Dealing With Headaches

Do you have headaches?  I used to think everybody did.  It was so normal for me.  I've had them pretty much all my life. 

I used to have migraines.  Regularly.  A pocketful of Excedrin was with me always.  I hit 45 and they stopped.  I said then it was the onset of male menopause but who knows.  I was just grateful. They came back a bit at 55 but never nearly as bad as they used to be.  I feel blessed.

I had a wrestler with a headache the other day.  He blamed it on dehydration--wrestlers do that, you know, dehydrate for weight loss.  He wasn't really a candidate.  I blamed it on exertion.  More on that in a minute.

It got me to thinking about headaches, both my own history and what headaches mean to active individuals.  Back when I had migraines, the world almost stopped.  Nothing else mattered much.  I couldn't eat.  I couldn't sleep. And I sure couldn't exercise.

In the throes of a booming headache, I was willing to do anything, to take anything to make it go away.  Not to trivialize drug addiction but I could understand what might lead someone to do things that they might not ordinarily do. 

A lot of people get headaches from problems with their neck, particularly postural problems.  Poor posture leads to a lot of things and headaches are one of them. Get those taken care of and your headaches could be much better.

Problems with the TemperoMandibular Joint (TMJ) can cause headaches.  Do you clench your teeth a lot?  Have you been told you grind your teeth at night?  Does your job pop and crunch?  It could be your TMJ.  Ask your dentist. 

What we eat and drink can cause headaches.  There a lot of things that seem to contribute to the classic migraine.  Hard cheese, caffeine, beer, processed meats, chocolate, and MSG have all been linked to migraines.  Sometimes it's not the food but the additives.  Your best next tactic?  Take a food inventory (what you eat) and match it to your headache pattern.

If you get a blow to the head and have a headache, you should be worried about a possible concussion.  Always.  Concussions are something we take very seriously.  I deal with young athletes a lot.  I can tell you that we are ultra-conservative when we suspect a concussion.

Stress can contribute to headaches.  Emotional stress.  Mental stress.   You will probably say "but stress is everywhere."  Yes, probably.  But that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of things that you can do to effectively deal with it.  You owe it to yourself to investigate what those things might be for you. 

Physical stress can contribute to headaches.   I believe my young wrestler was experiencing a headache because of extreme physical stress.  Not to personalize this whole column but back in my headache days (pre-45), extreme physical stress would always precipitate a headache.

And usually not right then.  For me, it was later that night, but then most of my headaches have been in the middle of the night.  My headaches were vasodilatory--the blood vessels in my brain would dilate and make my head hurt.

My basic recommendation is that you should never just assume that headaches are a way of life for you.  Get them checked out.  Especially if your symptoms seem strange somehow.  See your Primary Care Physician.  Don't wait.