Headache Types: The Facts You Need to Know
Death, taxes, and…headaches? Almost everyone will experience a headache at some point in their life, and over 50% of people will deal with the effects of a headache in a given year. Fortunately, headaches are rarely life threatening. But for people dealing with chronic headaches, they can dramatically impact your quality of life.
The International Headache Society has classified over 150 different types of headaches. The most common are migraines, tension, and cluster headaches. Knowing what kind of headache, you are dealing with is the first step toward finding the best care plan to find relief.
- Migraine: sensitivity to light and sound is common during migraine headaches. Approximately 1/3rd of people will experience an aura before the onset of a migraine.
- Tension: Almost everyone will experience a tension headache during their life. Stress, anxiety, dehydration, and even posture can trigger a tension headache.
- Cluster: Affecting more men than women, cluster headaches cause severe pain behind or around your eye and last between 15 minutes and 3 hours.
Now that you’ve identified your headache type- it’s important to know why it’s happened. Often, a few simple changes in your daily routine can potentially reduce or eliminate chronic headaches for good. Next week, we’ll cover the top 3 causes of headaches so you can take your first steps towards prevention.
Science Sources:
- Mayo Clinic. Headache. 2018
- Medications and Substances Causing Headache. Medlink: Neurology. 2017
- Why all migraine patients should be treated with magnesium. Journal of Neural Transmission. 2012
- The effect of 90-day administration of a high dose vitamin B-complex on work stress. Human Psychopharmacology. 2011
- Chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy for cervicogenic headache: a single-blinded, placebo, randomized controlled trial. BMC Central. 2017
- Dose-response and efficacy of spinal manipulation for chronic cervicogenic headache: a pilot randomized controlled trial. SPINE 2010
