The cause of headaches may be hidden in various diseases, which the doctor can help diagnose modern methods examinations. Changes in brain structures are visible when computed tomography(CT) or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR). The state of blood circulation in individual hemispheres can be assessed using the results of rheography (determining the electrical resistance of the brain). Doppler ultrasound determines the speed of blood flow in the main vessels. Brain cell activity is studied using electroencephalography (EEG).
Due to severe physical fatigue, frustration nervous system or for any external reasons, even completely healthy people can suffer from headaches (psychogenic pain). Such pain can be difficult to distinguish from migraine. They are often found in schoolchildren: the child usually complains of throbbing or aching pain in the forehead. Unlike pain caused by increased intracranial pressure and migraine, these pains are not accompanied by nausea or vomiting.
You can try to remove headache using herbs, as our ancestors did:
- Peppermint, lemon balm, fireweed (fireweed). Brew and drink like tea. They have a mild hypnotic effect.
- Mistletoe. Used together with hawthorn (vasodilator), valerian officinalis (sedative), horsetail (diuretic).
- Thyme (thyme). Drink hot infusion or decoction. Externally, thyme essential oil (baths, aroma lamp, massage).
- White willow (bark). For neuralgia, headaches.
- Sweet clover officinalis. Used internally and externally (alcohol tincture compress).
Relieving psychogenic pain is quite simple, but in our hectic times it is not always feasible. You need to organize your sleep - go to bed and get up at the same time, sleep for at least 8 hours, but don’t overstay your welcome (especially on weekends). Don't forget to exercise, move more. It is necessary to get rid of stress: do not set yourself impossible tasks, do not be afraid to speak out and express your emotions, do not try to please everyone, laugh more often, set your thoughts in a positive way. For headaches due to severe mental fatigue, it is useful to take warm bath or steam your feet in a basin for 10-15 minutes. It is also good to drink a glass of hot tea with mint and a spoon of honey. Experienced people advise eating herring. And of course, lie down and rest until the pain goes away. A good treatment and prevention for headaches is massage of the head, neck and shoulders, as well as the use of relaxation techniques.
Smoking can also be a cause of headaches. It has not been proven that obesity is to blame for headaches, but after losing weight, the well-being of many sufferers noticeably improves.
Migraine is a neuralgia characterized by frequent headaches. A feature of this diagnosis can be considered the manifestation of pain in only one area of the head. IN Lately, in conditions of increasing population dynamics, migraine is gaining momentum. Attacks can vary in nature and frequency: from once a year to several times a week.
According to statistical studies, women are prone to this disease many times more often than men. It has long been accepted that migraine accompanies people whose activities are continuously associated with mental activity.
Causes:
1. Impaired blood flow to the brain.
2. Pathological change in vascular patency.
3. Nervous disorders of various types.
4. Pressure imbalance: low or high.
5. Excessive physical activity.
6. Lack of oxygen, suffocation.
7. Alcohol addiction.
8. Hormonal imbalance.
9. The relationship of the body with changes in weather conditions.
10. Lack of sleep and rest.
11. Excessive consumption of fatty and high-calorie foods
12. Premenstrual syndrome.
Signs of the disease
In most cases, headaches occur predominantly in one half of the head, but there are cases where the pain gradually grows over the entire head. Painful sensations can pulsate, reaching their active phase when bright light, strong odors or sounds occur.
During a migraine, a person may experience attacks of dizziness, nausea and gag reflexes, which makes it difficult to neutralize the attack. In such cases, even potent painkillers may be ineffective. At the peak of the attack, loss of orientation and loss of coordination of movement may occur. As a result, increased irritability and depressed mood occur.
The pain can last from one to several hours. If a migraine does not go away within a few days, then it is customary to talk about a relapse. Some patients have the same prerequisites before the onset of migraine.
Causes of migraine:
- dizziness,
- blurred vision of surrounding objects,
- hallucinations,
- desire to cry,
- need for sweet food.
In some cases, it is during this period that you should take the medicine, as this will help avoid severe headaches.
Treatment of the disease can be completely different in its focus. Some people are saved by a narrowly targeted head and neck massage, facial exercises, a relaxing contrast shower, and sleep. Such methods are effective only for minor headaches. Yoga training also has a positive effect. There is also treatment for pain by taking homeopathic medicines.
However, with intense pain, you cannot do without taking potent drugs. We are talking about medications in the form of tablets, suppositories, and injections. The choice of treatment algorithm and its course should be prescribed by the appropriate specialist. As first aid, the patient should always have with him strong medications that neutralize headaches. Often, people suffering from migraines consume a significant amount of coffee drinks, which can minimize and neutralize the attack. However, caffeine consumption leads to addiction and side effects.
Preventive methods can be of various types: general strengthening procedures for the body, as well as medication support. In the second case we're talking about about the systematic use of dosage and medication regimen. They are appointed quarterly. The treatment regimen is supervised exclusively by a neurologist. This method is used only in cases of extreme necessity.
At that moment when your head “splits” from pain, you are unlikely to think about why it hurts. But, that’s when the pain subsides, and you are already in a state to perceive the world adequately, it’s time to ask questions:
- where does headache come from?
- what are its main causes?
- how to get rid of headaches...
Today, together with you, we will try to answer all these three questions.
Causes of headaches
Today, there are many explanations for the causes of headaches.
So, medicine says that headaches can be provoked by changes that occur in the human brain, in its membranes or vessels, skull bones or even in soft tissues - these are primary headaches. And, headaches may be caused by various diseases, which arise in other systems and organs of the human body, and at first glance, it would seem, have nothing to do with the head - these are secondary headaches.
Therefore, it is not surprising that headache is included in the list of symptoms of as many as forty-five diseases and countless deviations and malfunctions in the functioning of the human body. There is only one disease, the basis of which is headache - this is migraine. In the case of migraine, headaches are characterized by painful sensations in one area of the head; the pain is paroxysmal in nature and, unfortunately, practically cannot be treated.
It is generally accepted that if medicine does not find any pathological changes in the brain, the cause of headaches lies in functional malfunctions of the whole organism, as well as in changes in the normal functioning of internal organs. But, sometimes, the cause of such pain can be injuries to the skeletal system, or displacement and compression of organs. If we sum up where a headache comes from and what it means, we can say one thing: a headache is never accidental, but is a kind of signal from our body that something is wrong or out of order...
What could a headache indicate?
Because the nerve endings that sense pain are distributed unevenly in the brain, headaches can indicate the following processes in our body:
- mechanical damage (displacement, pinching, squeezing),
- thermal changes (hypothermia or overheating of the head),
- chemical processes of intoxication of the body (food, alcohol, drugs, drug poisoning with drugs, including antibiotics and antidepressants).
Why is it the head that hurts, and not the diseased organ?
Well, someone will say, if something happened in the body, then why does the wrong organ hurt, namely the head?
The answer is quite simple. If we consider the localization of nerve endings, then most of them are located in the soft tissues of the human head, skin, and muscles, the walls of superficial arteries in the occipital, temporal, and frontal parts. And, the most sensitive and “painful” area is the dura mater. That's why, our head, as the most sensitive organ, becomes a kind of conductor between us and the diseased organ.
If we divide headaches into types, and you know that every time a headache hurts “differently,” then scientists identify the following...
Types of headaches
- vascular headache– such headaches are characterized by a pulsating character, and gradually develop into a dull and pressing pain, which can be accompanied by vomiting, nausea, and flashing black spots before the eyes.
- hallucinatory headache- characterized by a variety of painful sensations, against the background of hallucinations, visions and images. This type of headache may indicate mental disorders, as well as hidden depression.
- neurological headache– burning and acute pain that is localized in the back of the head.
- CSF headache— the cause of this type of headache is disturbances in the composition of the cerebrospinal fluid, which are manifested by symptoms of squeezing and distension of the head, as if from the inside.
- mixed type of headache.
What to do if you have a headache
Ignoring a headache is not the right decision, just as it is not entirely the right path to simply take a pill for a headache in the hope that everything will go away on its own. It is imperative to find the main reason that provoked your pain in the head area.
Here are a few little tips to help you figure out what's really going on in your body. However, self-diagnosis in this area is not a very reasonable decision; it is still better to entrust the diagnosis to professionals and consult a doctor.
Many will agree that headaches appear more often than other types in a person’s life. Painful sensations of various localizations in the skull area arise for a variety of reasons, and sometimes it can be very difficult to cope with them. Discomfort, regardless of its intensity, interferes with normal work, and sometimes even the slightest movements increase the discomfort.
Statistics show that in 7 out of 10 cases, when visiting a neurologist, patients report headache as the main symptom. But it cannot be said that this figure corresponds to reality, because many simply try to ignore the discomfort, drink another painkiller pill, and do not even think about seeking medical help. This approach is fundamentally wrong, because such a manifestation can indicate both ordinary overwork and serious illnesses.
Among other things, constant reception medicines(especially without a doctor’s prescription) can cause serious complications and side effects. You can trust your condition to traditional medicine, using proven recipes made from natural products that will not cause any harm to the body.
How to determine the cause of a headache?
There are about two hundred types of headaches, and the methods of dealing with each type are different.
Doctor's note: if a person is healthy, then most likely the headache is due to overwork or exposure to some external factor. Pain in the head area can be a signal of the development of a serious disease - a malignant tumor, an inflammatory process in the brain, hypoxia, infection, etc.
Let's consider the main reasons for the occurrence of such an unpleasant symptom:
- mechanical damage to the head, trauma. Typically, pain resulting from a traumatic event goes away within a few hours without use. medicines;
- increased pressure inside the eye;
- nasal congestion, sinusitis;
- Severe stress can also cause headaches;
- pain may indicate the presence of a disease such as migraine. Migraine is characterized by unilateral localization of pain, discomfort greatly increases with any movement;
- painful sensations in morning time, which are bursting in nature, usually indicate increased blood pressure;
- low blood pressure can also cause headaches, but in this case there will be general weakness, tinnitus, and loss of strength;
- when pain occurs in the middle or towards the end of the working day, it is worth paying attention to the condition of the neck and spine - most likely, muscle overstrain occurs.
High fever can cause headaches
heat. Any disease that causes a temperature above 38 degrees is usually accompanied by a moderate or severe headache;
Working at a computer for long periods of time can cause headaches
if after intense and prolonged work with papers or at the computer, then most likely it is pain from overexertion;
When should you see a doctor?
When pain has a direct connection with a specific disease and acts as a symptom, it is advisable to direct all efforts to eliminate the root cause, after which its consequences will go away on their own. It is very important to sound the alarm in time and seek medical help - in any situation, a timely response plays a vital role in the effectiveness of further treatment and recovery.
The following situations should be the reason to immediately go to the hospital:
- if after receiving a head injury the pain does not go away for more than a day. It is possible that the damage is much more serious than it appears on the surface;
- the pain is so strong that it has never been before;
- in a lying position, the discomfort only intensifies;
- headache is accompanied by disturbances in speech, vision or coordination of movements;
- the pain began sharply, suddenly, for no apparent reason.
Herbal medicine as a means of combating headaches
Herbal medicine offers a lot of remedies to help cope with headaches. The treatment method directly depends on the cause of the symptom. A general list of plants that can help with headaches: anise, dubrovnik, peppermint, dandelion, lemon balm, rosemary, blueberries, raspberries, St. John's wort, wormwood, caraway, oats, mistletoe, parsley and others. Such a list can be found in any literature devoted to herbal medicine, but only a specialist can advise a specific collection of herbs for a course of treatment, having studied the patient’s situation.
For one-time use, you can resort to the use of individual herbs that have a specific effect on the condition of the body:
- peppermint tea can significantly reduce the intensity of pain; this herb is one of the natural antispasmodics. To prepare, you need to pour a tablespoon of dried herb with 200 milliliters of boiling water, the infusion time is a quarter of an hour;
- lemon balm tea promotes the dilation of blood vessels in the brain, which leads to a decrease in pain. When cooking, you can mix the herb with mint or chamomile;
- St. John's wort decoction. In the ratio of a tablespoon per glass of liquid, prepare required amount ingredients. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes. It is recommended to drink no more than a quarter glass of medicinal decoction at one time;
- linden blossom tea. In addition to headaches, it perfectly helps with colds;
- viburnum and blueberry juice will also help with headaches. It is recommended to consume the fresh product up to 3 times a day, a quarter glass;
- will help ease the pain valerian root tincture(the remedy is especially relevant when pain is caused by stress).
Other alternative medicine
Before resorting to using this or that product, it is recommended to prepare: if you have a headdress, you need to remove it, then drink a glass of warm water, take a comfortable horizontal position and relax. Perhaps these actions will already help get rid of the unpleasant feeling.
Within traditional medicine Various methods of dealing with headaches are described. Let's look at some of them:
Doctor's note: contact of lemon juice with the skin must be constantly monitored; do not use the product for longer than 1-2 minutes. If reddened areas appear on the skin at the end of the procedure, they must be washed carefully. clean water and lubricate with baby cream.
- can be applied to temples garlic paste;
- will be useful and cabbage leaves– they need to be applied not only to the temporal zone, but also to the back of the head;
- Another remedy is to soak pieces of cotton wool in beet juice and apply to the ears;
- clay lotions(a piece of clay is dissolved in water until a creamy consistency is obtained, placed on the feet and wrapped with a warm cloth). The exposure time of the product is one hour.
How to cope with pain from overwork?
The pain of overexertion is one of the most current problems modernity. Many professions and occupations involve long-term work with papers or at the computer, which causes significant stress, which in one way or another affects a person’s health. Even children - school students - suffer from headaches for the same reason - heavy workload.
