How to prevent and treat headaches? While many people know various home remedies for headaches—a common ailment that can be triggered by something as simple as catching a chill—prevention remains key. Let's make headaches a thing of the past.
Headaches fall into two categories:
One involves identifiable causes, including intracranial tumors, hemorrhages, meningitis, hypertension, and other organic lesions.
The other category involves headaches with no identifiable cause, also known as primary headaches.
Primary headaches primarily include the following three types:
1. Migraine
Characterized by unilateral, throbbing pain of moderate to severe intensity. Symptoms worsen with physical activity and are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light and sound.
Treatment and Prevention of Headaches
2.Cluster Headache
Extremely frequent and severe headaches occurring in clusters over a short period, often accompanied by unilateral tearing, sweating, and other autonomic symptoms.
3. Tension Headache
Bilateral, non-pulsating headache that does not worsen with activity. Characterized by a tight, band-like sensation and often accompanied by muscle spasms in the head.
8 Truths About Headache Causes
1. Headaches Caused by Hypertension
Hypertension-related headaches are primarily dull and persistent, with pain locations varying—left, right, or top of the head.
They are more likely to occur when temperatures drop. This is because blood vessels constrict in cold weather, leading to higher blood pressure than usual. Patients with a history of hypertension often experience headaches when their medication is insufficient to lower blood pressure adequately. Consult a cardiologist.
Treatment and Prevention of Headaches
2. Headaches Caused by Vertebrobasilar Artery Spasm
Typically manifest as occipital pain that may radiate to the top of the head, accompanied by neck pain. The pain is persistent and predominantly throbbing.
The cause is often cervical degenerative changes leading to accelerated or slowed blood flow in the internal carotid artery, resulting in vertebrobasilar artery spasm. Consult an orthopedic specialist or acupuncture/massage therapy department.
3. Headaches caused by cerebral infarction or hemorrhage
Headaches resulting from cerebral infarction or hemorrhage are termed central headaches, presenting as throbbing or dull pain during episodes.In addition to headache, symptoms may include numbness, weakness in one or both limbs, and mental confusion.
In cases of cerebral hemorrhage, these symptoms are more severe due to increased intracranial pressure and stimulation from blood clots. Cerebral infarction and hemorrhage are typically diagnosed via CT scan.
Headaches caused by subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding beneath the arachnoid membrane covering the brain tissue) are extremely severe and accompanied by vomiting and neck stiffness. CT scans may not always confirm this diagnosis; it is often verified through lumbar puncture revealing bloody cerebrospinal fluid.
Patients without bleeding or with minor bleeding should consult neurology; those with severe bleeding require neurosurgery.
4. Headaches can be caused by colds. Headaches from colds may result from viral invasion of the nervous system, typically presenting as a dull, throbbing sensation with heaviness. These headaches often accompany chills, fever, and nasal congestion.
Wind-heat colds usually involve fever, with the fever being more pronounced than symptoms like aversion to cold, dry throat, and yellow phlegm.
Wind-cold colds manifest with chills predominating over fever, along with white phlegm and a pale tongue with a white coating. Headaches from colds should be treated by a respiratory medicine specialist.
Treatment and Prevention of Headaches
5. Infections Can Cause Headaches
These headaches result from microbial invasion by bacteria, viruses, etc., commonly occurring with lung, urinary tract, or oral infections. They typically present as heavy, throbbing pain accompanied by fever.
In cases of Gram-positive bacterial infections, blood tests typically show elevated white blood cell counts; infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria or viruses may not present with elevated white blood cell counts.
During such headaches, patients should monitor for abnormal reactions throughout the body, identify the site of infection, and seek targeted treatment. Consult a general internal medicine physician first, then visit the appropriate specialty department based on the doctor's diagnosis.
6. Tension Headache
Also known as tension-type headache, it presents with episodic tightness in the head during attacks. Localized tender points are present, characterized by a squeezing, dull, or throbbing sensation. Common in individuals experiencing mental overwork, poor rest, or insomnia.
Patients with this type of headache generally do not experience fever.
Treatment and Prevention of Headaches
7. Migraine
Characterized by unilateral headaches, though some patients experience bilateral or alternating attacks. The pain manifests as a throbbing sensation behind the eyes or in the frontal-temporal region (temples), potentially spreading to the entire head.
Severe cases may involve nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, and sound aversion, with symptoms worsening during physical activity. Triggers include menstrual cycles, weather changes, noise, and bright light. Consult a neurologist.
8. Trigeminal neuralgia
This type of headache is the most severe, presenting as lightning-like or electric shock-like pain, sometimes accompanied by tearing. The headache occurs in paroxysmal and intermittent attacks, lasting from seconds to minutes, with episodes recurring after a period of time.
It results from irritation of the facial, ophthalmic, or temporal branches of the trigeminal nerve distributed across the head. Triggers are diverse, including extreme temperatures, emotional stress, and post-inflammatory complications from ENT infections—particularly after middle ear inflammation.
Contact with the nerve distribution areas during brushing teeth or washing the face can trigger headaches. Additionally, pain from the buccal branch is often misdiagnosed as toothache or gingivitis, persisting even after tooth extraction.