Doctor tells you what might be causing your headaches & how you can treat them at home

Everyone has headaches and everyone feels like their head might explode. Even we are guilty of googling our symptoms and getting worried that we are gonna die of a brain tumour. The truth is yes, it could be a brain tumour but actually about 0.1% of the times only, and usually it's one of the common causes.

While there are many serious causes of headaches, but they account for only 5% of the cases, and usually the common causes are - Tension type (most common), Common cold, migraine, sometimes even hunger can lead to headache.

Tension type headache

These are the most common headaches and occur due to excessive worrying. There are usually no other features except headache, but sometimes you might feel like vomiting or fatigue, too. The symptoms of these types of headaches are:

• Feeling of heaviness on the head

• Feeling like someone has tied a tight band around your head

• Sometimes you feel drowsy but unable to sleep

Treatment:

• Drink more water. Ensure you eat all your meals and aren't hungry.

• Rest, have some coffee. Give up all your worries, try meditating.

• If nothing else works, take a combiflam or paracetamol tablet and go to sleep. We promise, you will feel much better.

Common cold

If the pain is over your forehead, specially around one or both of your eyebrows, and you have a runny nose or common cold too, the headache is most likely due to the cold.

What happens is, there are small spaces in the bone of your forehead called frontal sinuses, located near your eyebrows, in common cold, these get filled with mucus and that leads to a headache. The characteristics are:

• Feeling of heaviness on the forehead

• Pain mostly at the center of your forehead or around eyebrows (One or both)

• Runny nose, sneezing, fever, common cold.

Treatment:

• Pressure over the bridge of your nose relieves pain a bit, but it's temporary.

• We need to clean those sinuses. We recommend taking steam, taking steam through your nose is a very effective way of cleaning your sinuses. We personally use a combo of vicks, steam with peppermint or medicated drops, clearing of nose frequently.

• As for medications, take some cold medicines (Antihistaminics) like cheston cold.

Migraine

These are also fairly common and very troublesome. These occur due to abnormal blood vessel (arteries) constriction and mainly expansion in our head. The symptoms are severe and usually need medications for treatment. The symptoms are:

• Headache over half of the entire head.

• You feel pulses, beats, throbbing pain.

• The pain is very severe and increases on movement

• You feel like vomiting (Nausea) or vomit.

• Sounds and lights make it worse.

• Before headache starts, you might get a feeling of impending pain or exposure to loud sound, light etc. (This is called aura and is a common feature of classical case of migraine)

Prevention:

• People prone to migraines should avoid triggers, events that have triggered this attack of headache. Loud sounds, lights, excessive worrying, lack of sleep, staying hungry for longer times, alcohol etc should be identified and avoided.

• Healthy diet, regular exercise, avoiding tea / coffee, meditation help too

Treatment:

• Take painkillers: Combiflam / Paracetamol / dynapar tablet.

• Lie down in a quiet and dark room.

• Do not use your phone at all.

• Consume adequate water and eat food properly. All these would help you through the attack of migraine.

• But if the attacks become frequent or these drugs don't help, you might need prescription medications like 'Triptans'. Consult a nearby medical practitioner.

Medication over-use headache

If you have frequent headaches and take painkillers frequently, about 10-15 days in a month, this may make the headache worse. Sometimes it happens that the real cause of headache has already resolved but the headache stays because of overuse of medications.

Treatment:

• If you have been taking painkillers daily for the past one week or more, stop taking them. We know it sounds counterintuitive, yet we believe it is the best course of action.

Red flag symptoms

If you have one of these symptoms, then you should consult a nearby doctor, as soon as possible, as the following symptoms indicate a severe disease

• Very severe and sudden onset pain

• Weakness of face muscles

• Weight loss or rash with headache

• Severe vomiting

• Your age is > 60 years and you have started experiencing a new headache

We hope we were successful in providing useful information through this article and resolve the mystery around headaches. This time you won't be worried if you have a tumour or aliens are invading your head.

If you have any queries or doubts, ask us below in the comment box or use our Suggestion/Discussion Group Page.

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