New therapies to treat headache go back to the beginning of the last century when ergotamine tartrate was first isolated in a laboratory. It was this development which introduced clinical practice into treating migraines. Ergotamine works by constricting blood vessels in the head. About twenty-five years later researchers began to suspect that disturbances in the brain's serotonin level played a role in migraine. The drug, methysergide, a serotonin antagonist that prevents migraine attacks, was introduced into clinical practice in 1958. In recent years, new technologies have made it possible for researchers to identify serotonin receptors throughout the body. It is now believed that serotonin levels actually decrease at the onset of a migraine attack, causing blood vessels to dilate and surrounding tissues to swell. This is that brings on the pain.

Doctors give migraineurs medications to reduce the frequency or duration of their headaches, and some to stop the pain when they feel a headache coming on. Sometimes, though, the pain is resistant and heavy-duty pain medications are needed.

Non-prescription NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, help a lot of people relieve their migraine pain, but when they are not enough doctors may offer a prescription version. Toradol (ketorolac) is a prescription-strength NSAID doctors can dispense to migraineurs with moderate to severe pain that is resistant to other pain relievers. It is available in a tablet form, but is usually dispensed in emergency rooms and injected for migraines

Introduction -

Hypertension (also called high blood pressure) can be the cause of heart attacks and strokes. It is a silent killer as it is does not show any obvious symptoms. It can also cause headaches, however the blood pressure has to be too high for causing a headache (200/110 or higher).

Medications taken for relief from high blood pressure also may result in a headache.

Hypertension Headaches -

Visual Migraine is a disease of temporary visual disturbance, which is caused by vascular tremor in the brain. The visual migraine can be with or without the headache. The visual migraine is a result of decreased blood flow to the occipital cortex, or that portion of the brain associated with vision. The visual migraine is often related with the sensation of a shimmering light in the peripheral vision. The vision can be blurred or distorted. There can be flashing and pulsating lights in the peripheral vision in this condition. The visual migraine is not usually treated because it is not associated with disabling headaches. In the typical visual migraine, the visual disturbance lasts for 15 - 20 minutes and then it disappears. Many visual migraine sufferers complain only of fatigue in the eyes after the visual disturbance.

We often use the term "migraine" to describe particularly strong headaches. Officially, however, the term actually refers to a certain neurological disorder that has incredibly powerful headaches as a primary symptom. The term "migraine" is frequently treated as being interchangeable with the disorder's best known symptom, the migraine headache.

The word "migraine" is of French origin and has it roots in the Greek term "hemicrania." The expression literally translates to "only half the head." That curious origin must certainly seem like a less-than-accurate description of a migraine headache! Migraine headaches can actually be quite debilitating and certainly feel as though they stretch far beyond any "halfway point." In fact, migraine headaches can render their victims almost helpless. When in the throes of a migraine headache, communication can be difficult and clarity can be lost as intense pain takes over.

Headache is roughly never located in the brain. There is in fact not much ability at all to sense pain in the mass of the brain - surgeons do for instance not use anesthetics on the brain when they perform brain surgery. Headache is almost forever located in the muscles of the head - caused by tension built up during long time in these muscles. One can carry out a simple self-test by pressing with your fingers on certain locations on the head. The two most familiar physical locations of headache are located at the places where the jaw-muscles are attached, right behind the jaw below the ears and at the temples. One should not feel any pain while applying pressure on these two spots and are completely relaxed. It will even though hurt quite a lot I presume, especially at the spot behind the jaw - this is a condition that people in common unfortunately enough has gotten used to as something completely natural. In many martial arts disciplines there actually are grips that takes advantage of these spots in order to neutralize or even paralyze adversaries.

Children have headaches just like adults, sometimes even more frequently than adults do. If the reason for the headache isn't apparent a doctor should be consulted as kid's headaches could indicate a more serious condition.

Some apparent causes of kid's headaches include an injury, an illness, stress or environmental factors. An injury to the head may require medical attention of course, but most bumps are still likely to create a headache even if they do not seem to be too bad at first.

Migraine headaches are painful and debilitating. To make matters even worse, no one has yet truly pinpointed what causes the headaches in the first place. Treatment options do exist, but they tend to be limited in their effectiveness. A team of researchers affiliated with Ohio State University in the U.S., however, want to change that. They are hopeful that soon people with migraines will quickly and easily be able to zap their headaches away.

They have created a pain zapper. It is a hand held device, not much different in size from a standard hair dryer, that upon activation will create a magnetic field capable of penetrating the skin and skull to impact the brain.

Any irritation to the structure of the neck and head can lead to a person experiencing a headache. Furthermore, the sensation of pain can transmit it through associated nerves to other parts of the body such as a neck pain that can cause a person to suffer from a headache as well. No doubt, everybody is liable to have suffered from a headache at some point of time in their lives since it is indeed a very common illness.

"Fight Or Flight" Responses

People often complain about having a headache. There are many types of headaches and many types of causes of headaches. Some people suffer what physicians call chronic headaches. Chronic means that the headaches occur on a regular basis over a long term. If a person has had a headache for which lasts for several months with only intermittent relief they can probably assume they are suffering from a chronic headache.