The Causes of Headaches

Most headaches are the result of the body's response to adverse circumstances of life. We can all associate headache pain with times of fatigue, stressful circumstances, and sometimes even changes in weather.

Headaches often have common triggers. For many people, avoiding these headache triggers can be enough to reduce the frequency and severity of headache pain.

Common headache triggers are:

Treatment of everyday headaches

The best treatment for common variety headaches is prevention!

Treat your body well. Pay attention to how you feel. Body stresses such as hunger, fatigue, and overwork should be minimized. If you push your body hard enough, it may push back with a headache.

Avoid the things that normally set your temples throbbing. For many people, certain foods or beverages can trigger a headache. Chocolate, red wine and certain cheeses are classic examples of foods that can become foes within a couple of hours. If you can link your headaches to some of these trigger substances, then avoiding them may be your best cure.

Headache Trigger Substances

Relaxation is often key to reducing the likelihood that a headache will set in. Tension-relieving activities like a long walk, exercise, meditation and even a warm bath or a soothing massage, can pay off in pain prevention.

Sooner is better

Treat a headache early in its course. Pain is easier to control before it gets a grip on you. First, try to eliminate the cause of your headache, if you can. Then relax. If your body still needs some help with pain control, try an over-the-counter pain reliever. The three most common pain relievers are equally effective at relieving mild to moderate headache pain, but they carry different side effects, and some may be better than others for different pains, in some people.

Acetaminophen (the active ingredient in TYLENOL* )is the pain reliever that is effective and offers the least risk of side effects. It has a long history as the product of choice among doctors for most pain conditions, including migraine and tension headaches, because of its effectiveness and superior safety profile.

Ibuprofen (the active ingredient in MOTRIN* IB )is helpful in the reduction of mild to moderate pain, and is particularly effective for relief of more severe pain that is inflammatory in origin (e.g. athletic injuries). A growing number of doctors will suggest that ibuprofen also provides effective relief of other demanding pains like tough headaches, migraines, menstrual cramps, dental pain, muscle aches and sprains. If you are a healthy, active person, then generally there is little risk of side effects from ibuprofen. However, in some people, ibuprofen may carry some risk of stomach irritation and it may interfere with other medications.

Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, the active ingredient in Aspirin®) is used for ordinary tension headaches, for ASA preventative therapy and for the pain of inflammation resulting from injury or arthritis. It can cause a variety of side effects in some people, including an upset stomach or irritated digestive system, and sometimes is a factor in drug interactions. Consult your doctor before you use Aspirin®.

Migraine Headaches

Some people are prone to very miserable headaches that may or may not be associated with "trigger events" like those mentioned above. These headaches are often referred to as migraine headaches, vascular headaches or "sick headaches". These headaches are more severe than usual headaches, they tend to last longer (from hours to days), and they are often associated with a variety of other unpleasant symptoms such as nausea, light sensitivity, vision changes, and mood swings.

Sometimes these headaches are severe enough that medical attention is sought out for relief.

Once a careful examination by a doctor has ruled out more serious causes for these headaches, the sufferer can learn to control their headaches through

• avoidance of the trigger events,
  
• non-medicinal approaches to pain management such as biofeedback and relaxation therapy, and
  
• proper use of medication.

Although people worry that a bad headache may be a symptom of a serious disease, this is usually not the case. However, do pay attention to headaches that tend to be persistent, without obvious cause, unusually severe, and do not respond to self-help treatment. In such cases, a doctor should be consulted just to be safe.

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