What is Tension Headache?
Tension headache is among the primary type of headaches affecting major portion of people, of around 90%, facing problem from stress and tension in life.Pain in this headache usually occurs from head, back of head, neck, and eyes and is episodic in nature, meaning it can come again and again after some interval. Cases of tension-headache are very high, totaling nearabout 3% of the pouplation, because of the lifestyle, working behavior people are adopting thesedays.
The nature and symptoms of tension headache can include both chronic and episodic features depending on its frequency and duration. It can episodic as well as chronic, depending upon the time of occurrence. Episodic headache remains for atmost 15-days a month, while, chronic atleast 15 days for 6 month. Duration of headache could be few minutes or several years. The headache usually occurs because of the contraction in brain muscles and is painful to be with. The headache is taken very normal has become part of day to day life of modern people, who are very much busy in their fast life.
Symptoms of Tension Headache
1. Major reason behind the headache is contraction of muscles, so the foremost symtpom of this headache is feeling pressure or squeeziness all over the head, mostly in front and back of the head.
2. In most of the cases, headache start when a person wakeup in the morning.
3. The pain can occur simultaneously on both side of the head, in front and in back side, making it bilateral in nature
4. It can be very painful as well as very mild, depending on the frequency and duration
5. Pain usually occurs on the temples starting from one side to another and can remain remain for atleast 30 minutes to whole day
6. A person might have a feeling of dizziness, nausea, and vomiting during the period of headache
7. Lack of concentration is seen in the case of this headache because of obvious reasons
8. A person might get irritated by some external sound or noise disturbances
9. A person might feel some difficulty is sleeping
Diagnosis of Tension Headache
Generally, doctor asks some questions regarding the persistence, occurrence, and duration the headache a person has. Doctor may can some question regarding the lifestyle of a person. Mild headache can treated by taking some home remedy otherwise by some easily available painkillers.
The above mentioned diagnosis is for normal neurological examination, but, in case of severe headache, doctor can recommend to go for some higher-level of tests like Computerized Tomography (CT) and Magnetic rsonance Imaging (MRI). The tests become mandatory and important if the symptoms examined addon some other unusual symptoms.
If the pain is recurrent in nature then, the doctor can recommend a person to maintain a headache calender. The headache calender will include certain description of headache like the duration, time interval of occurrence, and frequency like whether it is mild or severe. The calendar should also include occurrence of some other effects happening in the body during the headache period.
Causes of Tension Headache
Basically, the major cause behind tension headache is contraction of the head muscles. But, some more causes are defined on general note, like:
1. Unsufficient sleep: If a person is not getting sufficient sleep because of any reasons, including day-to-day chores, then he might have fair chance to get tension headache.
2. Due to stress in afternoon after spending whole day in doing work and physical activities. Body tends to feel stressout and tired after long working hours, this affect the head muscles and pain starts banding on head.
3. Eyesight problem can be among some other causes of headache. Eye muscles generally affect alongwith head muscles and cause pain.
4. Irregular consumption of meal results in hunger and, thus, causes pain in the head.
5. Sometimes when a person wants to reduce or finish his caffeine addiction then he can feel pain in his head, as, caffeine has several features of expanding head muscles and reducing stress.
6. Scientifically some other causes of tension headache are defined like chronic contraction of the temporalis muscles due to teeth clenching, improper functioning of pain filters, hyperexcitability of central nociceptive neurons, or malfunctioninng of pain inhibitory system in the body
Types of Tension Headache
Tension headache is differentiated according to the frequency, duration it is effecting a person, alongwith, some other symptoms accompanying it. It is divided into four categories like:
1. Frequent episodic tension headache: In this case, headache suffers the person for atmost 15 days in a month and repeats the pattern for atleast 3 month in a year. It can suffer the patient for atleat half-an hour to seven days in a week.
2. Infrequent episodic tension headache: occurrence of headache is infrequent and generally, does not affect life of a person it is infecting. It suffers the patient for atleast ten days in a year, covering atleast one day in a month. This type of headache is considered absolutely normal and might not require eminent medical professional help.
3. Chronic tension-headache: The occurrence of this headache is atleast 15 days in period of three months and it can suffers the patient for several minutes to several days.Hence, the probability of affecting suffering person is very high in this case.
4. Probable tension-headache: The headache is supposed to be caused by overuse of some medication. The symptoms of problem tension-headache are not in conjunction with the symptoms of migraine. And, based on frequency and duration it can further be classified as frequent probable headache, infrequent, and chronic probable headache.
Treatment of Tension Headache
Generally, people don’t take headache seriusly, and don’t go for medical consultation. But, Tension-headache needs to be taken seriously because it is caused by some biological disorders.
Several medications and therapies are considered suitable for treating tension headache: Such as:
Medications: People usually take some over-the counter (OTC), which are available in the medical store, to treat the headache. Doctors do prescribe some medicines or pain killers like aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen so that patient can get immediate relief from this chronic headache. And, the work of the painkiller depends on its suitability with the person it is given. Never take overdoses of these painkillers and consult your doctor in case the pain persist for a week long. Analgesics like Acetaminophen and other nonsteroidal anti -inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are sometimes given to provide relief from headache.
Sometimes doctors recommend a combination of medicines including aspirin and caffeine or a sedative drug to provide relief to the patient.
As medications provide just immediate relief not complete relief from the headache, so, it is advised to follow certain rules in your lifestyle to reduce the occurrence of pain in your life. Medications do have certain side-effects and over-dosage of them can take a person to another medical complication. Hence, follow some small tips like take hot shower this will help your to get relax and thus will help in reducing. Take proper meal and sleep on time. And, try not to do activities that may lead to headache for long hours. Take wise intervals so that your body adapt the activity and doesn’t cause pain in the head.
Prevention from Tension Headache
To prevent occurrence of Tension-headache, one has to follow certain guidelines in his life because medications can only provide temporary relief. Other than temporary relief, the medications can results in some ill or side-effects over the body.
Firstly, maintain a headache calendar this will help you and your doctor in analyzing the behavior of your headache. The calendar should include the frequency, duration, and intervals it is occurring to you. And, based on the severity of case the treatment will be given to you.
One should always try to strictly follow discipline in one’s life. Take meal on time and try to have sufficient sleep. Don activities that will help you in removing stress and tension from your life. Avoid watching TV and working on the computers for long hours. Do take some breaks in between of your working hours and try to do some exercises so that your body become relief and make you fresh. Adapt right posture while working on computer and use right pillow while sleeping. And, in case you have depression go for good consultation.
Check out whether you are allergic to cold or some foreign object. If yes, then try to makyourself warm by putting up warm clothes and your living environment warm. And, in case of foreign object, try to avoid the usage of them.
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