The Real Cause Of The Headache

What we refer to as headaches may occur very frequently in various areas of the head like for example behind the head, in the upper neck or ears. In addition, headaches are usually not taken as a sickness, but rather a an indication of another sickness. Causes for headaches are many and these causes could vary from one person to the other. Furthermore, as sometimes the treatment is quite tough, it is vital to rightly diagnose the cause of headache.

Categorizing the headache is the first step that should be taken before attempting to treat the condition. There are there are numerous ways to categorize headaches although the most renowned method was introduced by the International Headache Society. According to this classification method, there are three major types of headaches and each type has different causes of headaches.

Primary headaches are one of the major kinds of headaches and could be further categorized as tension headaches, migraine headaches and cluster headaches. The major culprit in the case of tension headaches tend to be either physical or mental stress. It is stated that nearly 90% of all adults would experience tension headaches during their lifetimes. Furthermore, women are more prone to tension headaches than men. Migraine headaches are also a common type of headache with almost 12% of the US population (around 28 million people) experiences this kind of headache. Although both of these headaches are very common, cluster headaches are rather rare with affecting only 0.1% of the population. The exact cause of headache in both migraine related and cluster headaches are not presently known. However, none of the above three headaches are life threatening.

Although the cause of headache in primary headaches may not prove to be fatal, secondary headaches might indicate a far more dangerous condition. Due to conditions like meningitis, brain tumors, strokes and encephalitis secondary headaches could come about. Therefore, itís vital that one seeks medical attention when your headaches are accompanied with symptoms like seizures, continuing nausea and vomiting, and vision, speech and behavior changes. There is also another type of headaches called Cranial neuralgia where the cause of headache is inflamed nerves in the head and the neck. In addition to this, facial pains and other various headaches are also included.

Itís very important that the you visit your physician if the headache persists in a severe manner though you might be able to get some relief in the short term through painkilling drugs like asprin or paracetamol. In addition, the painkilling drugs including paracetamol should be used in the recommended doses as an overdose may result in adverse consequences like heavy liver damage which would at times prove to be fatal.

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