Who Wants To Live With Chronic Tension Headaches?
Monday, November 17th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Chronic tension headaches can be a potentially debilitating condition that seriously deprives the patient of life enjoyment. Daily activities are subject to interruption by painful episodes that can occur any time. Chronic tension headaches can easily lead to depression and a general pain crisis. It is important that chronic tension headaches be treated as soon as possible. Fortunately, the medical community is very experienced with the problem of chronic tension headache, and has several avenues of treatment available for sufferers. In fact, the medical community has researched headache thoroughly, and has divided the phenomenon into three distinct categories.
The majority of headaches suffered are put into what is known as the primary category. A primary headache is frequently brought on by emotional or physical stress, and has the most frequent rate of occurence by far. Primary headaches are almost never life threatening, but are known to cause significant discomfort. This pain can hamper everyday enjoyment of life, making even basic functioning difficult. Although the exact causes remain something of a mystery, it is widely held that the symptoms are brought on by a tightening of the muscles that surround the base of the skull. This tightening can be initially identified as a band like feeling just above the eyes that gradually grows into a painful sensation.
Cluster and secondary headaches are a far rarer form of headache that occurs to small portion of the population. To treat this kind of headache, serious medical attention is required. Cluster headaches are easily identified by the pain level that they induce. Patients frequently describe cluster headaches as an icepick sensation behind one or both eyes. Treatment includes powerful sedatives and pain medications. Secondary headaches usually indicate some other issue that is at work.
Chronic tension headaches should be approached from a stress management point of view. Physical and emotional stress can be a significant source of chronic tension headaches. Circumstances that trigger significant emotional stress can easily lead to chronic tension headaches. Prolonged physical stress is another potential cause of chronic tension headaches. Steps to manage both kinds of stress should be undertaken in order to reduce the occurence of chronic tension headaches. If these steps do not succeed, then further treatment via pain medications may be necessary. Chronic tension headaches that occur on a regular basis should be a signal to see a doctor.
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