What to do with high blood pressure headaches

  A sudden or significant increase in blood pressure can cause headache, but it should be noted that blood pressure can also rise significantly when combined with cerebrovascular accidents such as cerebral hemorrhage. Therefore, when patients with hypertension have headache, they first need to exclude serious conditions such as cerebral hemorrhage or hypertensive encephalopathy, and blood pressure can be controlled under the premise that no comorbidities exist, which can often relieve headache. If the headache is still present after blood pressure control, it suggests that hypertension and headache are not well related, and further examination should be done to find other causes and deal with them accordingly.  Hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebral hemorrhage. When blood pressure is too high and exceeds the compensatory mechanism of cerebral blood vessels, the cerebral blood vessels may rupture and bleed. Hypertension is the cause of 50-60% of primary cerebral hemorrhage. Hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage mostly occurs in small arteries that are directly divided from large arteries in the brain. These small arteries have weak walls, and under the long-term influence of hypertension, the walls of small arteries degenerate, the lumen narrows, the vascular resistance increases, and the diastolic function of blood vessels decreases. When the patient has mood swings or physical activity, the blood pressure suddenly rises, causing the vessel wall to rupture and bleed. After cerebral hemorrhage, patients often feel sudden headache and swelling, and may suffer from impaired consciousness or limb paralysis.  Hypertensive encephalopathy means that in patients with severe hypertension, the blood pressure is so high that it breaks through the range of cerebral blood flow autoregulation and the cerebral tissue is overperfused, causing cerebral edema. The clinical manifestations are diffuse severe headache, vomiting, disorders of consciousness, and mental confusion.  The method to exclude cerebrovascular accident is to perform head CT or head MRI, etc. After cerebrovascular accident is clearly excluded, drugs should be applied to lower the pressure. In the acute phase, intravenous antihypertensive drugs can be actively lowered, and angiotensin II receptor blockers, long-acting calcium channel blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, diuretics, etc. can be chosen after the acute phase. And at the same time, symptomatic management of headache can be done, such as taking Cipro.