  • relaxation exercises
  • acupressure
  • head and neck massage
  • aromatic, warm bath

Coffee can also bring a good effect, because caffeine constricts the blood vessels.

Headache - what kind of disease is it? Causes of the headache

Headache also accompanies many diseases, both banal (e.g. a cold) and serious. Sometimes it is such a characteristic symptom that it immediately raises a suspicion as to what may be its real cause.

  • hypertension- headache occurs especially when the pressure rises in leaps and bounds or its value is very high; usually it annoys in the morning (high blood pressure is highest in the morning), most often around the occiput - such pains are also quite typical in adrenal tumors, because this condition leads to an increase in blood pressure
  • facial nerve neuralgiais manifested by severe paroxysmal pains on one side of the face that last 1-2 minutes and are repeated many times a day
  • sinusitis- cold and wind exacerbate the inflammatory lesions of the sinus mucosa, which causes dull pain in the area of ​​the frontal and paranasal sinuses, which increases with tilting the head
  • eye defectsif not corrected with well-chosen glasses, they cause excessive tension of the eyeball muscles and, as a result, pain in the frontal and parietal areas
  • narrow-angle glaucoma- headaches are one-sided, halos appear around the lights, visual acuity is reduced, vomiting also appears
  • degenerative changes of the spine , mainly in the cervical segment, cause muscle contractures and disturbances in blood flow to the brain, which causes pain, usually around the back of the head, most often after performing activities related to tilting the head back
  • diseased teeth- pain associated with inflammation of teeth (mainly molars) can radiate from the maxillary sinuses to the entire head
  • poisoning with a toxic substance- headache occurs withpoisoning with carbon monoxide, nitrobenzene (paints, varnishes), ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, nicotine and chronic lead poisoning
  • giant cell arteritis- unilateral pulsating pain, pain while brushing, visual disturbances, jaw choking, fever, weight loss, sweating, temporal artery tenderness, proximal muscle pain

Sometimes a headache signals a potentially life-threatening medical condition that requires immediate medical attention.

  • meningitis- severe headache is the first symptom of the disease, accompanied by a stiff neck, fever, nausea
  • encephalitis - fever, change in mental state, seizures
  • brain aneurysm - the pain is very severe, there is also vomiting, double vision, weakness in the limbs
  • concussion - pain appeared after a head injury and is accompanied by dizziness, drowsiness, vomiting
  • intracranial bleeding - sudden symptoms - vomiting, change in mental state
  • subarachnoid haemorrhage - peak pain intensity after a few seconds (staggering headache), vomiting, fainting, blurry consciousness
  • subdural hematoma - drowsiness, change in mental state, hemiparesis, presence of risk factors - old age, coagulopathy, dementia, use of anticoagulants, alcohol abuse
  • tumor or other abnormal mass - eventually change in mental state, seizures, vomiting, double vision when looking sideways
Important

Headache - alarming symptoms

  • symptoms related to the nervous system, e.g. change in mental state, weakness, double vision, optic disc edema, focal neurological defects - may suggest encephalitis, subdural hematoma, subarachnoid or intracranial haemorrhage, tumor, other abnormal mass in brain, increased intracranial pressure
  • headache after the age of 50 - this is an increased risk of a serious cause, e.g. tumor, giant cell vasculitis
  • fulminant headache - severe headache that intensifies within seconds - may suggest a subarachnoid haemorrhage
  • symptoms of giant cell arteritis, e.g. visual disturbances, jaw claudication, fever, weight loss, temporal artery tenderness, proximal muscle pain
  • systemic symptoms, e.g. fever, weight loss - together with headache may suggest cancer, hyperthyroidism
  • growing headache
  • bloodshot eyes and halos around lights - may suggest an acute attack of angle glaucomapercolation
Problem

Be careful with ice cream

A headache often occurs after eating ice cream quickly. Scientists have been looking for the causes of this phenomenon for years.

They have so far established that it is related to a strongly innervated palate, especially the trigeminal nerve, which receives sensory stimuli and transmits information between the brain and other parts of the face. The rest is guesswork.

One theory is that the trigeminal nerve feels cold when it contacts the palate, and to increase blood flow to the brain and protect it from cooling, it reacts by dilating the blood vessels in the head, causing a throbbing headache.

"Zdrowie" monthly

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Neurology