Over 45 million people in this country suffer with headaches that come back from time to time each year. Most, over 90%, of these are what can be termed Primary Headaches.
This means that the headache is the problem and not just a symptom of a worse problem. There are three major types of primary headache that people suffer from commonly. These are tension, cluster, or migraine headaches.
Tension headaches are the result of a tightening of the muscles in the neck, shoulders, and jaw that may or may not radiate all the way over the head to the forehead area.
Women are more prone to tension headaches, but they can sometimes be quite severe in men and women alike. Most people do not begin to suffer from tension headaches until they have reached adolescence.
Those who must hold their head in one position due to their job, people who sleep with head at an odd angle, and those under a great deal of stress are at the greatest risk of getting a tension headache.
Skipping meals and sleep deprivation have also been linked to tension headaches along with this being an early sign of a migraine coming on.
Cluster headaches happen a lot less often than tension headaches. These are characterized by an extremely rapid onset, often within a matter minutes, and a short duration.
Men are more prone to suffer from cluster headaches than women. Cluster headaches tend to only affect one side of the head, where the other types of headache generally affect both sides equally.
Cluster headaches tend to become more intense if a person lies down. They generally affect people between adolescence and middle age only.
The body chemicals histamine and serotonin have been linked to the onset of cluster headaches. Tobacco and alcohol use have been shown to be probable causes and or complicating factors in cluster headaches.
The third and most severe form of primary headache is the migraine. Migraines may last from just a few hours to two or three days.
They are very debilitating and have severe effects on the quality of life of the migraine sufferer and anyone around this person during one.
Migraines are experienced by more women than men, although women with history of migraine normally do not suffer as many, or as severe ones during the second to third trimester of pregnancy, leading doctors to think that hormones can be linked to treatment and prevention of migraines.
Stress, food allergies, and use of alcohol and tobacco have all been linked to the onset of migraines. Doctors are now able to prescribe medications that will treat and/or prevent most migraines before the pain becomes completely debilitating.
One less common form of migraine that is characterized by an aura effect up to a day before the onset has been linked to the neurotransmitter, serotonin and is more common in people who already suffer from depression.
Primary headaches come in three different forms that affect the person suffering from them in different manners. There are a variety of causative factors and different medications have been shown to be more effective with one type than another.
Anyone suffering from frequent headaches should seek medical help and testing to be sure that he/she is suffering a primary headache and not a headache as a symptom of a more serious problem.
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