What Causes A Headache?

This is another nice topic that I want to share with you. Considering the variety of headaches and sufferers it should not come as any surprise that the causes of headaches are equally diverse. There are countless possible causes for headaches including underlying medical problems like the fortunately rare instances of cerebral aneurysms and brain tumors. However the most commonly experienced headaches have generally common causes.

In a lot of instances simple eyestrain such as that seen when working too long at the computer can result in a headache. At other times, ordinary infected sinuses caused by an allergy or head cold can be the culprit. Taking certain prescription medicines can also give you a headache.

Though the precise cause is not always known, narrowing of the blood vessels is thought to be the culprit in many cases. Nerve fibers in the head which are sensitive to pain line the walls of the blood vessels and when the blood vessels contract the nerves are activated and send signals to the brain. paradoxically, the brain itself cannot feel pain since it does not contain any pain sensitive nerve cells and cluster or tension-type headaches result.

However blood vessels are able to dilate as well as contract and when they do so migraines and cluster headaches can result. Contemporary research suggests that there are also other much more important factors at play when it comes to migraine headaches.

Tension or more accurately tension-type headaches can result from other sources like tension in the muscles of the neck, shoulder and even the jaw. People who have experienced TMJ disorder which is a condition resulting from tension of the temporomandibular joint in which the jaw tightens against the skull will be all too familiar with this.

In more serious cases headaches will arise out of some underlying disease and these are often referred to as 'secondary headaches'. The catalogue of underlying conditions that can cause headaches is lengthy and will include everything from scarlet fever to irritable bowel syndrome.

Often environmental factors also play an important role. Carbon monoxide poisoning such as that resulting from the gas produced by many water heaters or a car exhaust can result in severe headaches and in fact headaches are one of the main symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. Other causes include allergies, lead poisoning and food poisoning.

Even where food is not actually toxic as would be the case where food is contaminated with a bacterial infection some people will be sensitive to compounds which will not affect the general population. Such common foods as chocolate and cheese can cause headaches in some people as will red wine, caffeine and some preservatives.

However posture, position and a number of other controllable factors may well be amongst the most common causes. As a growing number of people are working with computers every day so we see more eyestrain, neck tension and jaw stress.

About nine out of ten headaches are common tension headaches which are normally the result of one or more of the factors detailed above. That means that in the overwhelming majority of cases the cure for your headache is easy and is within your control.