Headaches are common symptoms that are rarely caused by serious reasons. They may subside after a while. It is comprehensible that some people may be concerned about their headaches. However, it is best to stay calm and observe the symptoms to find out what factors cause reoccurrence of headaches, such as which area and when they occur, what alleviates or worsens the symptoms, and which symptoms precede or follow them.
A doctor generally performs history taking, general neurological, and other examinations as necessary to diagnose diseases that are not related to brain. For example, a fever may easily cause a headache because when body temperature rises, blood vessels dilate.
- Hypertension
- Abnormal thyroid function
- Changes in eyesight or eye disease, or gazes can cause headaches that spread from the eye socket.
- Inflammation of the nasal cavity and sinuses. Pain often occurs in the sinus area.
- Sharp facial pain
- Pain in jaw joint muscles, often associated with inflammation of jaw joint.
- Inflammation of neck muscles or problems from degenerative cervical spine, etc.
- Important and common headaches are caused by the following diseases.
Tension-type headache
It is the most common disease that causes contracting muscles around the head. A patient will feel dizzy as if the brain is being squeezed. The pain may radiate into the back of the neck or into shoulders. Some people may experience pain in a wide area on the top of their head and may also experience pain in eye socket area. With severe pain, walking or running can worsen the pain. The symptoms often occur in the afternoon after a long day of work.
This type of headache is caused by insufficient rest, stress, and alcohol consumption in some people.
Treatment: Take enough and regular rest with deep sleep. This is the best way to relax your muscles. Avoiding fatigue resulted from working for a long period of time. If the symptoms persist, see a doctor to receive skeletal muscle relaxants or pain relief medicine.
Vascular headaches can be categorized as follows.
Migraine is a disease occurred in young to middle-aged people. It often affects women more than men, causing dizzy headaches around one temple (in some cases, severe pain may occur on both temples at the same time). The pain often radiates to eye sockets and is accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Patients are usually unable to tolerate bright light/loud noises; and the symptoms may precede the onset of migraine headaches. This is caused by expansion and contraction of arteries adjacent to the main membranes of the brain, which are stimulated by physical and mental discomfort.
Factors that trigger migraines include lack of sleep and rest, anxiety, heat, bright lights, loud noises, unpleasant smells such as cigarette smoke, exhaust gas, oil, perfume, food smells, changing weather, changing hormone levels such as (before/during/after) menstruation, certain types of birth control pills or food. Some food can trigger some patients’ migraine relapse, such as red wine or smell of alcoholic beverages, coffee, sweeteners, MSG, chocolate, cheese, certain medicines, or not eating on time.
Prevention methods include avoiding factors that trigger migraines if a patient still experiences the symptoms very often or the pain is severe or interferes with daily life.
Treatment: It must be understood that migraine is a disease that cannot be permanently cured. Treatment will help reduce severity and frequency of migraine occurrence; so, it does not interfere with daily life. During the disease’s relapse, you should see a doctor to receive appropriate medicine. Self-medication is not recommended due to a number of side effects.
Cluster headache is rare but commonly found in 20 to 40 year-old men. Cluster pain often affects a single side of the head or face, especially deep in the eye sockets and surrounding area. A patient also experiences single-sided runny nose and a red weepy eye. During the disease’s relapse, symptoms occur after being stimulated by alcohol, traveling, or rising to high altitudes, taking nitrate drugs, or consuming nitrate-rich food. However, during its remission, such stimulations do not cause a headache.
Headaches caused by abnormalities in the brain
The following pains are crucial for doctors to diagnose to provide appropriate treatment.
- Different types of brain tumors.
- Infection of the meninges or brain tissue, brain abscess.
- Stroke, brain hemorrhage.
- Cerebral blood vessels develop abnormally or become aneurysms.
- Parasites in the meninges or brain tissue.
Headaches from diseases in this group are characterized by gradual pain or abnormality becomes larger, causing increased head pressure. Patients usually feel the pain deep in the head with neurological symptoms, such as weakness in the limbs/ hemiparesis, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, or decreased hearing, vomiting, lethargy, seizures, or loss of consciousness.
Examination and treatment: A doctor will perform history taking, general physical and neurological examinations, and consider ordering additional examinations as deemed appropriate to collect information for the diagnosis. Such examinations include blood tests, X-ray of skull to diagnose sinus cavity and bone characteristics, and computerized tomography (CT SCAN) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. In addition, the doctor may consider dye injections in some cases as deemed appropriate.
In addition to the X-ray, other necessary examinations according to the symptoms may be required, such as cerebrospinal fluid collection for meningeal infection or bleeding in the cerebrospinal fluid, or electroencephalogram (EEG).
Therefore, patients with headaches should see a neurologist to receive appropriate advice and treatment.
