Up to 75 percent of the world’s adults had a headache in
the last year. There are over 150 kinds of headaches, from the migraine to the
morning headache to the exercise headache to the seasonal cluster headache. All
headaches boil down to two main kinds, primary and secondary. A primary
headache, such as migraines and tension headaches, happens when the headache
itself is the main attraction, with no other underlying cause. A secondary
headache is a symptom of another medical condition, such as COVID or a sinus
infection. Whatever kind of headache it is, chances are you wish it would it go
away, pronto. Many feel resigned to headaches, believing there is no cure and
they can only be toughed out. But there are many ways to prevent, treat
and relieve headaches.
Some headaches can signal a dangerous condition or stroke
and should be treated
immediately. Most, however, aren’t emergencies, but that
doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Thankfully, an explosion of new
treatments, particularly for migraines,
has brought relief and hope. All too often, people
think there’s nothing they can do about their headache. They might blame the
weather, says Jan Lewis Brandes, M.D., the founding director of the Nashville
Neuroscience Group, a private headache clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. “Or
they may say that, ‘Well, this is a stress-induced headache and there is not
really anything I can do about my job stress.’”
The first step is prevention. One way to reduce the
frequency of headaches is to identify triggers. Hunger, hangovers and stress
are some of the most common ones. Following are some of the more surprising
headache triggers.
1. The smell of perfume, paint or gasoline
People prone to migraines often have heightened sensitivity
to a number of senses, including smell, sound and sight. That’s why the smell
of perfume, paint or gasoline can bring on a migraine. The migraine brain is
sensitive to all kinds of environmental and bodily changes, which includes
extreme weather, alcohol and particular foods, and even certain hairstyles.
“It’s not that people prone to migraine have only one trigger,” says Rami
Burstein, a professor of anesthesia and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. He
adds that when people have recurring headaches, their brains can
become attuned to — and at the mercy of — unusual environmental
changes, such as weather, or too much sleep or too little. Any deviation from
the normal pattern of events can set a migraine sufferer into an attack. In
other words, even the subtlest incident can be a trigger.
For relief: Burstein suggests
that those prone to migraines find any and every possible way to avoid common
triggers. For some, this may mean requesting — and advocating for — a workplace
fragrance policy that restricts the use of scented products.
2. Weather patterns
A change in barometric pressure or atmospheric pressure
(such as altitude) can trigger a headache attack through changes in the area of
the brain that controls pain. External pressure changes may also change the
pressure within the sinuses and inner ears, intensifying the experience of pain
for those who are predisposed to such sensitivities. Gray skies, high humidity,
rising temperatures and storms are common pressure changers. People
commonly complain that summer weather can trigger migraines, according to
the Mayo
Clinic. Sunlight glare, high humidity, extreme heat and dry air are
possible triggers. Dehydration can
also cause headaches.
For relief: Keep a headache or
migraine diary, jotting down any changes in the weather, such as rainstorms,
wind or increased humidity. Once you establish a relationship between weather
and your migraines, you can potentially pretreat them with the appropriate
medication.
3. Aged and fermented foods
In some people, tyramine, a naturally occurring substance
found in aged cheeses, smoked fish, cured meats, bacon and some types of beer
and wine, is thought to trigger migraines. Tyramine has long been a scapegoat
for dietary-induced migraine, but research is not conclusive. A small number of
people with headaches are affected by tyramine. Not only are food triggers
rare, but they are sporadic. “When food triggers migraines it’s inconsistent,
sometimes yes and sometimes no,” Burstein says. Brandes has found that among
her patients, the biggest culprit of food or drink triggers is alcohol.
For relief: If you do think
there’s an alcohol-migraine connection at play, note that beer, especially tap
or home-brewed beer, red wine, vermouth, sherry and some liqueurs all have
high amounts of tyramine. See if switching over to white wine or spirits such
as rum, vodka or gin is less of a migraine trigger. If that doesn’t work,
consider limiting or omitting alcohol.
4. Hairstyles
A simple ponytail, French braids, cornrows, a tight wig or
headband, and a tight topknot can all exert pressure on the scalp. Because
migraine sufferers are sensitive, a ponytail headache, which gives new meaning
to a bad hair day, comes down to an oversensitive scalp.
For relief: Avoid tight
ponytails. A loose bun with a soft scrunchy may not have the same effect. (And
the iconic ’80s hair accessory seems to be back in style.)
Headache relief
Once
you determine the trigger for headaches, you can act to avoid the headache or
at least minimize its duration and pain. Episodic (zero to 14 headaches a
month) and chronic headache (15 or more a month) disorders are a major source
of disability, and yet the majority of sufferers never get professionally
diagnosed. Instead, people often turn to over-the-counter medications to
self-manage symptoms, which inadvertently can make them worse. While avoiding
triggers as much as possible is a start, the best way to treat migraines or
recurring headaches is to get correctly diagnosed. Untreated migraines, in
particular, can become a vicious cycle, recurring with more frequency and
potentially leading to more serious complications. You shouldn’t just have to
live with migraines or frequent headaches. “If there is not a board-certified
headache specialist in your area,” Brandes says, “there are many primary care
physicians who are interested in headaches.”
5. Sex headache
Sometimes referred to by its official name, coital
cephalgia, the sex headache — a headache brought on by sexual activity — is a
real phenomenon. One of the most disconcerting kinds of headaches, it can
present in two ways: as a dull ache in the head and neck that intensifies as
sexual excitement increases, or as a sudden, thunderclap headache that occurs
just before orgasm. “They are terrifying. People are in the middle of a sexual
activity, about to orgasm, and all of the sudden it feels their head is about
to blow off,” Brandes says.
But most sex headaches, while excruciating, are nothing to
worry about. They resolve on their own and are not symptomatic of an underlying
condition. Because sex headaches can be linked to a brain tumor, if you do
suffer from them, doctors recommend brain imaging such as an MRI to rule out a
more serious cause.
For relief: If you suffer from
frequent sex headaches, you can take preventive prescription medicines before
you plan to have sex. Typically, these kinds of headaches occur in clusters and
then go away, never to recur.
6. Medication overuse headache
Also called the rebound headache, a medication overuse
headache occurs when certain medications are used too frequently. “This kind of
headache is more likely to occur with prescription pain drugs such as opioids,
if taken more than eight days a month,” Burstein says. But even
over-the-counter pain drugs such as aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol) or
ibuprofen (Advil) — if taken for more than 15 days a month — can be a trigger.
It’s a catch-22, because you need to treat the headache, but then the treatment
itself becomes the problem. “Medication overuse has a negative connotation, as
if people are doing something wrong. But people are trying to be functional and
get rid of the headache by beating it down. The medication helps, but does not
stop the headache, which rises again and they are not able to break the
migraine attack,” Brandes says. To stop the cycle, the goal is to cut back on
the medications, taking them less than three times a week.
For relief: A new crop of
migraine drugs, called CGRP (calcitonin gene-related peptide) inhibitors, can
reduce medication overuse. This class of drug targets and blocks CGRP, a small
protein that circulates in the head and the neck during a migraine.
Whatever your headache trigger is, it’s important to take a
proactive approach to treating your headaches, especially migraines. Otherwise,
headaches beget headaches. “More headaches will decrease the threshold of
initiation for the next migraine attack,” Burstein says. “That’s why the
patient needs to treat the migraine and try to minimize it.” Migraines won’t
simply go away on their own. But with the right treatment, you can make them
less frequent, shorter and surprisingly tolerable.
Elizabeth Marglin is a Colorado-based journalist,
writer and poet. She writes regularly for Yoga
Journal, Spirituality & Health, AARP and more.
Original story Published July 5, 2022 at AARP.org https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2022/types-of-headaches.html
