Headaches occur in different forms and affect different parts of your head and it all depends on the cause of the kind of headache you experience.
The diagnosis of the headache type can help doctors determine whether it is as a result of an underlying health condition that can sometime be life threatening or just a normal headache as a result of daily events.
Not all headaches are a result of other health conditions. Sometimes it is just brought about by the normal stressful events in life.
There are two main types of headaches:
Primary Headaches:
A primary headache is common in many people and may occur as a result of excessive stress that triggers pain-sensitive nerves of structures in a person’s head. Almost everyone experiences headache at least once in a while.
Having or experiencing a primary headache does not mean that someone has an underlying health condition. There are more than a couple of reasons that may result in this type of headache.
The most common types of headache are; Migraines, cluster headache, tension Headache and TAC(Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia) like paroxysmal hemicrania.
Experiencing the above mentioned types of headaches should not be a red flag but other types such as;
- Exercises Headaches(result from strenuous exercises)
- Cough Headaches(caused by activities such as coughing, bowel movements, sneezing, blowing your nose, laughter, crying and singing)
- Sex Headaches(Occur as a result of a sexual activity)
- Chronic daily headaches that come in frequent episodes
These different types of primary headaches have different characteristics which may vary from the length and severity.
The most known causes of primary headaches are:
- Sleep or lack or sleep – check out these common sleep disorders
- Stress or stressful events from the daily life activities.
- Hunger or starvation
- Exposure to bluelight or computer light rays
- Diet choices
- Alcohol or alcoholic drinks like wine
Secondary Headaches
Secondary headaches should not be ignored and anyone experiencing anyone of the common types should consider it a red flag. These types of headache are usually a sign of a critical underlying health condition that can be termed as life threatening.
Failure to address these types of headache may lead to serious health problems and sometimes death.
There are quite a number of types of primary headaches but the most common ones include:
- Spinal headaches (Occurs as a result of low pressure or low volume of cerebrospinal fluid, possibly the result of spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leak, spinal tap or spinal anesthesia)
- Medication overuse headaches(These type of headache results from too much use of painkillers)
- Sinus headaches(Happening as a result of congestion and inflammation in the sinus activities)
- External compression headaches (a result of pressure-causing headgear)
Disclaimer:The content in this article is information based and does not cover all the causes of headache. Visit a doctor for the right and accurate diagnosis in any case you experience any type of headache!!.
