Types of headaches and what to do when you have a headache?

We live in a constant abyss of worries: heaps at work, bills for housing and communal services, an atrocious boss and early rises. All this fuss affects the human nervous system and causes headaches. However, not only a busy schedule can cause its appearance; there are many other explanations for this illness.

It is very rare to meet a person who has not experienced a headache. This complaint is one of the most common, according to doctors. And more than 13% of the population of our planet suffers from chronic headaches.

What if your head hurts in your temples?

Temporal headache is the most common type of headache.

Experts attribute the following to the primary reasons:

• neuralgia
• cluster pain
• overvoltage
• migraine

Secondary causes include:

• cerebral vascular damage
• taking medications
• head or neck injury
• non-vascular intracranial lesions
• HIV infection and AIDS
• hemostasis disorder
• pathology of the skull
• psychological illnesses

What to do if you have a headache in your temples? – If this happens for the first time, then you need to take an analgesic. If the pain persists after taking painkillers, you should consult a specialist. If you experience intense and frequently recurring pain in your temples, it is better to consult a therapist or neurologist. If the pain is a consequence of an injury, then you should make an appointment with a surgeon or traumatologist.

Diagnostics

The cause of the symptom is determined by a neurologist. If ear, nose, or paranasal sinus diseases are suspected, the patient is referred to an otolaryngologist. According to indications, consultations with an infectious disease specialist, traumatologist, psychotherapist, and other specialists are prescribed. The doctor collects an anamnesis of life and illness, conducts an external examination to identify possible changes (for example, wounds, hematomas). To clarify the diagnosis, the following are prescribed:

• Otorhinolaryngological examination
  . Involves examination of available ENT organs, supplemented by the use of special devices to improve visualization. The most common techniques are otoscopy and rhinoscopy. Sinusoscopy is rarely performed during diagnostics due to its high invasiveness.
• Neurological examination
  . The specialist evaluates the symmetry of the face, pupils, and palpebral fissures. Examines muscle strength, range of motion, physiological reflexes, various types of sensitivity. Determines pathological reflexes, meningeal symptoms. Performs clinical topical diagnostics taking into account detected neurological disorders.
• Radiography
  . It is a mandatory diagnostic technique for injuries. Fractures of the parietal bone can be seen on photographs of the skull; fractures, dislocations, subluxations, and fracture-dislocations of the cervical vertebrae can be seen on radiographs of the spine. X-ray of the paranasal sinuses is widely used for sinusitis and mastoiditis, confirming the presence of dense masses in the sinus cavity, inflammatory changes in the mastoid process.
• Other neuroimaging methods
  . In the diagnostic process, MRI, Dopplerography, and duplex scanning are used. According to research, injuries, hydrocephalus, hemorrhages or areas of ischemia, displacement of the midline structures of the brain, sinusitis, and mastoiditis are confirmed.
• Lumbar puncture.
  Produced for intracranial hypertension, neuroinfections, and traumatic brain injuries. Helps confirm increased intracranial pressure, signs of inflammation or blood in the cerebrospinal fluid.
• Lab tests
  . A sample of cerebrospinal fluid obtained during a lumbar puncture can be examined by inoculation on nutrient media, microscopy, PCR, and ELISA. According to indications, general blood tests are performed to confirm inflammation, microbiological examination of discharge from the nose and ear.

Treatment of head injury

What if you have a headache in the back of your head?

Usually such a severe headache chills a person and prevents him from functioning normally. This is a very serious inflammation that you should not experience on your own without medical help. Usually the back of the head hurts due to pathologies. It is better not to try to relieve the disease with analgesics, but to immediately consult a doctor.

Headache in the back of the head can be a signal of diseases:

• nervous system
• vessels
• spine.

Causes of headaches in the back of the head:

• Tension headache. Usually discomfort is associated with tension in the neck muscles. They compress the arteries and nerves that carry blood and impulses to the brain, which is accompanied by a pain reaction in the back of the neck and in the back of the head. In some cases, the provoking factor is emotional tension and stress, which leads to spasm of the neck muscles.
• Migraine is an acute and painful attack of unilateral and occipital headache. An attack can last for several hours or several days. The cause of the disease can be physical activity, overexertion and changes in weather conditions. Most often, women suffer from migraines, and the average age of those affected is from 25 to 35 years.
• Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine is a chronic progressive disease that thins the cartilage in the neck. It can occur after a neck injury, vertebral displacement, sedentary lifestyle or excess weight. The disease can also cause pain in the back of the head.
• Sudden pressure surges.
• Occipital neuralgia provokes an acute headache. Discomfort begins in the occipital region, but can spread to the frontal and temporal lobes. This condition can occur after a neck injury, arthritis, or muscle spasms.
• Use of medications. In self-medication, people “prescribe” themselves medications to treat migraines. This initiative provokes a medicinal headache. It occurs as a reaction of the body to frequent intake of active substances of analgesics.

How to treat pain at the back of the skull

Pain at the base of the skull in the back is not an independent disease, but a conical symptom of other pathologies. It is very important to make an accurate diagnosis before treating neck pain at the base of the skull at the back. Then the neurologist will develop an individual course of therapy that will allow you to fully restore your health.

Let's consider the principle of treating neck pain at the base of the skull in degenerative dystrophic disease of the spinal column (osteochondrosis). Typically, the course of therapy begins with manual traction of the cervical spine. As a result, the normal height of the intervertebral discs is restored and pain is eliminated. Then the doctor develops an individual course, which may include:

• osteopathy to restore normal processes of microcirculation of blood and lymphatic fluid, which will ensure rapid restoration of damaged tissues;
• massage to improve the elasticity of muscles and other soft tissues;
• therapeutic exercises to start the disturbed process of diffuse nutrition of cartilage tissue;
• reflexology, kinesiotherapy, physiotherapy and much more.

If you require effective and safe treatment for pain at the base of the skull, we recommend that you consult a neurologist in our manual therapy clinic. The initial consultation with a specialist is completely free for each patient.

Why does my head hurt and feel nauseous?

Among the causes of nausea and headaches are infectious and non-communicable diseases, pathologies of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. The disease manifests itself due to intoxication and insufficient blood supply to the brain. Typically these symptoms indicate severe fatigue and impairment. This type of headache can also occur during pregnancy.

Causes:

• Overwork and lack of sleep. The body does not have time to recover and rest due to lack of sleep, which leads to negative health.
• Viral diseases that affect body systems and organs. Additional symptoms in such cases will be fever, muscle and joint aches.
• Viral diseases can cause headaches and nausea. For example, flu or sore throat, as well as seasonal infection, can trigger the disease. In this case, experts recommend bed rest and drinking plenty of fluids.
• Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a tick bite.
• Pregnancy.

Kinds

Neurologists distinguish the following types of headaches:

• Migraine – caused by a disruption of the vascular system;
• Tension headache - mainly occurs due to excessive tension in the neck, eye muscles, as well as the muscles of the shoulder girdle and scalp aponeurosis, as well as due to chronic stress, depression;
• Chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, cluster headache - can be primary or secondary.
• Headache not associated with damage to brain structures;
• Ambus headache that occurs when taking medications uncontrolled.

There are also headaches after traumatic brain injury, with diseases of the vascular system, and those that occur with intracranial disorders of extravascular origin.
Tensor headaches often occur in women after stress or nervous shock. It goes away in the presence of positive emotions, after drinking soothing herbal teas.

Neurologists do not recommend taking headache pills on your own. Each drug is designed to relieve a specific type of pain and has a number of contraindications. The doctor takes all this into account when prescribing a medicine to a patient.

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Why does my head hurt in the forehead area?

This phenomenon is quite common in all age groups of the population. Such pain can be acute or chronic, occur independently or in combination with other symptoms. Pain in the frontal lobe occurs even in a healthy person, so their one-time occurrence should not be a cause for concern.

If a person constantly has a headache in the frontal lobes, then there are a number of reasons for this:

• Tension headaches can occur even in healthy people. We must remember that rest is an integral part of the life process. This pain may go away after taking analgesics.
• Eye pain may also spread to the forehead area. The pain begins behind the eyes and spreads to the frontal lobe. Its manifestations are similar to tension headaches: they occur against the background of overwork or active mental work, last from several hours to several days, and are easily relieved with over-the-counter analgesics.
• Sinusitis causes sharp pain in the frontal part of the head and nose. Accompanied by impaired nasal breathing, lacrimation and decreased sense of smell.
• Arteritis is considered the rarest cause of headaches. The disease is associated with inflammation of the walls of large arteries. They become dense and visible above the surface of the skin. The main symptom of the disease is acute pain in the forehead.

Migraine

Migraine is the most common type of headache.
It most often occurs in women from the onset of puberty (from 11-13 years) to 35 years. Migraine can be simple or with an aura. It can occur in the temple, crown, back of the head, and forehead. The cause of the disease is a hereditary disorder of vasomotor regulation of arteries located outside and inside the cranium. With migraines, headaches occur in the form of attacks. They bother you at varying frequencies - from once a week to once a year. The attack lasts from several hours to 3 days. Usually the pain is throbbing and covers half of the head. It often occurs after physical activity, stress, lack of sleep or too much sleep, or eating certain foods. A migraine attack is accompanied by nausea and vomiting, intolerance to bright light, noise, and strong odors. Sometimes the headache is very severe and lasts for several days - this condition is called status migraine. According to statistics, migraine occurs in 2% of people.

Neurologists believe that a migraine attack develops under the influence of the following provoking factors:

• Chronic stress;
• Overwork;
• Intense mental work;
• Hormonal disorders.

Often the cause of migraine is a family history.

Why does my head hurt after sleep?

A morning headache brings discomfort throughout the day. Night sleep is the time when, after a hard day, our body restores strength. But from time to time awakening is overshadowed by unpleasant sensations.

The reason for such an uncomfortable awakening may be:

• Uncomfortable sleeping position.
• Incorrectly chosen pillow or mattress. Ignoring this moment leads to morning pain throughout the body, including the head.
• When the condition of blood vessels deteriorates, blood pressure is disturbed, which affects the quality of our sleep. Then feeling unwell becomes frequent.
• Head injuries can also contribute to headaches in the morning. It can occur a week or a month after the injury.
• Sinusitis makes breathing difficult, which causes a headache when waking up.
• Cervical osteochondrosis is a displacement of the spine in the cervical region. With this disease, the supply of oxygen to the brain is disrupted.

Pain with increased intracranial pressure

Intracranial pressure may increase for the following reasons:

• Traumatic brain injury;
• Space-occupying formation in the skull;
• Hydrocephalus – dropsy of the brain;
• Ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke;
• Meningitis, encephalitis.

When intracranial pressure increases, headache occurs in the morning after a person has been in a horizontal position for a long time. It goes away by mid-day. The intensity of the pain increases when the torso is tilted forward, during overexertion, or coughing. It is accompanied by nausea and vomiting, which does not bring relief.

Does paracetamol help with headaches?

Paracetamol is an affordable and time-tested medicine for various types of pain. The drug alleviates the physical condition and has almost no side effects. The medicine helps adults and children, but requires careful dosage when used.

Paracetamol mainly acts as a pain reliever. The phenacetin derivative inhibits the production in the body of compounds responsible for sensitivity to pain - prostaglandins. At the same time, it affects the thermoregulation centers, reducing high body temperature.

Paracetamol is good for relieving headaches in acute respiratory infections. In other cases, it is worth using another analgesic or seeking medical help. In some cases, paracetamol will only dull the pain, but not solve the problem completely.