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Oh man, sorry guys, I’m just not in the mood for DNews, I’ve got a headache.
Hey everyone, Julia here for DNews.
Headaches are the oldest excuse in the book, but what are they and why do we get them?
There are over 200 different kinds of headaches or cephalalgia as they are called, but we’ll
just stick to the most common.
Most people will experience one in their lifetime, one study indicates 64-77% of us will get
at least one at some point.
But as annoying and common headaches are, not a lot is known about them.
There are two main kinds, Over 90% of common headaches are what are called primary headaches.
These are episodic and by their definition not caused by some underlying medical issue.
Migraines and tension headaches fall under this category.
Secondary headaches on the other hand might be a sign of something serious.
They’re caused by things like an inflammatory disease, meningitis, aneurysm, tumor, etc.
But why do headaches hurt?
I mean our brain tissue can’t feel pain, it doesn’t have any brain receptors.
But other parts of your head do.
Arteries, veins, sinuses, muscles, eyes, ears, and even meninges can feel pain.
So it’s not your brain hurting, it’s most likely inflammation of the blood vessels or
an irritation or the swelling of the MEN-IN-GEES meninges, which is the tissue covering the
brain.
So tension headaches, like the name suggests, are triggered by stress and tension from daily
life.
The prevailing wisdom suggests muscle pain has a lot to do with it, since, muscle tenderness
and psychological tension are associated with and can aggravate headaches.
Maybe you slept on your neck wrong, maybe you’ve had a long day at work, but keeping
your neck and shoulder muscles too tight can trigger inflammation and thus a headache.
Sometimes the pain comes from your blood vessels.
For example, wine gives some people headaches, possibly because of histamines and tyramine.
Histamine dilates blood vessels and tyramine first constricts then dilates blood vessels.
A similar thing happens to blood vessels when they come in contact with cold things, like
ice cream.
Blood vessels on the roof of your mouth constrict from the ice cream and when they warm up again,
they dilate.
Thus, a brain freeze.
Maybe you skip your morning coffee and you get a headache, a 2009 study from the University
of Vermont suggests an increased blood flow from a lack of caffeine might lead to a headache.
It’s all this constricting and dilating of blood vessels that’s painful.
Which is why nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen work on some headaches.
We know a little bit more about migraines, which are intense nasty, debilitating headaches.
They feel like a pulsing, throbbing pressure.
Sometimes they come with nausea and you can’t stand light or sound.
Scientists used to think dilation of blood vessels was the culprit, but it seems some
dysfunction of nerves in the brain is really to blame.
A 2001 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed
how varying brain activity triggers aura.
Aura is a type of visual hallucination that happens before 20% of migraines.
The study showed that a wave of increased activity of neurons in the cerebral cortex
followed by a period of depressed activity was related to patients seeing an aura before
they got a migraine.
Other studies, like one from Johns Hopkins University, point to the trigeminal nerve,
which can release chemicals that irritate and cause swelling of the meninges, the tissue
covering the brain, and could be triggering migraines.
Even though migraines affect only 12–18% of the population, tension headaches will
affect most of us at least once in our lifetimes.
So it’s surprising not more is known about them.
In the meantime, the best way to nip the pain in the bud is to relax.
Like i said earlier most headaches are the result of stress.
Some studies suggest mediation might ease a migraine, so do some yoga, listen to some
enya, have a bubble bath, just chill for a sec.
Alright guys, do you get headaches?
What do you do for them?
Let us know in the comments below.
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