Kinds of Headaches

When considering headaches, medical professionals take into account their duration, frequency, causes, severity and where they occur in the head. Headaches can be divided into two type: primary and secondary headaches. Primary headaches include migraines, tension headaches and cluster headaches, while secondary headaches are in most cases caused by an underlying medical condition.

Types

• Those who suffer from headaches on a regular basis usually have primary headaches. These kinds of headaches include migraines, tension headaches and cluster headaches. However, it is possible to endure a headache that mimics the symptoms of more than one of type of headahce. It is also not unusual for a person to have for example a migraine headache followed by a far less severe tension headache.

Features

• Women are diagnosed with migraines twice as much as men. In most cases, people begin to experience migraine headaches in their teens and early twenties, with diminishing frequency as they grow older. Migraines are most often a strong, throbbing type of headache that affects one or both sides of the head. They can be precipitated by noise, bright lights and other triggers, and last anywhere from a couple of hours to days. Migraines can cause nausea and vomiting, and many people will have what is known as an aura with a migraine--a sense that it is about to occur. Auras happen in about 33 percent of migraine sufferers and can result in a change in the senses of smell, taste and even vision that alerts the person that a migraine is close at hand as much as half an hour before one occurs.

Effects

• Another kind of primary headache is a tension headache, also called muscle contraction headache. It usually affects the back of the head and the neck area, eventually coming into the region of the temple and forehead. It can cause a sense of "tightness" encompassing the person's head and make muscles feel tender in the shoulders, neck and the scalp.
  These are by far the most common kinds of headaches, occurring in as much as three-quarters of the general population, with many people complaining of them many times in a week and even daily. Tension headaches can be a serious chronic problem in some people, leading to disability and a poor quality of life.

Time Frame

• A tiny percentage of people put up with cluster headaches, a serious kind of headache that is more predominant in men between the ages of 20 and 40. Those that have cluster headaches will have a severe headache that comes on with little warning and can last for a few minutes to 3 hours. They center around one of the eyes in most instances and then spread out to the rest of the facial region ,and can cause tearing of the eyes and a runny nose. The pain can become overwhelming. Cluster headaches will happen frequently over a period of days or weeks, and then mysteriously stop for months and sometimes even years before recurring.

Significance

• Secondary headaches are brought about by a significant medical condition or another outside source that is less serious. They can be an indicator of a problem or completely harmless in nature (except for the pain they cause). Secondary headaches can be the result of a brain tumor, trauma to the head area, meningitis, stroke or aneurysm, trouble with teeth and sinus infection. Secondary headaches can also be the result of much less ominous conditions, such as a simple side effect of caffeine withdrawal or using certain medications.