There cannot be many of us who have not suffered from a headache and yet, although they are so commonplace, their cause remains something of a mystery. In addition, although we generally talk about a headache there are in fact a number of different types of headache.
Migraines for example affect approximately 10% of the US population (in the region of twenty-eight million individuals) and attack three times more women than men. And yet, in spite of the fact that such a large number of people suffer frequently from migraines, we still do not know just what causes them. Naturally there are a number of theories, the most recent of which is that they are caused by the interaction of brain chemicals such as serotonin and the nerve cells of the brain, however we do not know for sure that this is the cause.
Cluster headaches, which are far less common but also far more intense than migraines, affect roughly one person in every three hundred and tend to attack men much more than women. Once again however we have only a tentative idea about just what causes the stabbing pain which is frequently felt behind one eye in these particularly painful headaches. A few people suspect that a problem with the hypothalamus might be the cause but, as yet, there is no good evidence in support of this theory.
The commonest type of headache is what we normally refer to as ordinary or tension-type headaches and once more these are not well understood. Here the list of possible causes is extremely long and includes everything from the food we eat to the amount of stress we are under. Trying to pin down a specific cause has proved to difficult so far however and just what produces the common everyday headache remains something of a mystery.
Perhaps the only saving grace is that we do have a large number of medicines available to cope with the various types of headache and the majority of these are both safe and effective for most sufferers.
Migraine headaches have long proved difficult to treat and the original ergot drugs used to treat them showed varying degrees of success. These were then replaced by triptans which were more effective but which regrettably had some shortcomings. Today however a new generation of triptan drugs are proving safe, have fewer drawbacks and work well for most sufferers.
We have also seen an increase in the use of preventive medications for migraines such as calcium channel blockers, beta blockers, anti-depressants, anti-seizure medications and a variety of other drugs that are commonly used to treat other well known conditions. For many people these medicines will indeed stop headaches from occurring at all, while in others they can reduce the frequency of headaches.
For everyday headaches over-the-counter medications such as aspirin or paracetamol (which have been around for over 100 years) and newer medicines such as ibuprofen offer effective and safe relief in the majority of cases. For people suffering from regular headaches though care has to be taken because even the lowly aspirin can have side effects if taken too frequently.
Even though there is still a great deal that we do not know about what causes really bad headaches the fact that we are able to treat them effectively is comforting to the many sufferers and particularly to the large number of individuals who suffer from often extremely incapacitating migrane headaches. Surprisingly enough however only about half of all those who suffer from migraines ever seek treatment and so there are millions of individuals today who are needlessly suffering in silence.
If you are bothered by headaches and find that simple over-the-counter medicines like paracetamol or aspirin do not do the trick then, rather that suffer in silence, drop in to see your physician who will almost certainly be able to help.
