Headaches affect many of us. Often, they pop out off the blue and make a nuisance of our day and make it totally unproductive. Today, I will focus on the types of headache, the not-so-serious causes of headache and some more serious causes of headache.
TYPES OF HEADACHE
The most common types of headache are sinus headaches, migraine headaches and tension headaches. Sinus headaches occur when there is infection or inflammation of your sinus passages. These are small passages present in your facial bones.
You might have noticed that you get this kind of headache when you're having a running nose or just as your cold is drying up. Tension headaches occur when the muscles of the head and neck tense up. Migraine headaches occur when the extra sensitive nerve endings of the brain cause pain.
TRIGGERS OF HEADACHE
The exact mechanism of tension and migraine headaches is not well known, however there are some known triggers. Let us discuss these triggers a little bit. Stress is a well-known trigger of headache. Besides causing headache, it also is a cause for oxidative stress which is not good for the well-being of your body.
Lack of sleep goes hand in hand with stress and is also a cause of headache. Fatigue is also cause of headache. This could be mental fatigue or physical fatigue. Another well-known trigger for headache is hunger. I often have this chat with my clients on what is their hunger trigger. Some people have pain in the stomach, some others like me feel quite irritable, while in some people, it causes a headache.
Caffeine withdrawal, if you are used to having a lot of coffees through the day and you abruptly stop, may trigger you a headache. Also, some pills may contain caffeine. Stopping these could also have a similar effect to abruptly stopping your coffee. On the topic of pills, if you been having pain killers like ibuprofen and acetaminophen for a while and stop suddenly, it could trigger you a headache.
Processed foods containing monosodium glutamate (MSG) are known trigger for headaches and along with alcohol. For some people being around smoke and sharp smells can also trigger a headache. You might have noticed when somebody is using a sharp perfume, it sometimes can trigger your headache.
Also, bright lights and flashing lights can also cause headaches. This is probably because the tiny muscles of the eye are continuously trying to adjust for the light input. Another very common cause of headache could be your eyesight. If you are getting sudden bouts of headache, please to contact your doctor to get your eyesight checked. A combination of all these factors can also cause you headaches.
SERIOUS CAUSES OF HEADACHE
A more serious cause of headache is high blood pressure. If you got a headache do get your blood pressure checked from time to time. Untreated high blood pressure can cause a lot of complications including cardiac trouble and stroke. More ominous causes of headache include bleeding, infection or tumors. So, if you have sudden headaches accompanied by fainting, convulsions and fever, please do contact your doctor immediately.
