Have you ever felt like some sadist has your head clamped in a vise, or that an alien is trying to hack its way out of you skull, or maybe that a red hot poker is being pushed into your brain? Join the club. A significant proportion of men have a least one headache at some point during a year.
A whole heap of headaches
As a general rule, headaches are just head aches. Some are very painful, of course, but usually there's no underlying serious problem.
Occasionally, however, there's a disease at the root of the problem. The usual symptoms of meningitis, for example, are a headache accompanied by fever, nausea, a stiff neck, and aversion of light. With one type of stroke (subarachnoid hemorrhage) there's a sudden, very severe headache, often with fainting and nausea. Persistent head pain that is present on waking in the morning might mean a brain tumor.
Headaches not caused by an underlying illness fall neatly into three categories: tension, migraine, and cluster headaches.
Tension headaches
Also known as stress or muscle-contraction headaches, tension headaches are the most common of the three types. They account for nearly 70 per cent of all headaches and affect about 69 per cent of men at some point of their lives.
Tension headaches are characterized by a dull pain that is mild to moderate in character, especially when compared with migraine or cluster headaches. The pain is steady rather than pounding or throbbing, and it can last anywhere from 15 minutes to a week.
A tension headache usually strikes on both sides of the head and it's usually impossible to pinpoint the exact centre of pain. Frequently your jaw, upper back, and neck muscles will feel tense, and you might have a tight sensation around your scalp as well. Sometimes there's a lot of vice-like pressure. Tension headaches are brought on mainly by stress or fatigue. Eye strain, emotional problems, caffeine withdrawal, grinding your teeth, and even gum chewing can all provoke an attack, as can poor posture or sitting in front of your computer for too long.
Migraines
Migraines account for nearly one-quarter of all headaches, and most are experienced by women. There's strong genetic factor: studies show that between 70 to 80 per cent of migraine sufferers have a family history of the complaint.
The word migraine come from the Greek and means "half a skull", an apt name if ever there was one. Intense, incapacitating pain occurring in one side of the head is the typical scenario. The pain is usually described by sufferers as throbbing or pulsating, and it may be accompanied by other symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and numbness on one side of the face, cold hands, and sensitivity to light, noise, and movement. Migraines may last anywhere from four hours to three days and may recur from few times each week to once every couple of years.
Migraines are sometimes called vascular headaches, because of the traditional belief that they're caused by the abnormal swelling and contracting of blood vessels in the head. However some researchers believe that migraines have nothing to so with blood vessels and instead are caused by an abnormality in the brain's neuron circuits.
While migraines may come on suddenly, giving no warning whatsoever, about 40 per cent of sufferers experience a preceding visual disturbance known as a migraine aura. The aura generally involves flashing lights, zigzagging or wavy lines, blind or dark spots, a temporary loss of peripheral vision, or splashes of color. It occurs about 10 to 30 minutes before the onset of pain, barely giving the sufferer enough time to seek out a quiet, dark place.
Cluster headaches
Cluster headaches often happen at night and are characterizes by a sudden, excruciating pain on one side of the head, usually in the temple or behind an eye. On the side of the head that's affected, the nostril might become plugged or run and the eye may start to water. The pain is steady and sharp rather than throbbing.
Cluster headaches my occur a few times a day over a period of few days, weeks, or months, and then disappear – only to return months or even years later.
This type of headache is relatively rare, and the exact cause is not clear. One researcher has noted a large majority of people who suffer from cluster headaches – more than 80 per cent – have blue or hazel eyes. It's known that males are eight times more likely to be targets than females, and many men who get them are heavy smokers and drinkers. Unfortunately, keeping off alcohol and cigarettes doesn't seem to make the headaches go away.
The headache menu
According to the International Headache Society, the great majority of headaches not caused by some underlying disease – those doctors call "primary" headaches – are one of three types: tension, migraine, or cluster.
Tension headache:
Strikes either on both sides of the head or throughout the head: there's no exact centre of pain.
Sometimes involves tension, pain, and pressure in the jaw, upper back, neck, and scalp.
Head feels like it's in a vice.
Migraine headache:
Typically involves excruciating pain on one side of the head only, usually from the eye socket upwards.
Pain often throbs in pace with the beating of the heart.
There may also be numbness on one side of the face.
Cluster headache:
Usually strikes on one side of the head only, either behind an eye or in the temple.
Pain is steady and sharp.
There may be nasal congestion and dripping on the side that's affected, and the eye may start to water.