Headaches
Headache is one of the most common medical cases. Studies show that more than 50% of people suffer from head pain at least once a year. Headaches in various forms lead to the patient’s suffering, inability to exercise normal life, Many days of work and study; in the United States alone headaches cause at least 150 million working days lost, and 350 thousand days of education almost every year.
Headaches
Headaches have many types, different symptoms and causes of infection, and these types of the following:
- Migraines: Migraine headaches are accompanied by nausea and vomiting, and pain increases with movement, exposure to light, and hearing of sounds.
- Tension headaches: The appearance of this type of headache is associated with tension, and muscle spasm has a role in its appearance.
- Headaches caused by excessive drug use: This headache is caused by excessive over-the-counter medications, including analgesics.
- Cluster headaches: Of the least common types of headaches, it affects less than 1% of people.
Cluster headaches
A person with cluster headaches suffers from recurrent headaches in the head for a limited period of time. This condition may last from two to three months, during which the patient suffers from day or night-time attacks of up to three episodes a day. They come back again, there are two cluster headaches, namely:
- Cross-cluster headache: Headache attacks occur regularly for a period of one week and one year, and then go through a period of calm without headache episodes. This phase lasts for one month or more.
- Chronic cluster headache: The seizures in this type continue regularly for more than a year, followed by a period of headache-free periods, stretching for less than a month.
Cluster headache symptoms
Symptoms of cluster headache include:
- The pain is severe and continuous, often starts around the eyes, and may reach the face, neck, and shoulders.
- Redness of the eye, swelling around her in the hand pain, and gonorrhea of tears.
- Face scars, and sometimes sweating.
- Runny nose, sometimes blocked.
- Small pupil size, and eyelid in the pain.
Cases to see a doctor
Your doctor should be consulted in the following cases:
- Side effects of the drugs taken by the patient, or the loss of drugs are effective in the treatment of headaches.
- Pregnancy, or planning of its occurrence.
- If the symptoms become more severe when lying down.
- When the patient has to take medicine; to relieve pain more than three days a week.
- Change the pattern of pain caused by headaches.
- Urgent medical attention should be sought if the patient loses balance, or has a visual disorder, and confusion when trying to speak.
Complications of cluster headaches
Complications of potential cluster headaches include:
Causes of cluster headache
A specific cause of this type of headache is not known, but it is believed that part of the brain may activate some facial nerves, causing pain. Other possible causes of cluster headache include:
- Hormone secretion of histamine or serotonin.
- Part of the brain called hypothalamus is exposed to infection.
- Genetic factors.
- The presence of some factors that may increase the risk of cluster headache, including:
- Smoking, and alcohol consumption.
- Exposure to strong odors, and to bright lights.
- weather changes.
- High body temperature, this may occur when bathing with hot water, or exercise.
- Eat nitrates found in some types of medicines, cheeses and processed meats.
- Seasonal allergies.
- Cocaine abuse.
Risk factors
Factors that increase the risk of cluster headaches include:
- Gender: Cluster headaches are more prevalent among men, and the female to male ratio is 4: 1.
- Age: The risk of cluster headache increases between 20 and 50 years of age.
- There is a family history of cluster headache.
- Race: Blacks are twice as likely to have cluster headaches than whites.
Diagnosis of cluster headaches
The doctor may resort to doing the following: To diagnose cluster headaches:
- Identify the medical history of the patient’s headaches.
- Clinical examination.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and CT scan (CT scan) to exclude other causes of similar symptoms.
- Eye examination; to make sure there are no eye problems, cause the appearance of symptoms.
Treatment of cluster headaches
Cluster headache treatment options include:
- Take medications that prevent a headache.
- Take medications that treat headaches, and can choose one or more types as directed by the doctor, including:
- Triptans, such as: Somatriptan.
- Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as: prednisone.
- Inject dihydroergutamine, and should not be combined with somatriptan.
- Treatment by inhaling pure oxygen.
- The doctor may resort to surgery; to control cluster headaches, by planting a stimulant that sends electrical pulses to a specific nerve near the brain.
Coexistence with cluster headaches
The patient can live with cluster headaches by following these tips:
- Avoid stress causes.
- Avoid flying in the plane, and do not move between the different places at heights.
- Refrain from smoking, drinking alcohol.
- Organize sleep times, wake up from sleep.
- Try to know the factors that led to the incidence of previous headaches, and avoid them in the future.
- Avoid foods that aggravate symptoms.
Tips To Relieve Headaches
Here are the most important tips that may help relieve headaches:
- Taking painkillers moderately without excessive, and can take caffeine with painkillers, which increases the speed of the impact on the body, but there are some people who may have the effect of caffeine on the reverse, causing them headaches rather than reducing.
- Lie quietly in a dark and cool room, with eyes closed to get rid of spasm of head and neck muscles.
- Tingling certain points of the body acupuncture; to stimulate the secretion of the natural dwelling Indorphin, which relieves headaches, and pain of the body, to be treated by the therapist in this type of treatment.
- Practice deep breathing exercises, imagine being in quiet and comfortable places.
- Get a warm bath or warm compresses in cold times, cool compresses on the forehead, and neck in warm times; to relieve headaches and muscle spasm.
- Relaxing muscle massage gently, massage the base of the skull with circular movements, relieves headaches and relaxes the muscles.