Different Types of Headaches
You feel a pounding headache coming on, but what kind of headache is it? Are you aware that there are many different types, each with a unique set of causes and symptoms? The most common types of headaches include:
Know someone who complains? Or reaches into the medicine cabinet too often? Send them our way!
There are two types, episodic and chronic. Someone with chronic headaches often wakes up and goes to sleep with a headache and feels a constant tightness or ache in the head and neck areas.
A vascular-type headache, migraines are debilitating and often are accompanied by nausea/vomiting and acute sensitivity to sound and light. Women suffer more from migraines than men, possibly due to frequent hormonal changes.
The rest of this article, including other types of headache, can be found at the causes of headaches website.
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Neck curves and Headaches
You may not think about it as we do, but the natural curves that occur in the four different regions of your spinal column help to balance your body and prevent injury.The curve that should be present in the upper part of the spinal column, called the cervical spine, is a lordodic curve. When viewed from the side, this is a forward curve.
Birds have a “S” shaped curve in their cervical spine permitting even greater range of motion than our “C” shaped curve.
Injury or uncorrected trauma can cause the cervical spine to straighten and lose this vital lordodic curve. This is known as cervical kyphosis and can progress to the point where a reverse curve is formed. Even a slight reduction in the normal lordodic curvature can produce subtle or more obvious health problems.
The causes of cervical kyphosis can include:
- Degenerative disc disease
- Congenital Kyphosis that appears at birth
- Trauma, such as whiplash from an auto accident
- Injury from a medical procedure
Symptoms can range in severity from mild discomfort and headaches, to decreased range of motion in the neck and in the most severe cases, paralysis.
Neck pain may be common, but it’s not normal. If you’re experiencing any type of neck pain, please call our office to schedule a thorough examination. Chiropractors are specially trained to locate abnormalities in the spinal column and quite successful in restoring proper spinal curves. We’d love to help you or someone you know.
For further information about headaches and migraines, visit the headache treatment website.
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What causes the Pain in Headaches?
It’s back again ~ that all too familiar throbbing pain in your head. Do you know what actually causes your headaches?Spinal misalignments in the neck are a common cause of many types of headaches.
The pain you feel when you have a headache is not located in your brain, even though it feels that way. The pain is actually sensed by nerve endings located in your head and neck. Many types of events, inside and outside of your body, serve as “triggers” that can bring on a headache. Knowing what most often triggers your headaches can help you avoid them.
The most common triggers are emotional (stress, anger, anxiety), food-related (processed foods such as cold cuts, alcohol, nuts, and dairy products), hormonal (birth control pills, menstruation, menopause), environmental (noise, air travel, changes in temperature/humidity), or physiological (illness, skipping a meal, overtiredness).
A study, conducted by Dr. Eisenberg at Harvard University, reported that chiropractors are the most common alternative health provider consulted for headache pain. Chiropractors are trained to locate and correct misalignments in the vertebrae in the upper spine and neck. These misalignments put pressure on adjacent nerves ~ pressure that can cause your headaches.
So, instead of reaching for the headaches pills the next time you feel a headache coming on, call your Chiropractor and have your spine checked instead!
For further information about headaches and migraines, be sure to visit headache treatment website.
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Know Someone With Forward Head Posture?
No wonder you’re always tired. You have a forward head posture!Neck pain, fatigue, carpel tunnel syndrome, TMJ syndrome, fibromyalgia, headaches ~ can how you hold your head be the cause of all these conditions? If you, or someone you know, suffers from forward head posture, and an estimated 90% of the population do, then the answer is definitely yes!
With correct head posture, the ear is centred over the shoulder. If the ear is off centre to the front of the shoulder, this is known as forward head posture. For every inch the head is forward of this centre position, it exerts an additional 10 pounds on the muscles in your neck and upper back, causing them to work harder to keep your head erect and your chin up!
But how do you get into the habit of a forward head posture? Today’s use of computers, television and video games may contribute to this condition which ultimately compresses discs and causes extensive damage.
Here are several ways to help correct this condition:
- Receive regular chiropractic adjustments
- Make sure your child’s backpack doesn’t exceed 15% of his/her body weight
- Take regular breaks from sitting at the computer
- It may be hard to believe, but how you hold your head may be an important key to your health!
For further information on headaches and migraines, be sure to visit the headache cures website.
This article is brought to you by the Good Health Doctor
Headaches in Children
Does your child frequently complain about having a headache? Headaches may be common, but they’re not normal. The problem with headaches in children, however, is that they may be more difficult to diagnose in terms of cause and effect. This is especially true with younger children, because they frequently lack the verbal skills or experience to effectively communicate what is wrong or what they are feeling.
Tension headaches are the most common type of headache found in children (just like in adults) and usually involve about 75% of all childhood headaches. Episodic tension headaches occur several times a month, while chronic tension headaches are much more frequent – more than 15 occurrences in a month. Recent studies seem to point to a genetic link to these types of headaches, where previously, none was thought to exist. Triggers may be lack of sleep, tension in the home or school environment, second-hand cigarette smoke, skipped meals, poor nutrition, eye strain and bright lights.
Migraine-type headaches, though more infrequent, also affect children and if a parent suffers from migraines, their child is 50% more likely to experience them as well. Put a different way, in 70%-90% of all children with migraines, there is a family history of migraines as well. Migraine triggers include foods, such as chocolate and caffeine, lack of sleep, missed meals and, particularly in females, hormonal changes.
The rest of this article on children with headaches, be sure to visit the migraine headache website.
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Overuse Of Codeine, Oxycodone And Barbiturates Increases Risk Of Chronic Migraine
People who overuse barbiturates and opioids, such as codeine, butalbital, and oxycodone, to treat migraine are at an increased risk of developing chronic migraine, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12 - 19, 2008.People with chronic migraine have headaches on 15 or more days a month.Their risk of chronic migraine was then calculated based on the types of medications they used in 2005. Among those with episodic migraine in 2005, 209 people had developed chronic migraine in 2006.The study found people who took drugs containing barbiturates or opioids for only eight days a month were twice as likely to develop chronic migraine a year later as those who didn’t take such drugs.
“People who use drugs that contain barbiturates and opioids, if only for a total of seven to eight days a month, appear to significantly increase their risk of migraine progression,” said study author Marcelo Bigal, MD, PhD, with Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. “Strict limits for these types of drugs should be enforced among people with migraine as a way of preventing their migraines from becoming more frequent and more painful.”
The study found no evidence that the risk of developing chronic migraine increased among people who frequently used triptans, which are commonly prescribed drugs to treat migraine, or non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen.
The study was supported by the National Headache Foundation.
For further helpful information visit the Helping with Headaches and Migraines website
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Help with Headaches
Hi everyone,There are not too many of us whom have not experienced a headache or migraine of some type during their life.
This site is full of great information about all aspects of headaches, including treatment, diagnosis and symptoms.
Feel free to click here to checl it out for yourself.
Be sure to leave a comment.
Yours in GoodHealth
Dr Carlo Rinaudo, Chiropractor