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Health and Fitness > What Causes Headaches?
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Donald Saunders
When you think about the variety of headaches and sufferers it should not come as a surprise that the causes of headaches are just as diverse. There are countless possible causes for headaches including medical problems such as the thankfully rare cases of brain tumors or cerebral aneurysms. However the most common headaches also have generally common causes.
In all too many cases simple eyestrain such as that seen when staring for too long at a computer screen can produce a headache. In other cases, a sinus infection resulting from a head cold or allergy can be the cause. Taking certain medications can also give you a headache.
Though the precise cause is not always known, narrowing of the blood vessels is also believed to be the culprit in many cases. Nerve fibers in the head which are pain sensitive line the walls of the blood vessels and when the blood vessels contract the nerves send signals to the brain. Ironically, the brain itself cannot feel pain because it does not contain any pain sensitive nerve cells and cluster or tension-type headaches result.
However your blood vessels are able to dilate as well as contract and when they do so one theory at least holds that cluster headaches and migraines can be produced. Current research suggests that there are also other much more important factors at work when it comes to migraines.
Tension or more accurately tension-type headaches can arise from other sources such as 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 causing the jaw to tighten against the skull are all too familiar with this.
In serious cases headaches are the result of an underlying disease and these are usually said to be 'secondary headaches'. The catalogue of conditions that can cause headaches is lengthy and will include everything from scarlet fever to irritable bowel syndrome.
Frequently environmental factors also play a significant role. Carbon monoxide poisoning such as that resulting from the gas produced by an automobile exhaust or many water heaters can result in severe headaches and in fact a headache is one of the main symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. Other causes include allergies, lead poisoning and food poisoning.
Even when food is not itself toxic as would be the case where food is contaminated with a bacterial infection some individuals will be sensitive to compounds that will not affect the general population. Such common foods as chocolate and cheese can cause headaches in some individuals as will caffeine, some preservatives and red wine.
However posture, position and various other controllable factors may well be some of the most common causes. As more and more people are using computers on a daily basis so we see more eyestrain, neck tension and jaw stress.
Roughly nine out of ten headaches are tension headaches which are typically the result of one or more of the factors detailed above. In other words in the overwhelming majority of cases the cure is simple and within your control.
TheMigraineHeadacheCenter.com provides a wide range of information about headaches including migraine symptoms and migraine headaches
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