Headache

Just about three out of four persons suffer from headache each year. Headache is a symptom, not a disease. The pain can be dull and sore, sharp and stabbing or steady and throbbing.

What causes headache?
• Not fully known. For migraine, it is believed to involve the serotonin receptors in the brain,
affecting its nerves and blood vessels.
• Tension of muscles of the scalp, face and neck

Types of headache
The commonest type of headache. There is a generalised pain, a feeling of fullness or pressure over the top of the head or at the back of the neck. It occurs everyday, it is not associated with vomiting and not aggravated by movement.

Factors that trigger the condition includes
• Stress (e.g anger, changes in weather, distress, overexertion)
• Poor posture
• Depression
• Lack of sleep
• Eyestrain

Migraine
A common and painful headache that often begins in puberty or early childhood, runs in families and tends to recur. Symptoms include

• Pain usually affecting one side of the head. It gradually builds up full throbbing intensity and
is aggravated by movements, light or noise
• Noise
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• In migraine with aura, you may experience unusual sensation about 20 minutes before headache. The sensations may include nausea, vomiting, enlarging blind spots, flashing or zigzag light, strange noises or smell and numbness in one side of the body.
• In rare cases, paralysis of one side of the body may occur after the headache.

What you can do
• Lie down in a dark, quiet room
• Apply ice pack to the head
• Massage head, neck and shoulders
• Take a painkiller (Paracetamol, aspirin or other NSAIDs)
• Try to identify factors that trigger off the headache and avoid them

Contributed by National Healthcare Group Polyclinics

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