Archive for August, 2009

Mental Health and Headaches

Monday, August 10th, 2009

For years, physicians have suspected that mental health and headaches have a close connection. Research is beginning to show that many people who suffer from various types of mental illness will also have headaches or migraines. It can be quite frustrating to deal with pain and depression at the same time since often it seems that the situation has a kind of “chicken and egg” type quality. Whatever your specific circumstances, know that mental illness can affect the way you feel pain, especially headaches. Consider the following three examples.

Depression
Many people with depression report experiencing physical symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disturbances, and insomnia. Headaches and other types of chronic pain are frequent complaints as well. It is thought that tension-type headaches most commonly accompany depression, although depressed individuals can suffer from migraines or other types of headaches as well. When possible, your healthcare provider will try to select a medication or treatment that can address both the depression and headaches. Commonly used medications include the tricyclic antidepressants, like Elavil, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Paxil or Zoloft.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Research shows that when headache sufferers also have PTSD, they tend to have a higher degree of disability than those without PTSD. In patients with migraines and depression, PTSD occurs at a higher rate in patients with chronic daily headaches (CDH) than in those with episodic migraines (EM). Given the prevalence of PTSD and its co-occurrence with headaches, it is important to raise our awareness of this connection to better treat both conditions.

Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a condition that consists of both periods of depression and mania. Studies have shown that people with bipolar disorder are commonly affected by headaches, especially migraines. Typical migraine treatments are usually effective in patients with Bipolar disorder.

Treatment Considerations
As always, special care is necessary when considering treatments for mental disorders due to drug interactions. Imitrex, one of the “triptans,” can contribute to the development of Serotonin Syndrome when combined with one of the SSRIs, for example. Your healthcare provider can best determine what treatment protocol is best for you.

Sometimes it is difficult to identify all the underlying causes of headaches. Hopefully you and your healthcare provider can examine your headache symptoms and determine the best treatment course for you. In the end, it can be helpful to know that you are not alone in your suffering, and that maybe that pharmaceutical company is right: Depression hurts.

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The Different Types of Headaches

Friday, August 7th, 2009

There are quite a number of commonly-known type of headache. These include pressure headaches, migraine headaches, tension headaches, chronic daily headaches, cluster headaches, ice pick headaches and sinus headaches.

A migraine headache can be a rather severe, debilitating headache. This kind of headache has a profound effect on the every day lives of its sufferers. The pain is either a pulsating sensation or sometimes a throbbing kind of head pain. This throbbing pain can vary from moderate to severe. The symptoms of migraine headaches include nausea and extreme audio-visual sensitivity. The migraine type of headache usually comes with a precursive warning sensation sometimes called an ‘aura’.

This aura is experienced in the form of changes in visual perception. You may see bright flashes or blurs and sometimes you may even lose part of your vision. You may even experience a numbness or a tingling in your arms. These warning symptoms will dissipate a while before the migraine attack begins. A migraine headache can last for up to three days without any treatment, before it subsides.

The sorts of tension headache cause a dull, constant pain in the forehead, the sides or back of the head. Some people liken a tension headache to a tight band wrapped around the head and it is considered to be one of the most common sorts of headache. A tension headache does not create symptoms like light sensitivity, loss of sight, nausea and vomiting.

Tension headaches occur in episodic or chronic types. GenerallyUsually, most sufferers of this kind of tension headache, experience chronic headaches. It is estimated that about 40% of the population suffers from tension headaches. Chronic daily headaches are another of these kinds of headache.

Most of the time chronic daily headaches are tension headaches or headaches that result from ingesting too much pain medication. In these types of headache, the pain is a constant, dull pain. There is also a feeling or tightness like a rubber band around the head. A chronic daily headache can be distinguished by duration: that is the pain must last for 15 or more consecutive days per month during a three month period of time.

Another sort of headache is the Cluster headache group, which is a rare but very painful type of headache. The name of the headache arises from the fact that the headache occurs in clusters of pain. Frequently, periods of continuous Cluster headaches may last weeks or months. This time is followed by long periods of no headaches at all.

Cluster headaches are usually experienced on one side of the head only. Usually the sharp, penetrating pain begins behind one eye. Cluster headaches cause red, teary eyes, a stuffy nose and sometimes symptoms like nausea and sensitivity to light may be present too.

These are just a few of the many sorts of headaches that can occur. The pain from the headache can be mild or it can be very severe. To find relief from these headaches you should talk to your doctor about treatment or you can buy some over the counter headache pain tablets.

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A Stretch To Keep Tension Headaches Away

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Here’s an excellent stretch you can begin practicing now: the behind-the-back stretch. It can be done sitting or standing.

If you’re going to sit, make sure you have a chair with backing that comes halfway up your back.

Hook your arms over the back of the chair and pull your shoulder blades together (if you’re standing, assume the military position: head up, shoulders back and stomach tight).

As you do this, make sure you stick your chest out. As this is very important, you should exaggerate a little bit – and make sure you keep you head up, too.

Pull your shoulder blades together until you feel a pull in your shoulder joints. Don’t go overboard on this; you don’t want to cause any pain.

Now hold this stretch for three full minutes (don’t cheat and quit early; the length of this stretch is very important).

At the end of this stretch, you should feel your back muscles loosen a bit; you may even feel a warm rush of blood up the back of your neck.

Take breaks throughout the day to perform this stretch – it will help a lot!

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Computer Vision Syndrome and Headaches

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

What Is Computer Vision Syndrome?

There are many instances when one gets headaches and eyestrains while working on a computer. There may be cases where you may suffer weak vision, dry and irritated eyes, muscular problems etc. At the end of a long day in front of your computer screen, is it difficult to focus on distant objects. This is known as Computer Vision Syndrome. In today’s computer world, such problems are quite common.

Computer vision syndrome is a serious problem for the millions of people who spend hours in front of a computer every day. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) is a temporary condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer display for protracted, uninterrupted periods of time. Since it is a syndrome, the term is associated with symptoms like headaches, neck and shoulder pain, dry or irritated eyes and blurred vision.

Symptoms can be classified into three categories namely:

Vision problems that include blurred vision (both near and far), difficulty changing focus, double vision, glare, flickering sensations, and temporary changes in color perception.

Eye problems that include redness, burning sensation, soreness, itchiness, dryness, excessive tearing, eye fatigue, eyestrain, light sensitivity, and contact lens discomfort.

General discomfort symptoms include headaches, neck tension or pain, shoulder tension or pain, back pain, pain in arms or wrists, excessive fatigue, irritability, and drowsiness

Glare from surrounding lights can also lead to eyestrain. Removing direct light sources or installing blinds, shades can reduce glare. Anti reflection computer screen should be used to reduce reflection. Interior lighting should be half that is used in most workplaces, with fewer or lower intensity bulbs offering an easy solution to the level of ambient lighting. Computer glasses for mid-range vision enhancement should be used instead of regular eyeglasses.

Make a note that the monitor of your workstation is kept at eye level and is not placed too high. This is because the ideal gaze angle is 10 to 20 degrees below the eye. A screen that is too high can lead to dry eyes as you need to constantly keep your eyes wide open and blink less frequently. Moreover, a highly placed screen can cause headaches and neck and upper back pain because the head is tilted back to see.

Another method to reduce eyestrain is keep the contrast between screen background and the on-screen characters high, and, make sure that the text size and color are vision-friendly.

It is generally seen that while working on a computer, you blink only one fifth as often as normally. Thus, it is advised to regular blink your eyes at half-hour intervals, which helps avoid the irritation of dry eyes. It is important to ensure that your eyes remain as moist as possible by blinking regularly.

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