Headache is the most common type of pain that almost everyone experiences more than once in their lifetime. It is a pain that can be of different type, severity, prevalence and frequency, usually in the head, face and jaw region. It negatively affects work, education and social life.
Some, if not most, types of headaches can be serious.
Headaches are caused by signals interacting between the brain, blood vessels, and surrounding nerves. During a headache, multiple mechanisms activate certain nerves that affect the muscles and blood vessels. These nerves send pain signals to the brain, causing a headache.
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What are the types of headaches?
There are more than 150 types of headache. Basically, it is divided into two main groups as primary and secondary headaches:
primary headache
It is a headache that is not related to an underlying disease. Usually not dangerous. However, it is painful and seriously affects your daily life.
Some factors trigger a primary headache. These:
- Alcohol (especially red wine)
- Certain foods, such as processed meats that contain nitrates,
- Tobacco and tobacco products containing nicotine,
- Changes in sleep or insomnia
- Inappropriate position,
- Excessive physical activity,
- Hunger,
- Coughing, sneezing, sneezing, straining, laughing loudly or crying.
Primary headache can take various forms. These:
- Tension headache: It is the most common type of headache. The cause is unknown. There is no damage to the brain and neurological signs are not visible. It causes a feeling of pressure as if there is a band around the head. The pain can be mild to moderate, manifesting as heaviness and pressure at first. Stress, insomnia and the work environment can trigger pain. Physical activity does not trigger pain, sometimes it can have a healing effect. Nausea, vomiting and visual disturbances do not occur as in migraine-type pain.
Its symptoms are:
- Headache with a feeling of fullness in the head,
- Feeling of pressure on the forehead or temples,
- Tenderness in the scalp, neck and shoulder muscles,
- Sensitivity to light and sound (not as severe as migraine)
- Migraine headache: Migraine comes in attacks. It gives signs that inform the seizure called “aura” before the seizure. The pain is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, visual disturbances. The pain is severe, involving half or all of the head. The frequency of seizures varies according to the person and living conditions.
Its symptoms are:
- Prodrome: 1 or 2 days before the headache starts, patients may notice small changes that warn of an impending migraine attack. These changes can be in the form of restlessness, pessimism, constipation, stiff neck, frequent urination, desire to eat and drink, and frequent yawning.
- Aura: Before the onset of a migraine attack, there may be symptoms such as speech disorder, visual impairment, tingling, and weakness.
- Attack: Headache attacks lasting 4-72 hours, the frequency of which varies according to the person and living conditions. There may be symptoms such as throbbing, nausea, vomiting, visual disturbances, dizziness, heat-light sensitivity, fainting.
- Postdrome (Postdrome): After the attack, the patient may experience weakness, fatigue, dizziness, heat-light sensitivity, which usually lasts for a day.
- The patient feels exhausted, exhausted and slightly relieved. The patient within 24 hours; may experience weakness, dizziness, restlessness, sensitivity to light and sound.
- Cluster headache: It is a unilateral, very severe, sleep-inducing, seasonal headache that can last for 30-45 days in the head region.
Its symptoms are:
- Unilateral pain
- feeling of restlessness
- Unbearable pain that often starts around one eye and may spread to the face, head, neck, shoulders and other areas.
- Redness of the eye on the affected side, tearing, swelling around the eye, droopy eyelid,
- Nasal congestion or runny nose on the affected side
- Forehead or facial sweating
- Facial pallor or flushing.
D.Neuralgic Type Headache: It is pain in the form of sudden electric shock or swelling. It mostly develops due to exposure to cold, falling from height, head trauma. It starts suddenly, headache may be accompanied by fever, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness, speech disorders.
Secondary Headache :
It develops due to an underlying disease. Acute sinusitis occurs due to dental problems, ear infections, flu, glaucoma, cerebrovascular disorders, benign or malignant brain tumors, hypertension, head trauma.
- Spinal Headache: It develops secondary to spinal cord leak. It can be life-threatening due to subdural hematoma.
- Thunderclamp headache: It may develop due to head trauma, brain trauma, cerebrovascular events, constriction of cerebral vessels, etc. It comes on suddenly, it is extremely severe. Sometimes life threatening.
- dehydration headache,
- sinus headache,
- Headache due to drug overuse.
When should I go to a doctor?
Headaches are mostly relieved by methods such as rest at home and taking painkillers. However, in the presence of certain findings, a health institution should be consulted. These findings are:
- Difficulty understanding spoken words, drowsiness,
- speech disorder,
- Fainting,
- High fever,
- numbness, weakness,
- Imbalance in walking
- Nausea or vomiting that is not due to a flu infection,
Does headache show genetic transmission?
There may be the same story in the families of those with migraine-type headaches. In some of the other headaches, the family may also have similar headache complaints due to the same environmental environment. This environmental environment can be in the form of cigarettes, the same type of food and drink, the same type of allergens, household chemicals.
How to treat headache?
Headache treatment begins with a good history and examination. These are used to determine the type of pain. Following are the treatment steps:
- Stress management: The patient is taught methods such as deep breathing, relaxation and listening to music to reduce stress.
- Biofeedback: It is investigated how the body responds to a stress situation. Vital signs, muscle tension, brain activity are examined through sensors.
- Drug therapy: Various drugs are used to reduce pain.
- Treatment of the underlying disease
What can be done at home to reduce headaches?
Simple pain relievers can be used at home. In addition, activities such as applying hot or cold compresses to the head, massaging, creating a dark and quiet environment, drinking plenty of water, walking can also relieve your headache. Consumption of beverages containing caffeine such as tea and coffee, stretching exercises, yoga, meditation or muscle relaxation exercises may be beneficial.
Alcohol, excessive or insufficient sleep, starvation, and prolonged viewing of the screen can increase headaches.