What Is the Cause of a Slight Headache by the Side of the Head It Will Go and Then Feel It Again

Tension Headaches

Medically Reviewed by Arefa Cassoobhoy, Physician, MPH on November 20, 2020

What Are Tension Headaches?

Tension headaches are slow pain, tightness, or pressure around your forehead or the dorsum of your head and neck. Some people say it feels like a clamp squeezing their skull. They're also called stress headaches, and they're the most common type for adults.

There are 2 types:

• Episodic tension headaches happen fewer than fifteen days per calendar month.
• Chronic tension headaches happen more than 15 days a month.

These headaches can last 30 minutes to a few days. The episodic kind usually starts slowly, often in the middle of the day.

Chronic ones come up and get over a longer period of time. The pain may get stronger or ease up through the day, but information technology's nearly always in that location.

Although your head hurts, tension headaches usually don't proceed you from your daily activities, and they don't touch on your vision, residue, or forcefulness.

Where does it injure?

This blazon of headache can:

• Start at the back of your head and spread forrard
• Go a ring of dull force per unit area or squeezing pain around your entire head
• Affect both sides of your head every bit
• Make the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and jaw feel tight and sore

Tension Headache Symptoms

Mutual symptoms include:

• Balmy to moderate hurting or pressure in the front end, meridian, or sides of your head
• A headache that starts afterwards in the day
• Problem sleeping
• Feeling very tired
• Irritability
• Trouble focusing
• Balmy sensitivity to light or dissonance
• Muscle aches

Unlike with migraine headaches, you won't have other nerve symptoms, such as muscle weakness or blurred vision. And tension headaches don't usually crusade severe sensitivity to light or noise, stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting.

Tension Headache Causes

There's no single cause of tension headaches. They don't run in families. Some people get them considering of tight muscles in the back of the neck and scalp.

Tension headache triggers

Nigh of the fourth dimension, tension headaches are triggered by stress from work, school, family, friends, or other relationships.

Episodic ones are usually set off by a single stressful state of affairs or a buildup of stress. Daily stress can lead to the chronic kind.

Tension headache triggers may include:

• Non enough residual
• Poor posture
• Emotional or mental stress, including depression
• Feet
• Fatigue
• Hunger
• Depression iron levels
• Booze
• Caffeine
• Jaw or dental problems
• Straining your eyes
• Dehydration
• Skipping meals
• Smoking
• A cold, the flu, or a sinus infection

Tension Headache Risk Factors

Up to lxxx% of adults in the U.S. go them from time to time. Well-nigh 3% have chronic daily tension headaches. Women are twice every bit likely to become them as men.

Near people with episodic tension headaches accept them no more than than once or twice a month, but they tin can happen more than often.

Many people with the chronic type have usually had them for more than than 60 to 90 days.

When to Meet Your Doctor

See your doc if you have frequent or severe headaches, or if they go in the way of your daily life.

Call 911 for a headache that is sudden and severe or also makes your face droop, causes weakness or numbness, or makes it hard to talk, come across, or think.

Tension Headache Diagnosis

Your medico may diagnose yous based but on your symptoms. They might enquire yous things like:

• Where does your caput hurt?
• What does the pain feel like?
• When do you have headaches?
• How long practice they final?
• Do your headaches get in the fashion of your daily life?
• Practise they keep yous from sleeping?
• Are you under a lot of stress?
• Have you had a head injury?
• Take you noticed whatsoever changes in your beliefs or personality?

They tin can as well do tests to rule out other conditions. These include:

• Claret tests
• Imaging tests such as X-rays, CT scans, or MRI exams to make pictures of the inside of your head

Tension Headache Treatment

Information technology's best to treat tension headaches soon after they brainstorm, when the symptoms are still mild. The goal is to ease your pain and foreclose more of them from happening.

Medications

Over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers are often the first treatments for tension headaches. People with the chronic kind can use some of these drugs to forestall headaches. But if you take them a lot, they can lead to what'south called a medication overuse or rebound headache.

Common OTC treatments include:

• Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), and naproxen (Aleve)

If OTC pain relievers don't assist, your doctor may prescribe a stronger medicine such every bit:

• Indomethacin (Indocin, Indochron Due east-R)
• Ketoprofen (Actron, Orudis, Oruvail)
• Ketorolac (Toradol)
• Naproxen (Naprelan, Naprosyn)

They could also recommend a musculus relaxer like:

• Cyclobenzaprine (Amrix, Fexmid, Flexeril)
• Methocarbamol (Robaxin)

Some other kinds of drugs can proceed you from getting a tension headache. You lot take them every solar day, even if y'all aren't in pain, so that y'all end up using less medication over time. Your doc may prescribe:

• Tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline (Elavil) and protriptyline (Vivactil)
• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), or venlafaxine (Effexor)
• Anti-seizure drugs such as topiramate (Topamax)

Keep in listen that medications don't cure headaches and that, over time, pain relievers and other medicines might not help as much as they did at first. Plus, all medicines have side furnishings. If you have i regularly, talk with your dr. about the pros and cons. You'll nevertheless demand to identify and deal with the things that are causing your headaches.

Supplements

Some studies have found that certain dietary supplements are effective against migraine headaches. They may too aid prevent tension headaches. These supplements include:

• Butterbur
• Feverfew
• Magnesium
• Riboflavin
• Coenzyme Q10

Talk with your dr. before starting any supplements.

Tension Headache Prevention

Try these treatments to make your headaches less severe or less frequent.

Find ways to relax and manage stress similar:

• Biofeedback
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Acupuncture
• Massage therapy
• Physical therapy
• Deep breathing
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Hypnotherapy

Lifestyle changes may also help. Consider these:

• Limit stress. Try to programme. Become, and stay, organized. Things that help yous relax, like massage or meditation, can too help.
• Try to step yourself. Have breaks. Carve out time to practice things yous enjoy. For some people, mindfulness -- staying in the here and now, instead of following thoughts of worry and fear -- tin can assist.
• Build your support system. Spend time with people y'all love. You may as well want to book some sessions with a therapist to observe solutions and to manage whatsoever feet or depression you may accept.
• Exercise regularly. At least 30 minutes v times a week is platonic. It eases stress and keeps y'all fit. It also helps to stretch. Pay close attending to your jaw, cervix, and shoulders. These are areas where nosotros tend to agree a lot of tension.
• Go enough slumber. When you're well-rested, it's much easier to deal with daily stress.
• Amend your posture. A stiff stance tin can assist keep your muscles from tensing. When you stand, hold your shoulders back and your head level. Tighten your abdomen and buttocks. When you sit down, make sure your thighs are parallel to the floor and your head and neck don't slump forward.
• Drink lots of h2o. If you're dehydrated, you're more likely to get a tension headache. Beverage several glasses of fresh h2o each twenty-four hour period, even if y'all're not thirsty. It likewise helps to eat foods that are naturally rich in h2o, like virtually fruits and vegetables.
• Eat regular, balanced meals. Skipping a meal can crusade a throbbing headache. Try to eat at the same times every twenty-four hour period. Include plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in your diet.
• Limit caffeine and alcohol. There is caffeine in many over-the-counter headache medicines, but information technology tin can also trigger headaches. Beverage less coffee and tea, and fewer energy and soft drinks.
• Limit how much pain-relieving medication yous take. Utilize the smallest possible dose. Don't take painkillers more than one or 2 times a week.
• Keep your sense of humor. Information technology reduces tension.
• Utilise a headache diary. This will aid you spot triggers. It'll as well help your physician come up with a treatment program. When you get a headache, notation things like the engagement, the fourth dimension, whatsoever warning signs or other symptoms, the location and intensity of the hurting, what you lot were doing, medications yous'd taken, and food you had eaten.

Tension Headaches vs. Migraines

How practice you lot tell them autonomously?

Tension headaches:

• What do they feel like? Steady, mild to moderate pain that doesn't throb. Information technology can ease or get worse over the grade of the headache.
• Where exercise they injure? It can hurt all over your head, but you'll most likely experience a band of pain effectually your forehead or the back of your head or around your neck. The headache does not get worse with action. Your jaw, shoulders, neck, and head may also be tender.
• Are there any other symptoms? This blazon of headache doesn't come with the nausea, vomiting, light sensitivity, or aureola that people with migraines have.
• Do you notice symptoms before the headache starts? Yous might experience stress or tension.
• Who gets them? Mostly adults.
• How often exercise yous get them? It varies.
• How long exercise they last? Thirty minutes to vii days.

Migraines:

• What do they feel similar? They come up on slowly. The pain becomes intense. It tin can be moderate or severe. Information technology might throb or pulse, and information technology will go worse with physical activity.
• Where do they hurt? Ofttimes it'due south only one side of your caput. Information technology might affect your centre, temple, or the dorsum of your head.
• Are there other symptoms? Some people get a visual disturbance called an aureola earlier the headache starts. During the headache yous might be extra-sensitive to light and sound. You might get nauseated and throw up. Some people have trouble moving or speaking.
• Who gets them? Anyone. Boys get them more than girls earlier puberty, but after women go them more than men.
• How often do you lot become them? Information technology varies.
• How long do they last? Betwixt 4 and 72 hours.

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Source: https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/tension-headaches

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