Headache

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.