Treatments for chronic headaches

When a person goes 15 days of a month for over a period of three months with moderate to severe headaches he is said to have a chronic headache syndrome also known as chronic daily headaches which is not a diagnosis but is a descriptive term. It is said to affect around 4% of the general population. These are headaches that occur very frequently.

As per neurologists, persons going through chronic daily headaches are difficult and labor-intensive patients. Many such people however ignore the chronic headache treatment but alternate it with use of meds that leads to abuse hence deteriorating the condition.

It leads to distress affecting the quality of life of the individual and tends to increase costs by way of extensive therapies and occupational healthcare consultations often rendering the person disabled.

For the best treatment, it is important to understand what causes chronic headaches with complete and relevant investigations into the history that enables accurate identification of factors that predict the development of its sub categories mainly chronic migraine, chronic tension-type headache, new daily persistent headache and medication overuse headache.

Chronic migraine: people having had a medical history of episodic migraines usually suffer from this condition. It causes chronic headaches either on one side or both the sides of the head, having a throbbing feeling, the condition worsens with routine activities.

Chronic tension type headache: the severity of the pain varies from mild to moderate, causing pain in both sides of the head. People who go through this kind of headaches tend to have skull tenderness.

New daily persistent headache: the onset of this type of chronic headache is uncertain and turns out to be repetitive within 3 days of the first headache. The pain is caused like that of being held tightly affecting both sides of the head.

Medication overuse headache: these headaches occur due to overuse of painkillers to relieve the discomfort and pain caused by migraines or tension type headaches.

Hemicrania continua: these are headaches that affect one side of the head with moderate spiking pain. They occur on a daily basis having no pain free time gap. It leads to redness in the person’s eyes, congested or runny nose, restlessness, drooping eyelids or narrowed pupils.

It is generally recommended that the visit to the doctor ought to be made when you have a couple of or more headaches per week each time getting graver or the dosage of the painkillers aren’t sufficient to reduce the pain hence the urge of needing a higher dosage medication or headache is accompanied with fever, chaotic approach, double vision, weakness, numbness or inability to speak.

List of factors that could possibly be responsible for triggering chronic headaches are:

• Females are more prone to this condition. Children also often have such headaches.
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Disrupted sleeping patterns
• Obesity
• Snoring
• Overuse of caffeine

The fastest relief from a headache is provided by the pain relievers however people tend to be dependent on this resort so much that they happen to cross the fine line of difference between use and abuse and fall a prey to several other adversities. The doctors may recommend the following as chronic headache treatment:

Along with treating depression and anxiety antidepressants have also been prescribed to provide relief from chronic headaches.

Beta blockers are used for treating high blood pressure, can also prevent recurring migraines.

Anti-seizure drugs prevent migraines and are also used to treat chronic daily headaches.

It’s always suggested that chronic headache remedies be natural to be on safer grounds:

Magnesium is said to be a better alternative than painkillers and also offer better relief from the pain. People who have frequent migraine attacks are those having magnesium in low levels hence magnesium can treat such persons from migraines. It prevents the brain from sending the signals of cortical spreading depression that causes vision and sensitivity changes which are commonly felt during headaches. 200-600 mg magnesium per day is proved to be an effective chronic headache treatment. Including more fiber in the diet increases the intake of magnesium.

Individual whose system is sensitive to gluten tend to have a headache when they have food containing gluten. However, you don’t need to eliminate gluten from your diet completely instead reduce the intake. This chronic headache remedies start by cutting out gluten from the diet for 3 weeks and gradually include foods containing gluten in them. And continually monitor what is the accurate amount of gluten you can have and yet keep away from the headache.

Herbs that ease out pain are considered to be effective chronic headache remedies. The leaves of feverfew, a herb that has proved to be effective in treating chronic headaches and fighting cancer are used to make medicines. Also, the market offers a wide range of feverfew supplements available as dried, freeze-dried or fresh. Feverfew can also be bought as liquid extracts, tablets or capsules for which the dosage for relieving headache is 50-100 mg.

Tags: Causes chronic headaches, chronic headache remedies, chronic headache treatment