What is causing your headaches and how to stop them means understanding them

Headache may have been a particular problem this year.

In April 2020, there was a spike in Google searches for strain variety, while a May survey by the Migraine Trust showed that 58% of sufferers reported theirs had been worse during the lockdown.

This increase may have been linked to stress and a change in routine, including different diets and more alcohol, but we don’t tend to think about the cause.

Instead, we take painkillers and hope they go away.

But headaches can have a variety of triggers and will often continue to recur unless you understand why you try them and change your behavior.

The triggers

Vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) in your head is often the critical problem – it is what makes a headache manifest, whatever the specific cause.

This is because your brain is your most vital organ and your body sends you a warning signal that your blood vessels are dilating. If this goes beyond a certain point, it could be dangerous and cause bleeding.

Pain is a warning sign, which we often ignore by taking a pain reliever to reduce dilation – a strange thing to do when you think of it this way.

Under stress, we are also likely to eat poorly and drink alcohol, which can contribute to headaches by dehydrating us.

Sinus headache

Signs: Pain that starts in the face and gets worse when you lean forward. You may also have a stuffy or runny nose.

These headaches occur due to blockages in the sinuses – four hollow cavities in the bones of the face – and are especially common in teenagers as the breasts are not yet fully developed.

What is happening? You will have pain related to any breast that is blocked.

Sometimes blockages can be due to allergies such as hay fever and sometimes after an infection.

The result is that the blood floods the area with chemicals from the immune system, including histamines, in order to achieve vasodilation.

You can take decongestants, paracetamol or ibuprofen as pain relievers and anti-
inflammatory. Some people use menthol-based products in their nose – menthol activates the cold receptors in the nose so your brain thinks it’s less hot, which means it takes your foot off the inflammatory pedal.

Tension headache

Signs: A thick band of pain on the forehead: the neck and shoulders can also be tense, as if there is a weight over the head.

What is happening? These are the most common types of headaches and can be the result of emotional or physical stressors.

Physical stressors include being hunched over on your laptop or sofa. And if you are under emotional stress, you will keep your body in a different way. Stress chemicals can stimulate your muscles to act, but you never waste this energy.

Either way, your autonomic nervous system – which governs processes such as breathing, hunger, and fluid balance – and your endocrine system, which controls hormones, are both at work, triggering inflammation.

Much more glucose and oxygen are sent to the brain, causing vasodilation again.

Cluster headache

Signs: A severe headache on one side, with a bloodshot eye and a runny nose. One side of the face may sag.

These headaches will surface every now and then.

What is happening?

We are still learning more, but these appear to be related to the hypothalamus: this part of the brain governs the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system.

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus is heavily influenced by the light passing through your eyes and controlling your biological clock through melatonin (which helps you sleep) and serotonin (the happiness hormone).

This may play a role in cluster headaches as it often appears to occur at the same time of the year.

Levels of the hormone hypocretin which appears to regulate cravings, so people who have naturally lower levels than the rest of us tend to be the ones most likely to have addictive tendencies, are low in people with cluster headaches. one possible reason why people who take them are often heavy smokers.

The increase in serotonin through tablets or injections at the beginning of the episode can stop them.

Migraine

Signs: Migraines often start with yawning, blurred vision, and thirst as the brain tries to regulate hormone imbalances.

This is sometimes followed by an aura or visual distortions, then pain, possibly with nausea and sensitivity to light, before the final stage where you may feel “out” as your brain’s neurotransmitters go back to where they should be.

What is happening? Migraines are neurological, in other words, caused by activity in the brain.

You receive a wave of excitement, sometimes in response to a stimulus such as flashing lights
or white shirts, sometimes for a physiological reason such as an estrogen bump at certain times of the month.

This is quickly followed by a wave of no activity.

This pattern causes potassium to remain trapped outside the brain cells. It acts directly on the pain receptors, constricting the blood vessels of the brain, so your brain starts to think that it is starving for nutrients, then it engages and leads to massive vasodilation to compensate, causing pain.

• This feature is taken from Healthy Magazine, available from Holland & Barrett. See healthy-magazine.co.uk/mirror for a subscription offer