What Could Be The Cause Of Daily Headaches?

Most headaches are mild and do not require medical attention. However, when they become persistent and impact your daily life, it is advisable to consult a health professional.

Headache, What Pain Do We Feel?

The headache, in medical terms, is primarily harmless to health and simple to prevent when the cause is known. A headache is a pain in the cranium. The pain is usually stabbing and of moderate intensity. About 50 to 75% of people suffer from a headache at least once a year. Indeed, headache is a symptom common to many pathologies. The location and intensity of headaches are beneficial in determining the cause and the treatment needed to relieve them. When these headaches become persistent and affect your quality of life, it is advisable to consult to understand the reason.

Causes for Daily Headache

Nearly half of the world's population suffers from headaches. A headache is ranked number ten on the World Health Organization's list of the ten most frequent causes of disability (among men) and number five on the list of the five most common causes of disability (among women). We've compiled a list of some of the most uncommon causes of headaches.

1.    Vitamin D Deficiency and Sunlight

According to research from the University of Eastern Finland, Vitamin D insufficiency increases the risk of persistent headaches. The researchers examined vitamin D levels in the serum of about 2,600 individuals. Individuals with low blood vitamin D levels were more prone than others to suffer persistent headaches. Men working outside in the summer months also reported more frequent chronic headaches, owing to the decreased amount of solar radiation in the other seasons.

2.    Luminous Light

Individuals suffering from headaches frequently attempt to avoid bright light and spend more time in gloomy areas. According to researchers, new connections between neurons in the eyes and neurons in the brain have been found that regulate our mood based on physical factors such as heart rate, shortness of breath, tiredness, and nausea.

The fact that bright light can cause headaches also generates frustration, wrath, worry, and despair in sufferers. Additionally, survey respondents reported experiencing continuous pain, nausea, and shortness of breath. 

3.    Lightning and Thunder

The University of Cincinnati scientists use mathematical models to assess if the increasing incidence of headaches was caused by lightning or by other environmental variables. The findings indicated a 19% increase in headaches on bright days, even after adjusting for meteorological variables. This shows that the rays have a distinct influence on people and their proclivity for headaches. The precise process by which lightning and meteorological variables such as humidity and barometric pressure cause headaches are unknown. On the other hand, this study establishes a connection between lightning strikes and the prevalence of headaches. 

4.    Anxiety and Depression

Research done at Taiwan's National Defense Medical Center enrolled 588 headache sufferers. In most patients, worry, sadness, and insufficient sleep were the primary causes of pain. It seemed as though variables such as emotional discomfort and headache frequency might interact via a similar pathophysiological mechanism. For example, emotional reactions can affect pain perception and regulation via specific signaling pathways. 

5.    Codeine-Containing Medications

According to University of Adelaide researchers, consuming excessive dosages of codeine-containing medicines can result in severe headaches. It is a common occurrence among people who have a high threshold for pain. Pain sensitivity is a significant issue for opioid medication users. The more opioids you take, the more sensitive you get, and you may never achieve the degree of relief you require. In the long term, it worsens rather than resolves the problem. 

How to Stop Persistent Headaches?

To calm a headache or persistent headaches, such as a migraine, the first thing to do is to rest or sleep in a quiet place. Here are some tips to reduce your pain:

• Put a compress soaked in cold water where it hurts;
• Use a natural vasoconstrictor to relieve your migraines, such as coffee or tea;
• Take an analgesic drug, such as Paracetamol, to get over the crisis;

But, be careful not to take it too often as this could, on the contrary, promote your migraines or persistent headaches. Care must also be taken not to exceed the prescribed dose, i.e. 4 grams per 24 hours maximum for an adult.

If that doesn't work or you have a headache every day, or frequently, you will have to look for the cause to treat the problem at its source.

Headache or Migraine

In everyday life, migraine is often confused with other causes of headache. Migraine is a throbbing pain (sensation of having a heartbeat in the head) and may be accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, hypersensitivity to sounds and light. Migraine affects 7% of men and 18% of women. To determine if you are suffering from migraine, ask yourself these few questions:

• Does your headache evolve by crisis from a few hours to several days?
• Is your headache accompanied by at least one other symptom such as nausea, vomiting, intolerance to light or noise?
• Does your headache have at least 2 of the following characteristics: throbbing, located on only one side of the head, the pain increased by exertion?

If your answers are mostly positive, you recommend that you talk to your doctor for management with a treatment adapted to your migraines.

Headache Due To Stress, Also Called Tension Headache

This type of headache is the most common. It causes mild to moderate pain sensations on both sides of the head, and the muscles in the back of the neck tend to be tight. These pains can be accompanied by a feeling of pressure in the back of the eyes. Stress headaches are mainly due to poor work posture, prolonged use of screens, dehydration, prolonged exposure to the sun, a young person, etc.

Without seriousness, this type of headache can be easily treated with over-the-counter pain relievers such as Paracetamol, ibuprofen, or aspirin. Be careful not to overdo it. However, if your headaches are repeated very quickly, talk to your doctor as soon as possible.

Daily, it is possible to prevent these headaches by adopting habits or activities that relieve stress and tension (physical activity, meditation, taking screen breaks, etc.).

Headache and Sinusitis

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the sinuses and causes persistent headaches, more or less intense. The headache that accompanies sinusitis puts pressure or tingling in your cheeks or forehead and around your eyes. The swelling of the sinuses causes this pain along with other symptoms such as a stuffy nose, decreased smell, fever, toothache, and green or yellow phlegm coming out of the nose.

The treatment of sinus headaches consists of managing the symptoms with painkillers, nasal washings with physiological serum, a decongestant nasal spray, or even an anti-inflammatory cortisone-based nasal spray. In the absence of improvement or in the presence of worsening under symptomatic treatment, antibiotic treatment more or less combined with oral corticosteroid treatment may be prescribed to you.

Be careful. If you have neck pain and your headache is persistent, your sinusitis may have spread to other areas such as the meninges and is causing meningitis. In this case, consult a doctor as soon as possible.

Headache Due To Cluster Headache

This type of headache is very different from others because of its symptoms. This is a condition that manifests itself in strictly unilateral painful attacks centered on the eye and temple area. Other symptoms can accompany this headache:

• Red or watery eye;
• Oedema or drooping of the eyelid;
• Stuffy nostril with the runny nose;
• Sweating of the face or forehead.

Generally, cluster headache of the face manifests itself in the form of an attack ranging from 15 min to 3 hours with 1 to 8 attacks per day. If you notice these symptoms, visit the doctor’s chamber immediately. There are specific treatments to relieve you.

How to Get Over a Headache?

There are many other causes of headaches that do not necessarily require a visit to the doctor, such as sleep disturbances, hunger, dehydration, the menstrual cycle, etc. They appear periodically and can be easily calmed with painkillers. The doctors recommend that you take Paracetamol in the absence of contraindications. But whatever medication you choose, be sure to follow the dosage to the letter because an excess intake can paradoxically lead to persistent headaches.

In addition to painkillers, other measures can help you get over a headache:

• Drink water to avoid dehydration which would cause or worsen the headaches;
• Rest in a quiet place avoiding light or sound stimuli such as screens and intense light;
• Apply cool compresses to your eyes and temples.

What are the right reflexes to avoid headaches?

Here are some tips from doctors to avoid headaches:

• Avoid poorly ventilated and noisy situations;
• Make sure you sleep in a room with little heat with a temperature between 18 ° C and 19 ° C;
• Avoid situations of fatigue by respecting the amount of sleep your body needs;
• When working at a desk, make sure you are comfortably seated to avoid putting too much strain on the neck muscles.

Conclusion: Prevention Is Better Than Cure

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that if you have been in pain recently, whether it started like a thunderclap or it is increasing all the time: it is an emergency. Conversely, if you have had pain all the time and forever, it is probably a tension headache, or if your pain is a seizure, a migraine is likely. Finally, if the pain is moderate and occasional, do not worry and treat yourself!

Suppose your headache gets worse over time or does not respond to usual treatment, or is accompanied by other symptoms such as vomiting, muscle pain, fatigue, memory impairment or loss of vision. In that case, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible.

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