Dealing With Headaches

The results of a study published in the July 3rd issue of Neurology shows a correlation between household income and migraine prevalence in adolescents. This article explains that though genetic predisposition plays the main hand at whether your adolescent may become a migraine sufferer, when there is no genetic predisposition, household income may be a predictor.

Households where there were incomes of less that $22,500 showed 4.4% prevalence rates, whereas those with incomes of $90,000 or higher showed only 2.9% rates. Stress due to economic worry, poor diets and lack of medical care can contribute to these rates difference.

This study also mirrored previous findings in adults, suggesting that those in lower income brackets and without higher education were more likely to suffer from migraines than those who were post-secondary educated and are more financially stable.

migraine, economic stress, low income, top income bracket, higher education, adolescents

So you wake up in the morning and your head is already killing you. Then you pop a few OTC painkillers, say Tylenol, and it dissipates for a couple hours. It comes back again in full force and though you know that you shouldn’t, you find yourself taking more painkillers everyday, it seems, just to make it through the workday and time with the family - until you can drift off to sleep.

Is this your life? You’ve likely called your condition one related to chronic daily headaches, but what if I told you in a supportive, gentle voice that you’re actually bringing this lifestyle on yourself?

Rebound headaches occur when someone takes too much, too often of a pain reliever. For example, did you know that typically, OTC drugs such as acetaminophen are actually for occasional headaches, not daily ones? If you’re taking them more regularly than a few times a week it can contribute to a rebound headache. Sometimes these headaches can feel exactly like the ones you’ve been treating - or can even be more severe.

For more information, please check out this site and it’s other links.

rebound headaches, analgesics, chronic daily headaches

We’ve all heard of the cliché’d wife who denied her husband some marital lovin’ because of a headache. Seems that this imaginary woman is both lying and telling the truth.

Research has shown that sexual activity can help ease migraine pain. This is because usually migraines are accompanied by lower levels of activity in serotonin nerves; during orgasm, serotonin is secreted in abundance.

Something should also be said for the relaxation effect a good session of lovemaking can give. Since destressing techniques such as yoga, meditation, gentle stretching and massage are commonly suggested for maintenance of tension and migraine headaches, could we not also assume that the peace that can come from a good workout between the sheets could aide as well?

Conversely, some men and women can be affected by benign coital headaches - a pain generally felt either immediately before or following orgasm. Quite severe and spanning minutes or hours, these headaches are generally assumed to be due to muscle contraction and/or blood vessel dilation in the head and neck.

More serious is the sudden new onset sex headache - one that can be described as the worst headache of the sufferer’s life. Until ruled otherwise, this unusual headache is a medical emergency, as they are usually due to a brain hemorrhage or other serious life-threatening situation. Medical attention is needed immediately.

Sources: Dr Dave and Dee, Newsnet5

sex headache, coital headache, hemorrhage, tension headache, serotonin, sex

Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll!

At the other blogs that I write (here and here), I often ask questions to engage the readers. Sometimes, I get a response via comment or email; occasionally a link, answering my question…sometimes readers even ask me questions back and that’s when I get really excited. The point? I’m trying to engage the communities of these blogs and I love it when you want me to talk back to you.

So recently, I’ve begun experimenting with polls - opinions are both the basis for the great conversations and the bane of free will, so to speak - and I thought I’d bring the concept over here, too, since you all are not a very chatty bunch. In fact, I’m getting a little lonely; it’s just me, my Excedrin Migraine and a very tall glass of water.

This week, I’m asking you: what do you do to treat a migraine? Go to’ er…

I’ll let you know the results and a new question, next week!

As if migraine sufferers need another pain, the semi-undocumented icepick headache can affect 40% of them. Described sometimes as the “suicide headache” this pain can be excruciating and sudden, and then disappear before treatment, or even assessment, can take place.

They typically last from five seconds to a minute and can strike a few times a day, but normally do not occur all day. The pain is paralyzing for some, striking normally behind or in the eye orbit, temple or parietal areas - as if, you guessed it, an icepick was being stabbed into their brain.

At least they usually exist outside of migraine pain (more…)

sta·tis·tic (stə-tĭs’tĭk) (American Heritage Dictionary)
n.

1. A numerical datum.
2. A numerical value, such as standard deviation or mean, that characterizes the sample or population from which it was derived.
3. One viewed as a nameless item of statistical information: got laid off and became another statistic in the slumping economy.

Imagine searching for statistics on the amount of people regularly affected by headaches. You knew you weren’t alone, but you didn’t know that many people suffered, too. Such is the nature of statistical data on headaches - it’s so grandiose, it’s unbelievable.

This article lays out the author’s point of view. He intrigued me by humourously starting off with the classic patient offering their symptoms of three attacks a week, each lasting four days. When did the 12-day week start? I should be accomplishing a lot more!

This site’s article mentions that ’studies’ have shown that roughly 45 million American suffer from chronic headaches annually; women make up 44% of those affect, men the remaining (obviously). Mathematically, this means that (more…)

In no particular order, the following are the most popularly published migraine triggers. Learning to assess and manage triggers is an important part of migraine relief. If you are unaware of how to avoid triggers or even what triggers may exist for you, please see a professional for guidance (or look here, for a start).

1. Stress, and the habits we tend to pick up to cope with it, such as smoking, excess caffeine consumption and drinking alcohol.
2. Hormones, especially for women as there is a large range of surges throughout the month.
3. Diet, including the wonderful stuff like cheese, chocolate and citrus fruits.
4. Overexertion during exercise. Regular, moderate workouts are great for managing migraines - push it too far and it may backfire.
5. Preservatives and perfumes. Lunch meats, MSG and nitrate-laden foods can bring on a nasty one and I’ve even found sensitivity to household cleaners and body products.
6. Changes in air pressure or weather can bring on migraines for the simple reason that they’re unnatural to our normal daily experiences.
7. Changes is sleeping patterns, whether not getting enough, too much or it’s simply not high quality, will affect some migraine sufferers.

Sources: Health Central, Cure that Migraine and Health News in Ireland.

Migraines, Migraine Triggers, Caffeine, Stress, Headaches and Diet

Seems that Harry Potter’s intense and frequent headaches may finally be diagnosed after six years. The New England Centre for Headache diagnoses them as “probably migraine.” (Whichita Eagle)

Via comparisons between human and slime mould pain molecules, it’s been found that there’s only about 10% similarity. Meaning potential for a new analgesic to treat recurring and debilitating headaches. (Science Daily)

Apparently, if your parents made money when you were younger, you were 50% less likely to get migraines. (relieve-migraine-headache.com)

Don’t want to read news about headache research, medications or types? Looking for someone who’s telling their story? Check out Kerrie and Paul.

If you are aware other blogs relating to headaches, especially chronic ones, please email me or leave a comment.

It makes sense that tension-type headaches are caused by tension, yes? Well, by definition, tension is stress. So, life nowadays is busy and tiring and this causes stress. Which causes tension headaches. Some people chronically have them - I’d wager they’re under a lot of constant stress. I’m not being facetious, I’m proving a theory that if you can reduce the stressors, you can probably relieve chronic tension headaches.

In addition to medications, diet and neurological assessment and good old fashioned vacations, why not try one of the following:

1. Deep breathing exercises
2. Progressive muscle relaxation
3. Meditation or guided imagery and visualization
4. Yoga
5. T’ai Chi
6. Massage therapy and self-massage
7. Aerobic exercise

Let me know what zen-type thing works for you.

tension, stress, yoga, massage, t’ai chi, meditation, imagery, aerobic exercise, deep breathing

1. Breakup with your partner. If you’re drinking because of anger or sadness over something they did or didn’t do and you find yourself wanting to do this more and more, leave ‘em. It’s not worth becoming an alcoholic and having a headache everyday.
2. Go back to sleep, no matter what. Self explanatory, eh?.
3. Drop something heavy on your foot. The goal is to avert your attention away from your head, not to break anything. If you find a good item that works, drop something on your partner’s foot after you break up with them.
4. Start drinking, again. No, you didn’t learn anything from the night before, so stop pretending you did. Hair of the dog is the line more frequently heard…but I prefer to think of it as drinking to escape the pain.
5. Only watch sports events that come once a year. The Stanley Cup, the World Series, Superbowl, Wimbledon, etc. Then, sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy your malibu and seven during the pingpong championship match.

Choose the best answer for the following four questions.

1. How would you describe the pain?
a) Pressing or tightening, mild to moderate
b) Throbbing
c) Radiating pain

2. Where is your pain located?
a) Both sides of the head
b) One-sided
c) Behind one eye or it’s region

3. What are your headache’s triggers?
a) Anxiety or depression
b) Diet, stress, environment, perfumes, medications and/or hormone changes (seems to be everything!)
c) Alcohol and/or smoking, but only when I am regularly getting them, which is often in the spring or fall

4. What other symptoms do you have?
a) Sleep changes, guilt, weight loss, dizziness, poor concentration, chronic tiredness and nausea
b) Nausea, light and sound sensitivity
c) My eyelid sometimes droops and my sinus on the affected side is congested

(more…)

In line with the previous author’s post, I want to express my extreme annoyance with people who say they’ve got migraines when what they really mean is that they have (what to them) is a bad headache.

A migraine is not:

• just a headache, when you don’t normally get them;
• a dull pain in your forehead;
• something that you can work in loud or overly bright environments with.

A migraine is, for some people:

• debilitating;
• a cause of extreme vomiting, leading to dehydration and possible hospitalization and further headaches;
• vision-altering;
• something that puts your life on hold, until it decides it’s done;
• completely predictable, or unpredictable;
• an extreme stabbing pain behind one or both eyes that sometimes comes with warning or as a complete surprise.

I’m glad we cleared that up. If your headache falls into the first list, please, for the love of all things holy and with us migraine sufferers in mind, please don’t say you’ve got a migraine.

I’m Terra, the new writer here at Dealing with Headaches.