HeadacheTreatment and Prevention
Migraines and Sinus
FACT: Headaches Affect Nearly 90% of Men and
95% of Women
All kinds of
pains are bad. But there is nothing as
mentally exhausting as a headache. It affects our well-being,
our productivity and even our social existence. After a
headache we feel mentally drained and
physically exhausted. But then we come to the interesting
question, should a bad headache keep a good
man down? To find a solution to this question, it is important
that we understand more about
headaches.
Headaches are of different
types. They can be identified as headaches due to migraine,
sinus and tension. Now these headaches are very different
but they do affect the same part that is the head in general.
So if we understand more about them we can reach an interesting
conclusion.
And you
know what that is? Headaches are largely preventable. Of course
there are a lot of cures available over the counter now but do
we really have to wait for the headache to start to resort to
treatment? Isn’t prevention better than cure? Isn’t it better
to be proactive than reactive?
I have
included 101 tips on how to prevent headaches below. But before
we go to the tips, it might be useful to have at least a
superficial understanding of the different types of
headaches.
Migraines
A
migraine is a splitting headache that just
seems to set in apparently due to no reason at all. The reasons
for a migraine are mainly vascular. That means that certain
changes in the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain
trigger of the pain. Of course, the causes for the changes in
the blood vessels may vary from person to person but this is
generally how it starts.
Migraines are easily
the most common headache syndrome. It affects 10 to 15 percent
of the global population. One peculiar feature of a migraine is
that it usually starts in childhood or adolescence and is most
common in young and middle-aged adults.
The
only good thing about a migraine is that it usually stops as
people get older. Migraines have nothing to do with a person’s
background, upbringing, or social class. Migraines do not
discriminate.
Migraines have a strong
impact on the quality of a person’s life. It affects not only
the person but also the lives of those who move in close
contact with he person. Migraine attacks can
some times be so severe that person may have to abandon his or
her routine activities for three or four days at a
stretch.
Once the pain
of a migraine sets in, it is sheer agony. It
is almost as if one side of your head is being ripped
off. There is very little a person can do to stop this
pain.
The good
thing about a migraine is that it is
transient, that is the pain will go away after sometime. This
usually happens after the person gets a few hours of sound
sleep. But the worst thing about migraines is that they recur.
But migraines too can be prevented to a very
large extent as the tips below explain.
There are two
main types of migraine, the classic migraine
and the common migraine. Both the classic and the common kind
can occur as often as several times a week or as rarely as once
every few years.
Both types can
occur at any time. But for some people at least, it is possible
to predict the occurrence of the migraine. For example there is
a greater tendency for a migraine near the days of menstruation
or every Saturday morning after a stressful week of
work.
Although many sufferers have a family
history of migraine, the exact hereditary nature of this
condition is not known. People who get migraines are thought to
have an inherited abnormality in the regulation of blood
vessels. The following factors often act as triggers that set
of the migraine.
Stress is one
of the major factors that can contribute to the onset of a
migraine. Now it may not be possible for you to get away from
the cause of stress, particularly if it is something connected
with your job.
Anger can
trigger of a migraine as well. It would be good for short
tempered people to learn ways of controlling their anger. The
best method is of course the one to ten method. The next time
you get angry count to ten very slowly before you really blow
your lid. By the time you get to ten you should have cooled
down.
Both physical and mental fatigue can lead to a migraine
so do not push your self too much. Enough is enough and when
your body starts giving you signals that it has had enough,
take heed and stop whatever you are doing. Just bear in mind
that a little more productivity on one day is not worth the
productivity of the next couple of days.
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