by Michael Russell
You are on your way to an important meeting with a client. Just as you are running late to your appointment, the traffic gets heavier and your boss calls up reminding you to be on time for the meeting. To make matters worst, your head starts throbbing with pain, it always does when you are under pressure.
Everyone experiences headaches, who doesn’t? According to studies, an estimated 45 million Americans get chronic, recurring headaches and 18 million of them suffer from painful debilitating migraines.
Headaches are divided into three categories. These are Tension Headaches, Vascular Headaches and Organic Headaches.
Tension headaches are characterized by dull, non-throbbing pain. There is also tightness in the scalp or neck that usually comes with the pain. This type of headache is commonly triggered by depression and stress. Almost 90 percent of all headaches are tension headaches. Vascular headaches are characterized by intense, severe, throbbing pain. Often the person cannot sit still because of the pain’s intensity. Common to this type of headaches are migraine and cluster headaches. Cluster headaches occur in a certain period of time. These could happen daily for an entire week or months. Though the causes of cluster headaches are not yet completely identified, it has been observed that excessive smoking and alcohol consumption usually trigger this type of headache. Heredity, menstruation, diet, stress and changes in the environment on the other hand, commonly elicit migraine headaches. An exposure to cigarette smoke for example can easily set off migraine headaches for some people.
Migraine headaches are classified into two types: Common migraine and classic migraine. These two types of migraine both exhibit intense piercing pain that is usually originating from one side of the head. These may also be accompanied by other symptoms, which include vomiting, icy hands, shaking and increased sensitivity to light and sound. That’s why it is very common to see a person suffering from migraine to shy away from heavily lighted areas or at least cover their eyes to avoid the light. A classic migraine, on the other hand, shows warning symptoms 30 minutes before its onset. These symptoms may include visual disturbances, a feeling of numbness which affects the arms and legs, smelling of strange odors or even hallucinations.
Migraine affects more women than men. Women usually experience migraine more oftenduring their menstrual cycle. Heredity may play a huge role in determining whether a person will likely to suffer migraine headaches. Aside from heredity, there are also other factors that can trigger the occurrence of migraine.
Certain foods like citrus fruits, chocolate, red wine or excessive amounts of caffeine can trigger painful episodes of migraine. Delaying or skipping a meal, emotional stress, erratic sleeping habits like oversleeping on weekends, computer use, smoke coming from cigarettes and perfumes are just few of the many factors that can trigger migraine headaches.
The last type of headache is organic headache. This is characterized by an increasing pain that gets worst over time. This is usually accompanied by other symptoms like vomiting, visual disturbances, speech or personality changes and coordination problems. This type of headache requires medical attention because of an underlying medical concern that might be lurking behind the pain. Tumors, disease of the brain, eyes, ear or nose and infections are some of the common factors that trigger organic headache episodes.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Headaches
