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.

When should you consult a doctor?

Doctors at the Clinical Brain Institute recommend undergoing an examination if your headaches are too intense or occur frequently. If they go away on their own during the day, there is no cause for concern. However, some symptoms should promptly consult a doctor. These include:

• memory losses;
• exacerbation of reaction to light, auditory stimuli;
• impaired coordination of movements;
• increase in body temperature to critical levels;
• dizziness, fainting.

You can also take care of your own health at home. Regardless of age and type of activity, it is recommended to periodically measure blood pressure using a tonometer. Scheduled examinations are also a prerequisite. They include examination by a general practitioner, ophthalmologist, otolaryngologist, and electrocardiography.

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.

Research methods

Painful manifestations are not an independent pathology, but only one of the symptoms. It is not specific, so it is difficult to make an accurate diagnosis based only on the patient’s complaints. It is necessary to take into account the accompanying manifestations and conduct hardware diagnostics that will identify the root cause of the abnormal condition. The following procedures are prescribed as diagnostic procedures:

• Laboratory blood analysis.
• Cardiogram.
• Blood pressure measurement.
• CT scan of the brain and skull.
• Dopplerography.
• Ultrasound of the vessels of the head and neck.
• MRI of the brain.

Tomographic procedures are recognized as the most informative research methods. Only targeted scanning can provide comprehensive data on the state of internal brain tissue, nerves, and vascular tracts. Only through tomography can tumor formations of any quality and stage, even microscopic, inflammatory foci, meningeal zones be detected. In one short procedure, doctors receive comprehensive information about the pathology and condition of the 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.

Non-hazardous conditions

Cephalgia is often observed during pregnancy, especially in the first half, when hormonal levels are greatly unbalanced, immune defense drops, and emotional reactions become poorly controlled. At this time, women often catch colds, suffer from long-forgotten chronic diseases, feel pressure surges, and are under moral stress. All these factors affect the development of pain in the forehead and temples, which are of a compressive, aching nature. Triggers such as:

• unhealthy eating behavior (hunger, overeating, consumption of alcohol, citrus fruits, sweets);
• physical stimuli (sharp sounds, smells, bright lighting);
• change of climate zone;
• sleep problems, fatigue.

The appearance of pain can also be associated with everyday situations when a person is forced or deliberately in the open sun in hot or, conversely, cold, windy weather. Irradiation to the forehead or temples also occurs due to mechanical impact on the eyes. If a person wears contact lenses, it can cause dry eyes and headaches. The composition of the diet also affects the patient’s sense of well-being. If you exclude harmful components from the diet (caffeine, alcohol, fast food, processed foods, smoked foods), the discomfort in the head may disappear on its own.

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.

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.

Treatment

Restorative procedures depend on the underlying cause of the pain. For chronic fatigue and overstrain, quality rest and a change of environment, fresh air, and taking natural sedatives are recommended. Inflammations and infections require targeted treatment with medications, including antibiotics. Problems with the cervical spine are solved by massage, exercise therapy, and physiotherapy. Cystic and tumor processes are considered individually, the issue of surgical treatment with removal of the pathological object is decided.

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.

Preventive diagnostics

After treatment, especially during surgery, re-diagnosis is required. It is aimed at monitoring the manipulations performed, assessing the quality of the operation performed, and identifying relapses. The safest method of preventive examination is MRI, as it does not cause radiation exposure. You can undergo a scan at any clinic in the city that has the necessary equipment. You can find the nearest tomography centers on our service; just use the search filters. Compare offers, choose the best clinics and sign up for a CT or MRI with discounts from the service.