Posts Tagged ‘moods’

Headache Types

by Rose Williams

There are a fair number of commonly-known sort of headache. These include, but are not limited to: cluster headaches, migraine headaches, tension headaches, chronic daily headaches, blood pressure headaches, chronic cluster headaches and sinus headaches.

A migraine headache is a severe headache. This type of headache has been found to have a profound impact on the daily lives of its sufferers. The pain can be a pulsating sensation or sometimes a throbbing kind of head pain. This throbbing pain can be moderate to severe. The symptoms of migraine headaches include nausea, extreme sensitivity to light and sound. With the migraine kind of headache there is often an early warning sensation called an aura.

The aura is experienced in the form of alterations in visual perception. You may see bright flashes, swirls or blurs and sometimes you may even lose a part of your sight. You could also experience a numbness or a tingling in your arms. These precursory warning symptoms will fade a while before the migraine attack begins. A migraine headache can last for up to three days without any treatment, before it recedes.

The kinds of tension headache cause a dull, constant pain in the forehead, the sides or back of the head. Some people liken a tension headache to a tight band wrapped around the head and it is considered to be one of the most common kinds of headache. A tension headache does not create symptoms such as light sensitivity, loss of sight, nausea and vomiting.

Tension headaches occur in episodic or chronic kinds. Generally, most sufferers of this kind of tension headache, experience chronic headaches. It is estimated that about 40% of the population suffers from tension headaches. Chronic daily headaches are another of these sorts of headache.

Most chronic daily headaches are tension headaches or headaches that result from ingesting too much pain medication. With these kinds of headache, the pain is of a constant, dull nature – there can also be a feeling of tightness like a rubber band around the head. A chronic daily headache is diagnosed by its duration: the pain must last for at least 15 days per month during a three month period of time.

Another type of headache is the Cluster headache group, which is a rare but very painful kind of headache. The name of this headache arises from the fact that the headache produces clusters of pain. Periods of continuous Cluster headaches may last weeks or months, but this is then followed up by long periods of no headaches at all.

Cluster headaches are usually to be found on one side of the head only. Usually the sharp, penetrating pain begins behind one eye. Cluster headaches cause red, teary eyes, a stuffy nose and sometimes symptoms like nausea and sensitivity to light may occur too.

These are some of the many types of headaches that can be experienced. The pain from the headache can be mild or it can be excruciating in its severity. To obtain relief from these headaches you must talk to your doctor about medication or you can buy some over the counter headache pain tablets.

About the Author:

The Causes of Migraine Headaches

by Marion Jones

Headaches in any type are always painful to the sufferer. However, some headaches, like migraines, for instance, can cause even more problems than just a headache. These problems could be nausea, light sensitivity and a banging pain in the head. Sometimes the headache acts on one side of the head, and other times you can feel the pain on both sides of the head at the same time.

The real causes of migraine headaches has yet to be discovered, although there are a few theories why we have migraine headaches. The most commonly held belief is that an alteration in the blood flow within the brain is one of the triggers that causes migraine headaches. Another theory about migraine headache is that maybe it could be caused by pain sensing chemicals called neuropeptides.

Many medical professionals think that neuropeptides relax the smooth muscle that surrounds the cranial blood vessels. This relaxation causes the blood vessels to dilate. This blood vessel relaxation increases the flow of blood and other cranial fluid to the brain. This increase in fluids is thought to be the cause of migraine headaches.

These cranial fluids cause inflammation, pain, sensitivity, tissue and blood vessel inflammation during the time of migraine headaches. Some people think that the aura that is sometimes seen during a migraine headache is caused by the constriction of blood vessels that became dilated during the beginning phase of the migraine headache.

Another theory about the reason for migraine headaches has been linked to genetics and inheritance. These theories say that a child of migraine sufferers will have a 50% probability of getting migraine headaches too.

The probability of inheriting migraine headaches become even greater if both parents are known to suffer from this painful type of headache. Should both parents be known to have frequent migraine headaches the chances of the child inheriting migraine headache symptoms is about 70%.

Now even though many professionals think that genetics plays a large part in migraine headaches the genes that may be considered as the causes of migraine headaches have not been identified or even isolated. When we begin to experience migraine headaches the only warning signs that we may receive are a throbbing pain in the temple area and slight nausea.

As the symptoms of the migraine progresses, the pain becomes much more severe. Unfortunately, since the causes of migraine headaches have yet to be found and we dont know what triggers these attacks, there are no medications to cure this kind of headaches yet.

About the Author: