Headaches: Why and How many?

Human beings accept without question their predominance over natural things. But they pay little attention to the fact that they spend most of their lives in mental and physical anguish than any other creature on the earth. All evidence indicates that headaches are a purely human complaint, unknown among simpler life forms. Headaches are afflicted by a variety of reasons, including primarily people who are either insecure, perfectionist, discontent, emotional, ambitious and intelligent.

Statistics are hard to compile on the various degrees in which people are affected by headaches. The cause behind a headache cannot always be traced immediately. This is because these are the results of subtle organic and psychic processes that are not always felt by the victim or instantly observed by the physician.

Headache victims can sometimes feel certain change in their bodies. The feeling of depression or dread, which often heralds a headache, is caused by the fluctuations of the blood vessels of the brain and their effects on emotions. The continuous throbbing is caused by the pulsation of the arteries engorged with blood. A person suffering from headache also complains about intense pressure in their brains – almost as if their brain is going to burst. This too, is a result of congested blood vessels passing against the nerves. Many headaches begin with the muscle tension around the jaw and neck. This can be caused by stress or by just sitting in one position at a desk all day. Tense muscles tend to restrict blood flow to the head, which can result in head pain.

During headache, several areas of the head can hurt. The muscles of the head and the blood vessels found along the surface and at the base of the brain are sensitive to pain because they contain delicate nerve fibers. The tissues of the brain itself never feel pain because they lack pin sensitive nerve fibers. Stress, muscular tension dilated blood vessels, and other triggers can stimulate the ends of these pain sensitive nerves, called nociceptors. Headaches occur when the blood vessels in the head dilate and impinge on the pain sensitive cranial nerves. The nerves send SOS messages to the control centers in the brain. Many responses then occur to restore equilibrium. But the only phenomenon that penetrates the consciousness of the sufferer is pain.

It is generalized that people who suffer from severe headaches have lower levels of endorphins than people who are generally pain free. Thermography is often used in diagnosing a headache. An Infrared camera converts skin temperature into a color picture, or thermogram, with different degrees of heat appearing as different color.

Headaches are characterized broadly into the following types:
1) Migraine:
Throbbing migraine headaches usually affect one side of the head only (in some cases on both sides, all over the head or just the back of the head). It is episodic in nature and may last a few hours or a few days. It may be preceded by or accompanied by an "aura" or warning consisting of unusual visual symptoms in the form of wiggly lines/dark or white spots. It is usually accompanied by nausea or vomiting, increased sensitivity to noise or light. There may be some family history of migraine. Certain food items or drinks sometimes provoke migraine attacks. Migraine is more common in women than men.

2) Cluster Headache:
Cluster headaches are characterized by sharp pain that usually affects one side of the head and is felt in or around the eye and forehead. It is usually accompanied by nasal congestion and redness or watering of the eye on the same side as that of the headache. The eyelid may droop and the pupil may be constricted. It attracts males much more than and females rarely suffer from it.

3) Chronic Daily headache:
As the name indicates, this headache is of monotonous regularity- it occurs daily or almost daily. Four basic types of headache qualify as "chronic daily headache". These are chronic tension headache, so called transformed migraine, new daily persistent headache and the condition medically known as hemicrania continua.

4) Tension Headache:
The pain caused by tension headache is described as pressure or heaviness around the head or top of the head sometimes accompanied by a feeling of soreness or tightness in the back of the neck and shoulders. Sufferers feel as if there is a rubber band around the head. Other symptoms include may include tiredness, lack of energy and difficulty in concentration, or poor memory. This type of headache lasts for more than four hours and most patients describe it as being constantly present.

5) Sinus Headache:
This is a dull throbbing pain affecting the entire forehead often affecting the region around the eyes too. It is usually linked to allergies, sinus infection and changes in the weather.

6) Rebound Headache:
These headaches are characterized by a continuous low-grade headache between several episodes of increased pain throughout the day. Such headaches are a result of wearing off of the effects of the painkiller. These headaches may be triggered by a slight physical or mental effort. These are often accompanied by nausea, restlessness, anxiety, irritability, memory problems, difficulty in concentration and depression.

7) Ice cream Headache:
Medically called Cold Stimulus Headache, this is sometimes caused by gulping down a frozen dessert, which triggers an excruciating, sharp, shooting pain. This is caused by blood vessel spasms, which are triggered by the intense cold. To avoid this, just go slow while eating your ice cream.

8) Harry potter headache:
Howards Bennett, a pediatrician in USA has recently published a paper about a previously unreported type of headache. He based his conclusions on the three patients who had come to him complaining of a persistent, dull headache that fluctuated throughout the day. In one case the headache was accompanied by neck and wrist pain. None of his patients had had a fever or other symptoms that would suggest an infection or neurological problem. But all three were in the process of devouring the latest Harry Potter book. The diagnostic was thereafter simple. The children’s headache was a variation of tension headache. It was brought on by the effort required to read the 870-page book in one go. The obvious cure was to take a break from reading but the patients preferred painkillers instead. When Bennett sent in his communication to the New England Journal of Medicine, the journal editors promptly christened his paper, " Hogwarts headaches- Misery for Muggles"

Those suffering from headaches should take some solace from the fact that they are not alone. Headaches affect millions worldwide. So acute is this problem that the International Headache society (HIS) was formed in 1981 and registered as a charity in England and Wales in 1995. In USA, headache sufferer may approach the National Headache Foundation and the American Headache Society for information. Through offices in London and Toronto, the World headache alliance brings together the efforts of 38 headache organizations in 26 countries- together representing the views of and concerns of the people whose lives are affected by headache disorders. Thus it is obvious that serious malady or not, headaches are receiving due attention from researchers and health workers around the world.