Headaches: Causes, Diagnosis and Treatments

Headaches are one of the most common complaints, and most people experience them at some point in their life. They can affect anyone regardless of age, race, and gender.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that almost half of all adults worldwide will have experienced a headache within the last year.

A headache can be a sign of stress or emotional distress, or it can result from a medical disorder, such as migraine or high blood pressure, anxiety or depression. It can lead to other problems. People with chronic migraine headaches, for example, may find it hard to attend work or school regularly.

Migraines, cluster headaches, and hangovers are some of the causes of headaches.

Contents of this article:

1. What causes a headache?
2. Types of headache
3. Diagnosis
4. Treatment

What causes a headache?

Headache is a common complaint worldwide.

A headache can occur in any part of the head, on both sides of the head, or just in one location.

A headaches can radiate across the head from a central point or have a vise-like quality. They can be sharp, throbbing or dull, appear gradually or suddenly. They can last from less than an hour up to several days.

There are different ways to define headaches. The International Headache Society (IHS) categorize headaches as primary, when they are not caused by another condition, or secondary, when there is a further underlying cause.

Primary headaches

Primary headaches are stand-alone illnesses caused directly by the overactivity of, or problems with, structures in the head that are pain-sensitive.

This includes the blood vessels, muscles, and nerves of the head and neck. They may also result from changes in chemical activity in the brain.

Common primary headaches include migraines, cluster headaches, and tension headaches.

Secondary headaches

Secondary headaches are symptoms that happen when another condition stimulates the pain-sensitive nerves of the head.

A wide range of different conditions can cause secondary headaches.

These include:

Eating something very cold can lead to a "brain freeze."

• An alcohol-induced hangover
• Brain tumor
• Blood clots
• "Brain freeze," or ice-cream headaches
• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Concussion
• Dehydration
• Glaucoma
• Influenza
• Overuse of pain medication, known as rebound headaches
• Panic attacks
• Stroke

As headaches can be a symptom of a serious condition, it is important to seek medical advice if they become more severe, regular, or persistent.

For example, if the headache is more painful and disruptive than previous headaches, worsens, or fails to improve with medication or is accompanied by other symptoms such as confusion, fever, sensory changes, and stiffness in the neck, a doctor should be contacted immediately.

Types of headache

The symptoms of a headache can depend on the type.

Tension-type headaches

Tension-type headaches are a common form of primary headache.

The person can feel as if they have a tight band around the head, with a constant, dull ache on both sides. The pain may spread to or from the neck. Such headaches normally begin slowly and gradually in the middle of the day.

Tension-type headaches can be either episodic or chronic. Episodic attacks are normally a few hours in duration, but can last for several days. Chronic headaches occur for 15 or more days a month for a period of at least 3 months.

Migraines

Migraine is the second most common form of primary headache and can have a major impact on the life of an individual. According to the WHO, migraine is the sixth highest cause of days lost due to disability worldwide. A migraine can last from a few hours to between 2 and 3 days.

A migraine headache may cause a pulsating, throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head. The aching may be accompanied by blurred vision, light-headedness, nausea, and sensory disturbances.

Rebound headaches

Rebound or medication-overuse headaches are the most common secondary headache.

They stem from an excessive use of medication to treat headache symptoms. They usually begin early in the day and persist throughout the day. They may improve with pain medication, but worsen when its effects wear off.

Rebound headaches can cause a range of symptoms, and the pain can be different each day. Along with the headache itself, rebound headaches can cause neck pain, restlessness, a feeling of nasal congestion, and reduced sleep quality.

Cluster headaches

Cluster headaches are a less common form of primary headache. They strike quickly, one or more times daily around the same time each day and often without warning.

They usually last between 15 minutes and 3 hours, and they persist for the duration of what is known as a cluster period, which normally lasts 6 to 12 weeks.

The pain caused by cluster headaches is severe, often described as sharp or burning, and it is normally located in or around one eye.

The affected area may become red and swollen, the eyelid may droop and the nasal passage on the affected side may become stuffy and runny.

Diagnosis

A doctor will usually be able to diagnose a particular type of headache through a description of the condition, the type of pain and the timing and pattern of attacks.

It may be a good idea to keep a diary detailing the symptoms of regular headaches and any possible triggers. This can help both the patient and the doctor in identifying the exact nature and possible cause of the headaches.

If the nature of the headache appears to be complex, tests may be carried out to eliminate more serious causes.

Further testing could include blood tests, X-rays, and brain scans, such as CT and MRI.

Treatment

The most common ways of treating headaches are rest and pain relief medication.

Generic pain relief medication is available over the counter (OTC), or doctors can prescribe preventative medication, such as tricyclic antidepressants, anti-epileptic drugs, and beta blockers.

It is important to follow the doctor's advice because overusing pain relief medication can lead to rebound headaches.

The treatment of rebound headaches involves the reducing or stopping pain relief medication.

In extreme cases, a short hospital stay may be needed to manage withdrawal safely and effectively.

Self-care

A number of steps can be taken to reduce the risk of headaches and to ease the pain if they do occur:

• Apply a heat pack or ice pack to your head or neck, but avoid extreme temperatures
• Avoid stressors, where possible, and develop healthy coping strategies for unavoidable stress
• Eat regular meals, taking care to maintain stable blood sugar

A hot shower can help, although in one rare condition hot water exposure can trigger headaches.

Exercising regularly and getting enough rest and regular sleep contribute to overall health and stress reduction.

Several alternative forms of treatment for headaches are also available, but it is important to consult a doctor before making any major changes or beginning any alternative forms of treatment.

Acupuncture is an alternative therapy that may help relieve headaches.

Alternative approaches include:

• Acupuncture
• Cognitive behavior therapy
• Herbal and nutritional health products
• Hypnosis
• Meditation

(Research: Acupuncture and Migraine)

Sometimes, a headache may result from a deficiency of a particular nutrient or nutrients, especially magnesium and certain B vitamins.

Nutrient deficiencies can be due to a poor quality diet, underlying malabsorption issues, or other medical conditions.

Anyone with a suspected nutrient deficiency should work with a qualified health professional to diagnose and correct the deficiency in a sustainable and holistic way, rather than relying on an isolated supplement.

The WHO points out that headaches are often not taken seriously because they are sporadic, most headaches do not lead to death, and they are not contagious.

They call for more resources to be allocated for the treatment of headache disorders, because of the huge health burden they represent.

This article originally appeared on medicalnewstoday.com Written by James McIntosh

What Flotation Therapy Can Do For Depression

Study Demonstrates What Flotation Therapy Can Do For Depression, Stress, Anxiety & More

A study published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine explores sensory deprivation in a flotation tank as a form of preventative healthcare. Its results showed substantial reductions in levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and along with improved sleep quality and overall mood, proving that flotation therapy is an excellent way to prevent and treat many  emotional and physical ailments.

Sensory deprivation cuts off all the senses from the mind, removing it from the average barrage of stressful situations that most of us face each day. In the absence of distracting external stimuli, the mind enters a state of deep relaxation and meditation. The research shows how this state can actually be medicinal, as it has tremendous potential to reduce stress and thus the damaging symptoms that come with it.

Chronic stress expresses itself through things like depression, insomnia, and anxiety. Flotation therapy can directly relieve this, but how?

The relaxation response method (RR) is essentially the exact opposite of the fight-or-flight response. It is the physiological process that relieves stress, occurring during states of deep relaxation. RR is able to combat stress so efficiently because of its calming effects on the parasympathetic nervous system, the portion of the nervous system responsible for many physiological changes within the body including energy conservation and deep relaxation. It is through this process that RR lowers heart rate and blood pressure and slows down breathing.

The authors of the study noted that to successfully ignite the RR response while the body is under stress it is crucial to reduce all sensory input and movement by the body — which makes floatation therapy the perfect solution. The research described the mechanisms of this method: “During flotation-REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique) an individual lay in a horizontal floating posture immersed in highly concentrated salt water (magnesium sulphate) in a flotation tank. All incoming stimuli are reduced to a minimum during this period (usually 45 minutes), i.e. sound and light, and the water is heated to skin temperature. ”

The Study

Sixty-five participants — 14 men and 51 women — took part in the study. The participants were divided into a flotation-REST group, which consisted of 37 people, and a wait-list control group, with 28 people. The flotation group received 12 45-minute sessions over the course of seven weeks. Subjects were assessed for depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality, energy, pain, and optimism before and after the study. These same measurements were assessed for the control group.

The flotation group displayed radically improved scores in comparison to the control group, with participants exhibiting reduced anxiety, depression, pain, and stress.

Here’s Some Data

The average score for stress before flotation treatment was 1.86; afterwards, it dropped to a remarkable 0.95. The control group scored 1.84 before and 1.89 after treatment, meaning their stress actually increased during this period.

The score for anxiety for the flotation group was 7.92 before treatment and 4.28 afterwards. On the other hand, the control group scored 7.03 before and 6.96 afterwards.

For depression, the flotation group started out with a score of 4.42, which then dropped to 2.25 after treatment. The control group started at 4.00 and ended the period at 4.30, another increase.

Researchers also saw an improvement in various lifestyle factors. Sleep quality, pain, optimism, and mindfulness were all measured and shown to increase with treatment. These results further strengthen the case for flotation therapy.

In the conclusion of the study the researchers were confident that flotation therapy can be an excellent practice to improve overall health by greatly reducing stress (and thereby stress related illnesses) while increasing psychological factors in healthy participants as well.

Final Thoughts

Isn’t it just amazing what a little bit of rest and relaxation can do for our mental and physical well-being? While it’s easy to say we should all just make the time to relax more, the issue here is that many of us won’t. If you actually make the effort to go to a float spa, which are becoming increasingly popular across North America, then you will be dedicating this time to yourself and will experience the ultimate form of relaxation. In fact, flotation therapy is one of the most potent methods of activating the relaxation response, and shows how our environment can directly impact our physiological and psychological well-being. Instead of taking prescription drugs for such ailments, consider giving this a try!

This article originally appeared on collective-evolution.com and was written by Alanna Ketler

The 3 Kinds Of Grief Nobody Talks About

The author of Grief Is a Journey explains how some of our most cutting losses can go unrecognized by friends and family—and even ourselves.

1) The Loss of a Person We Once Knew

Sometimes the people you love change in significant ways. They are still in your life—but not in the way you remember or once knew them. Illness often changes people, especially mental illness or dementia. In dementia, a person still is with us, but is not like the person we previously knew. The ties that bind us to one another, the shared memories and even the personality are no longer accessible. Sometimes the changes can be startling. The mother of one of my clients grew up in the segregated South. Yet her daughter was proud that her mom had been active in the civil rights movement, even though her mom lost friends and alienated family. Her mother would proudly tell the story of how, as an adolescent girl, she shamed her all-white church into integrating services. Yet, as her mom lapsed into dementia, she began using racial epithets. Her mother’s language not only shocked her daughter but also called into question her mom’s true beliefs. Was her mother really the progressive person she believed her to be?

Other illnesses can create a similar sense of loss. A traumatic brain injury generally affects all levels of mental function. We may grieve people as they sink into mental illness, alcoholism or drug use. Positive changes can also engender grief, when a person becomes different from the individual we knew and loved. For Tristan, it was the religious conversion of his brother. He was initially delighted that his brother found some faith, even if it was more intense than his own beliefs. But Tristan soon found it difficult to relate to his born-again brother who no longer wanted to share a beer and was always witnessing to Tristan and his family.

Similarly, Abigail was proud that her husband joined Alcoholics Anonymous after a long struggle with addiction that nearly ruined their marriage. Yet she misses the “people, places and things”—especially the pub-based dart club that was a shared activity—that her husband now avoids in order to remain sober. They celebrate New Year’s Eve at an alcohol-free party sponsored by his local AA chapter in a church basement. Abby is proud of her husband and supportive of his efforts at sobriety, even as she grieves aspects of her former life.

2) The Loss of a Person We Haven’t Yet Lost

Anticipatory grief is a term that refers to the grief felt about someone with a life-limiting illness; friends, family and caregivers often experience it in anticipation of an eventual death. These losses are significant. The loss of health—even the prediction of loss—contained in a diagnosis can be a source of grief not just for the person diagnosed, but also for his or her loved ones. We lose our assumptive world. All our plans, thoughts, our sense of the future— even our sense of safety and security—are now challenged. The future we know is not the one we once imagined. For Craig, his wife’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer dashed their retirement dreams of travel and possibly relocating to Tuscany. As any illness progresses, we continue to experience additional losses and grieve each one.

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3) The Loss of the Person We Used to Be

Waiting for the school bus with my grandchildren recently, on the second day of school, I heard a young neighbor complain to his mother that he went to kindergartenyesterday! His mom patiently explained that he would now go five days a week to kindergarten—instead of his two-day-a-week preschool. The boy looked at her with disappointment, tears in his eyes. This changes everything!he complained.

It does. Everything changes as you age. Some changes you take in stride, but others affect you deeply. Consider the birth of a child. You may have anticipated this event for years and be overjoyed. But you also know life will be different now; over the next couple of decades, your own freedom will be limited—and for a shorter period, so will your sleep.

Each transition in our lives—no matter how positive—has an undercurrent. The thrill of passing your driving test and earning your license held so much meaning, a mark both of accomplishment and maturity that promised new freedom and adventure. Now, imagine the pain and grief when, through age or disability, you are forced to surrender that license and all it has meant.

Remember: Grief is not always about death, but it is always about attachment and separation. Often, people endure pervasive and intense distress without having faced the death of a loved one at all. Further, in these cases of unrecognized losses, our grief is often not recognized by others, either. But you can grieve the loss of anything, anywhere or anyone to whom you had become attached—no list could name all the possibilities. To deal with the sorrow, you may need to find confidants, counselors and support groups that can assist you. Above all, you need to have your grief acknowledged. Allowing yourself to understand the validity of your emotions is the only way to begin feeling better. You are not the only one to have mourned in these situations—and you are not alone.
 

This adapted excerpt was taken from Grief Is a Journey, byKenneth J. Doka, PhD. Dr. Doka is a professor of gerontology at the Graduate School of The College of New Rochelle and a senior consultant to the Hospice Foundation of America.

This article originally appeared on Huffington Post and written by By Kenneth J. Doka, PhD

Yoga for anxiety and depression.

Studies suggest that this practice modulates the stress response.

Since the 1970s, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention in the medical literature, though it has become increasingly popular in recent decades. One national survey estimated, for example, that about 7.5% of U.S. adults had tried yoga at least once, and that nearly 4% practiced yoga in the previous year.

Yoga classes can vary from gentle and accommodating to strenuous and challenging; the choice of style tends to be based on physical ability and personal preference. Hatha yoga, the most common type of yoga practiced in the United States, combines three elements: physical poses, called asanas; controlled breathing practiced in conjunction with asanas; and a short period of deep relaxation or meditation.

Many of the studies evaluating yoga's therapeutic benefits have been small and poorly designed. However, a 2004 analysis found that, in recent decades, an increasing number have been randomized controlled trials — the most rigorous standard for proving efficacy.

Available reviews of a wide range of yoga practices suggest they can reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. In this respect, yoga functions like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends.

Taming the stress response

By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal — for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body's ability to respond to stress more flexibly.

A small but intriguing study further characterizes the effect of yoga on the stress response. In 2008, researchers at the University of Utah presented preliminary results from a study of varied participants' responses to pain. They note that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. Their subjects were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyalgia (a condition many researchers consider a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain), and 16 healthy volunteers.

When the three groups were subjected to more or less painful thumbnail pressure, the participants with fibromyalgia — as expected — perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. Functional MRIs showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. In contrast, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI. The study underscores the value of techniques, such as yoga, that can help a person regulate their stress and, therefore, pain responses.

Improved mood and functioning

Questions remain about exactly how yoga works to improve mood, but preliminary evidence suggests its benefit is similar to that of exercise and relaxation techniques.

In a German study published in 2005, 24 women who described themselves as "emotionally distressed" took two 90-minute yoga classes a week for three months. Women in a control group maintained their normal activities and were asked not to begin an exercise or stress-reduction program during the study period.

Though not formally diagnosed with depression, all participants had experienced emotional distress for at least half of the previous 90 days. They were also one standard deviation above the population norm in scores for perceived stress (measured by the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale), anxiety (measured using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), and depression (scored with the Profile of Mood States and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, or CES-D).

At the end of three months, women in the yoga group reported improvements in perceived stress, depression, anxiety, energy, fatigue, and well-being. Depression scores improved by 50%, anxiety scores by 30%, and overall well-being scores by 65%. Initial complaints of headaches, back pain, and poor sleep quality also resolved much more often in the yoga group than in the control group.

One uncontrolled, descriptive 2005 study examined the effects of a single yoga class for inpatients at a New Hampshire psychiatric hospital. The 113 participants included patients with bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia. After the class, average levels of tension, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, and fatigue dropped significantly, as measured by the Profile of Mood States, a standard 65-item questionnaire that participants answered on their own before and after the class. Patients who chose to participate in additional classes experienced similar short-term positive effects.

Further controlled trials of yoga practice have demonstrated improvements in mood and quality of life for the elderly, people caring for patients with dementia, breast cancer survivors, and patients with epilepsy.

Benefits of controlled breathing

A type of controlled breathing with roots in traditional yoga shows promise in providing relief for depression. The program, called Sudarshan Kriya yoga (SKY), involves several types of cyclical breathing patterns, ranging from slow and calming to rapid and stimulating.

One study compared 30 minutes of SKY breathing, done six days a week, to bilateral electroconvulsive therapy and the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine in 45 people hospitalized for depression. After four weeks of treatment, 93% of those receiving electroconvulsive therapy, 73% of those taking imipramine, and 67% of those using the breathing technique had achieved remission.

Another study examined the effects of SKY on depressive symptoms in 60 alcohol-dependent men. After a week of a standard detoxification program at a mental health center in Bangalore, India, participants were randomly assigned to two weeks of SKY or a standard alcoholism treatment control. After the full three weeks, scores on a standard depression inventory dropped 75% in the SKY group, as compared with 60% in the standard treatment group. Levels of two stress hormones, cortisol and corticotropin, also dropped in the SKY group, but not in the control group. The authors suggest that SKY might be a beneficial treatment for depression in the early stages of recovery from alcoholism.

Potential help for PTSD

Since evidence suggests that yoga can tone down maladaptive nervous system arousal, researchers are exploring whether or not yoga can be a helpful practice for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

One randomized controlled study examined the effects of yoga and a breathing program in disabled Australian Vietnam veterans diagnosed with severe PTSD. The veterans were heavy daily drinkers, and all were taking at least one antidepressant. The five-day course included breathing techniques (see above), yoga asanas, education about stress reduction, and guided meditation. Participants were evaluated at the beginning of the study using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), which ranks symptom severity on an 80-point scale.

Six weeks after the study began, the yoga and breathing group had dropped their CAPS scores from averages of 57 (moderate to severe symptoms) to 42 (mild to moderate). These improvements persisted at a six-month follow-up. The control group, consisting of veterans on a waiting list, showed no improvement.

About 20% of war veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq suffer from PTSD, according to one estimate. Experts treating this population suggest that yoga can be a useful addition to the treatment program.

Researchers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., are offering a yogic method of deep relaxation to veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Kristie Gore, a psychologist at Walter Reed, says the military hopes that yoga-based treatments will be more acceptable to the soldiers and less stigmatizing than traditional psychotherapy. The center now uses yoga and yogic relaxation in post-deployment PTSD awareness courses, and plans to conduct a controlled trial of their effectiveness in the future.

Cautions and encouragement

Although many forms of yoga practice are safe, some are strenuous and may not be appropriate for everyone. In particular, elderly patients or those with mobility problems may want to check first with a clinician before choosing yoga as a treatment option.

But for many patients dealing with depression, anxiety, or stress, yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. Indeed, the scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent. The evidence is growing that yoga practice is a relatively low-risk, high-yield approach to improving overall health.

This article originally appeared on www.health.harvard.edu

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