Almost everyone has experienced a headache. In a modern society with increasing competition, crowded living space and diverse personal roles, the prevalence of headaches is on the rise. Headache is becoming a “headache”.
Headache is a common symptom in daily life, and 50% of the patients who visit neurology department complain of headache, which is second only to cold in incidence. Usually, headache refers to the pain in the upper part of the skull, i.e., from above the eyebrows to the lower occipital area, and is a subjective feeling produced by the body in response to various pain-causing factors. Pain-causing factors can come from various sources, such as physical and chemical. When patients with headache see a doctor, most of them talk about their symptoms.
Headaches have a lot to do with emotions: headaches are aggravated when you are tired, stressed or sleep deprived. This is especially true when there are emotional changes, such as anger, rage, excitement, anxiety, unhappy work and frustration.
In short, modern civilization gives too much competition and pressure to modern people who are shuttled in the concrete jungle.
Failure, frustration, loss, bad luck and crisis in the workplace directly lead to emotional tension and anxiety, which makes headaches more likely to occur.
Headaches are a big “headache”. In the minutes or hours before a headache strikes, people feel tired, unrefreshed, and even visually impaired, and once they have a headache, they are depressed, unmotivated to work, and uninterested in having fun. Headaches take a significant toll on people’s work, and the loss of productive time due to pain in the U.S. young adult workforce is estimated to cost $61.2 billion annually.
Classification of headaches
Simply put, there are two types of headaches: primary headaches and secondary headaches. Primary headaches include tension headaches, migraines, cluster headaches, trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, and temporal arteritis headaches. About 90% of headaches are primary headaches. Secondary headaches are headaches caused by other diseases, including headaches caused by changes in intracranial pressure; headaches caused by intracranial infectious diseases; headaches caused by cerebrovascular diseases, etc.
One of the common headaches is frequent headache due to tension in white collars
Tension headache, also known as muscle contraction headache, is a common occupational disease among white-collar workers, mostly seen in those who work at desk or operate computers for a long time. Headaches persist and are difficult to stop
Tension headache is the most common type of chronic headache. It is caused by the continuous tension in the neck muscles due to maintaining a posture for a long time, the accumulation of acidic metabolites, stimulation and compression of the nerves in the head, coupled with mental and psychological tension, depression and anxiety, it leads to persistent pulling pain or spreading pain caused by muscle spasm and/or vasoconstriction in the head, face, neck and shoulder. The patient’s headache is persistent, mostly non-pulsating, and the headache is mostly located on both sides of the temples, the top of the forehead, the back of the head or the whole head. The pain manifests as a dull ache with a pressure and banding sensation, which may spread to the neck, shoulders and back, and the pain may last for days or weeks. The headache makes it difficult to concentrate, memory loss, and can also affect sleep quality. Examination reveals nothing other than occasional muscle spasms. Patients usually wake up in the morning or feel discomfort in the head soon after waking up, and the headache is mild or moderate, although it can sometimes affect daily
Although it can sometimes interfere with daily life, it rarely interferes with activities due to headache.
Persistence is an important feature of tension headache, and the headache is aggravated after mood swings or when mentally fatigued, and may be accompanied by insomnia, nausea and blurred vision.
Tension headaches are more common in women, accounting for about 75% of cases. Journalists, computer workers, secretaries, tailors, drivers and people who are not easily relaxed are more likely to have tension headaches.
Improve emotion first to relieve pain
For tension headache, patients should do the following.
1. Regularize life, avoid mental tension and maintain emotional stability. Patients should treat and solve the contradictions in work and life correctly, and do their best to avoid emotional tension, anxiety, impatience, etc.
2.Ensure sufficient sleep and pay attention to proper rest.
3.Strengthen exercise and improve the ability to resist disease. Various bad postures should be corrected to avoid causing continuous contraction of the muscles of the head, neck and back of the shoulder, such as long-term low head and desk work. Pay attention to your own regulation every day, take a warm bath in the morning or at night before going to bed, take a walk or a small jog in the fresh air. From time to time, heat compresses are applied to the neck and back, and gentle massage is applied to the scalp and neck muscles, which can reduce the spasm and contraction of local muscles and thus reduce headache.
The second common headache is migraine for women
Migraine is an episodic headache caused by cranial vasodilator dysfunction. It is characterized by paroxysmal severe headache on one side of the head, and in severe cases it can involve the whole head, mostly accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
Migraine is a common disease, mostly seen in women, and about half of them have family history. According to incomplete statistics, the prevalence of migraine among adults in China is 7.7% to 18.7%, and the number of female patients is 3 to 4 times higher than that of male patients, and most of them start in adolescence. With the accelerated pace of life and increased work pressure, the incidence of migraine has been on the rise.
Frequent consumption of chocolate triggers migraine
The occurrence of this disease is related to endocrine disorders and water and salt metabolism disorders. Mental stress, overexertion, poor sleep, climate change, bright light stimulation, hot sun exposure, mild hypoglycemia, alcohol consumption and application of vasodilators are all triggers for migraine attacks. Many patients’ attacks are often related to diet, such as frequent consumption of cheese, chocolate and stimulating foods can trigger migraine.
The two main types of migraine are typical migraine and common migraine. The main difference between these two is the presence or absence of aura symptoms. The common migraine, also known as migraine without aura, is the most common type of migraine, and its aura period is not obvious. The headache may be unilateral or bilateral frontal or temporal episodic, throbbing pain, which lasts longer than the typical one, and the intervals are completely normal.
Typical migraine, also known as migraine with aura, accounts for 10% of migraine patients, mostly with onset in adolescence and more often with family history. The most common type of migraine is visual aura, such as flashing hallucinations in the patient’s bilateral visual field, and the shape of the flashing lights is variable, such as star-shaped or ring-shaped. Severe cases can be treated prophylactically, while mild cases do not require special treatment, and can generally be relieved by rest, exercise, and taking appropriate medications for headache. Acetaminophen, aspirin, etc. are commonly used. However, in severe cases, patients with the following conditions should be treated prophylactically: migraine attacks more than twice a month; each attack lasts more than 24 hours; the headache is severe; the acute treatment does not completely relieve or is intolerant to treatment; the migraine attack aura is prolonged.
Commonly used drugs for migraine prevention include: calcium overload blockers, such as ciprofloxacin; beta-blockers, such as tretinoin; 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor antagonists, such as phenothiazine; and anti-epileptic drugs, such as sodium valproate. They should be applied under the guidance of physicians.