Dealing With 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!

If you’ve never had a migraine, it’s likely you’ll never truly appreciate just how painful and debilitating they can be. Headache patients often are asked to rate their pain on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being mild discomfort and 10 being the most intense pain you can imagine. For me at least, migraine is about a 12 — a couple orders of magnitude beyond anything you could imagine.

Here’s what it’s like:

Migraine is a primary neurological disorder involving the trigeminal nerve and muscles and blood vessels in the scalp. While the mechanism is not fully understood, experts believe serotonin levels in the brain play a key role. The most widely used medications for migraine prevention are intended to raise serotonin levels. Serotonin also has been linked to chronic depression and sleep disorders. Many chronic headache sufferers struggle with these conditions as well. I am one of them. I took a high dose of amitriptyline for several years that provided some relief from all of these conditions. The drug eventually quit working for me, which frequently happens.

Migraines vary in length, usually four to 72 hours, and frequency. Some people have one every few years. I have two to three a month. They usually last one to three days. Most people have “classic” symptoms. Nausea is common, as are hypersensitivity to sound or light. About 15 percent of migraine suffers experience aura, which includes a wide range of symptoms like seeing colored lights or numbness of the face that indicate a migraine is imminent.

There is no cure for migraine, but the majority of sufferers can be treated with varying degrees of success. About 10 percent of migraine sufferers do not respond to the most common treatments currently available.

migraine, serotonin, aura, amitriptyline