Adults mostly suffer from headache although it can occur irrespective of the life stage. According to some estimates, four in every five children develop this problem. The sudden occurrence of aggravated headache may signal a serious problem and needs medical attention. Common form of headaches starts on the skull or neck’s upper portion and could also radiate on the eyes, temple or other body locations. It can be felt at head on both sides and is further worsened by loud noise and bright lights.
Evaluation
To indentify the serious underlying causes, treatment after prior diagnosis is very important. Physical examination and deep rooted history may help in determining whether the symptoms are linked to any simple problem or it is serious. The physician may reproduce the associated symptoms by tests in order to build a particular treatment plan for this condition. He or she may also refer to go for treatments from another doctor. Laboratory tests, X-rays and advanced imaging analysis such as MRI could be essential.
The patient might be asked to record things such as:
- Time and date
- Area of headache
- How it feels like
- Activity during this stage
- Duration
- What relieves or aggravates it
- Any other observation before or during or after
Treatment
The treatments are more often related to causes. Chiropractic doctors treat the patients with tension based headaches and those caused by joint and muscle problem of necks. Strengthening and stretching exercises along with mobilization and joint manipulation of neck are observed to be effective in treatments. Sometimes, massage and soft tissue treatments may also help.
To deal with extreme causes, aggressive treatment is required and chiropractic doctor may assist in finding one specialist. Although most of the patients recover fully after proper treatment, the recurrence rates are unfortunately high with tension based headaches.
Causes
There are both primary and secondary causes. Primary ones occur when there are problems with neck muscles. Within the skull, the changes in blood vessels lead to migraines. The other common form of headaches includes the ‘cluster’ where all are teamed together throughout a week’s time. It includes sinus headaches which are linked to sinus infection or allergies and those occurring due to bad vision.
Secondary ones may be consequences of blood vessel issues, concussion, head injuries or rising blood pressure. It may also take place as a form of side effect due to medications, infection on the head, sinuses or throughout the body.
Prevention
Headaches related to muscle and tension could be avoided with proper posture maintenance. It is better to maintain proper neck movements when involved in day to day activities. The below mentioned things can also help:
- Avoid slouching
- Don’t read with neck bending forward
- Place computer’s monitor on eye level
- Frequent recess out of working on PC and reading
- A low in fats and highly complex carbohydrate rich diet.
According to a latest study, such diets may dramatically reduce the frequency, duration and intensity of the migraine headaches.
Author Bio: Tony Rollan provides marketing service for HealthSource Chiropractic of Jupiter and he is an author of many articles on alternative medicine, natural healing and chiropractic services.
Image credit: auremar