
crop up from nowhere and put a serious damper on person’s daily activities. A tension headache is one of those conditions which most friends, family, bosses, and co-workers expect you to fight through. These types of headaches typically produce mild to moderate pain that is sometimes described as feeling like a tight band has been tied around one’s head. A tension headache (tension-type headache) is the most common type of headache. Ironically, medical science has yet to fully understand the cause or causes. Note: Over the counter pain relievers containing acetaminophen (Tylenol etc..) have typically been recommended to treat tension headache but have fallen out of favor recently as they have been linked to liver and brain damage when taken in slightly elevated amounts over a 2 or 3 day period. Tension Headache – Symptoms
neck, and should muscle sensitivity/tenderness; a feeling of tightness or pressure across the forehead or on the side and back of the head; and of course occasional loss of appetite when things get really bad. There is no set time as to how long a tension headache should last. The less than precise estimates provided to us by medical science range from a mere 30 minutes to a full week. They may be a regular occurrence or just pop up every now and then. According to the American Medical Association if your headache occurs more than half of the time over a three month period it is considered to be chronic. If you have headaches that occur less than half of time each month your headache is considered to be episodic. Additionally, those tension headaches sufferers classified as episodic are at increased risk of ending up as chronic. Tension headaches are generally mild to moderately intense with the pain level varying from person to person and from one episode to another in the same individual. While few would argue that an intense tension headache is painful it is not considered to be a migraine. The difference is tension headaches aren’t generally associated with visual disturbances (blind spots or flashing lights), abdominal pain, slurred speech, nausea, vomiting, or weakness/numbness on one side of the body. Also, while exercise typically makes a migraine worse it generally doesn’t make tension headache pain worse. An increased sensitivity to light or sound can occur with a tension headache but is more the exception than the rule. Possible Causes and Triggers As mentioned above the cause or causes of tension headache is not fully understood. The conventional wisdom until just a few years ago was that the pain of tension headache stemmed from muscle contraction in the scalp, face, and neck, possibly as a result of heightened emotions, tension, or stress. But current research doesn’t seem to whole heartedly support this theory pointing out that there doesn’t seem to be a significant increase in muscle tension in those diagnosed with tension headache. Currently the most plausible theory seems to be interference or “mixed signals” involving nerve pathways to the brain, which is demonstrated by a heightened sensitivity to pain in people prone to tension headache. One could also make a compelling argument that imbalances in brain chemical messengers, known as neurotransmitters, could play a role as well but more research needs to be done to either prove or disprove this theory. Increased muscle tenderness, a frequent symptom of tension headache, may the result of overactive pain receptors. *Common triggers: Depression, anxiety, stress, poor posture, awkward positions, holding one position for a long time, eye strain, and jaw clenching. Factoid: The Mayo Clinic claims ninety percent of women and 70 percent of men experience tension headaches during their lifetime. I don’t know about you but I would like to talk to the 10 percent of women and 30 percent of men who don’t get them to make sure they are telling the truth!
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