Solutions to relieve your headaches

These are the most common type of headache. They are usually mild to moderate and cause pain around the head (a feeling like being caught in a vice), sometimes appearing also into the neck.

Symptoms of tension headaches include:

• A feeling of pressure in the head
• Pain that usually starts in the forehead or neck and then spreads
• They are not accompanied by dizziness or nausea
• Constant, non-pulsating pain

Most of the time, tension headaches do not last more than a few hours, but it is very variable according to the individual.

Migraine is a pulsing headache that occurs in attacks. It causes unilateral pain that intensifies with physical activity and can last from a few hours to several days. Migraines are often accompanied by various digestive or neurological symptoms, including:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Photophobia

Additionally, migraine affects 12% of adults and 5 to 10% of children, i.e. 11 million people. Women are 2 to 3 times more affected than men.

A rarer condition, facial vascular angina is characterized by extremely severe pain on one side only, in the eye, forehead or temple, with attacks lasting from 15 minutes to 3 hours and occurring daily (1 to 8 attacks per day). The pain is often accompanied by watery eyes and a feeling of a blocked nose on the affected side.

Horton's headaches are headaches related to Horton's disease. It is a chronic disease caused by inflammation of the temporal arteries and occurs in the elderly.

It is characterized by headaches mainly at night and in the morning, abnormal scalp sensitivity, fatigue, etc. and biological signs of inflammation when blood is drawn.

Cervicogenic headaches are rare migraine-like pains caused by a pathology of the cervical spine. They are chronic headaches.

Headaches can also be caused by other health problems such as sinusitis, influenza, infectious mononucleosis, high blood pressure or meningitis. Similarly, some headaches are related to medication or intoxication and occur after:

• Excessive consumption of painkillers in the case of migraine
• Chronic lead poisoning or lead poisoning
• Chronic carbon monoxide poisoning, most often due to defective combustion heating
• Heavy alcohol consumption

In any case, if you suffer from severe, recurrent headaches that handicap you in your daily life, do not hesitate to consult a doctor.