Headaches

Overview

Most people will have a headache in their life, they will experience pain and discomfort in the head, scalp, or neck region.

Headaches can be mild, but in many cases, they cause excruciating pain that makes it difficult to work and perform daily tasks. Luckily, most headaches can be taken care of through a combination medication and lifestyle changes.

Causes

Headache specialists/doctors have identified many different causes behind headaches and classified them into primary and secondary causes.

Primary causes of headaches are not related to a separate medical condition and these headaches are a product of some underlying process in the brain. Some examples of common primary headaches are migraines, clusters, and headaches because of tension.

Secondary headaches occur because of an underlying medical condition and do require a specialised headache treatment doctor’s intervention. Some causes of secondary headaches are:

Brain aneurysm or tumor

The occurrence of a brain aneurysm (bleeding in the brain), or the pressure exerted by a brain tumor cause headaches. The skull is compact and rigid; when it begins to swell up with blood or extra tissue, the pressure on the brain can causes headaches.

Overuse of medication

A headache may occur if you are taking a significant amount of pain relief medication on a daily basis and begin reducing or discontinuing them. Ask the best doctors for headache in Delhi and they’ll tell you it’s never a good idea to alter your dosage without consulting your doctor.

Cervicogenic headaches

This occurs when spinal discs begin to degenerate and press down on the spinal column, which can cause severe neck pain accompanied by headaches.

Meningitis headaches

Headaches can also occur if there is infection of the meninges (meningitis), which are the membranes that cover the skull and enclose the brain and spinal cord.

Post-traumatic headaches

Sometimes people begin experiencing headaches after receiving trauma to the head, maybe during a sports collision, a fall, bike or car accident, or simply hitting their head against a hard surface by accident.

Sinus headaches

Inflammation in the sinus cavities causes pressure and pain that can give you a sinus headache.

Spinal headaches

This can happen because of a gradual leaking of cerebrospinal fluid, this usually occurs after a person’s body rejects anaesthesia.

Types of Headaches

Teachers know the kind of headaches unruly students give them, but jokes apart, there are many types of headaches, they include:

Tension headaches

Do we even need to mention that these are the most common type of headache and happen mostly in women aged 20 years and above, the general feeling is that of a tightness around the head, as they are caused by a tightening of the muscles in the neck and scalp regions. Incorrect posture and excess stress contribute greatly, and tension headaches

can last up to several minutes, and in some cases, they last for many days, and can also be recurrent.

Migraine headaches

You’ll need to visit a migraine doctor in Delhi if you suffer from severe headaches that also cause pain and throbbing, usually on one side of the head. A migraine treatment doctor can treat several types of migraine headaches, that is why it is advisable to visit a migraine specialist.

There are chronic migraines, occurring 15 or more days per month. Hemiplegic migraines have stroke like symptoms. People also experience migraines without any headaches, but may experience other symptoms like nausea, visual disturbances, and dizziness.

Cluster headaches

These non-throbbing headaches but cause tremendous, burning pain on one side of the head or right behind an eye, causing the eyes to tear up, also creating nasal congestion or rhinorrhea (a runny nose). These can last for long periods of time called the cluster period, which can be last up to six weeks.

Cluster headaches can happen daily and may also occur more than once. The causes of these headaches are still unknown and are rare, and generally affect men aged between 20 to 40.

Rebound headaches

These begin to occur after someone stops taking medications they formerly used to take for managing headaches. You’re more likely to experience these rebound headaches if you take acetaminophen, painkillers (like Tylenol with codeine) and triptans.

Thunderclap headaches

As the name suggests, these are severe headaches that often come about abruptly like thunder. They appear without any warning and can last for almost five minutes. These types of headaches may indicate an underlying problem with blood vessels in the brain and necessitate immediate medical attention.

Most headaches aren’t a threat to your life but make sure to see a doctor if you suffer a headache happens after head trauma or if headache comes in with fever, drowsiness, confusion, slurred speech, facial numbness, vomiting and convulsions.

Treatment for headaches depends on what is causing them and if they are being caused by illness, they will go away once the condition is treated. However, most headaches reflective of medical conditions and can be treated with over-the-counter medications.