Demystifying your science befuddlements
By Crystal Gwizdala
Q: What causes us to get a headache?
A: Headaches are caused by mechanical traction, inflammation or irritation of innervated structures in the head – such as our blood vessels, scalp or skull. All of this stuff has nerves in it, according to “Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases,” which was authored by Hal Blumenfeld and published in 2010.
Q: What causes that to happen?
A: Inflammation, for instance, can be caused by a lot of things: stress, trauma, cocaine, tobacco, diet, diabetes or hypertension. All sorts of things can cause inflammation in your brain that can eventually cause headaches.
Q: So what’s happening when you’re literally feeling the pain of a headache?
A: It depends on the type of headache, but the side that you’re feeling the headache on usually corresponds to where the pathology is happening in your head.
Q: Okay, so it has to do with internal stress.
A: Yes, and that would be that inflammation or irritation.
Q: Okay, so I guess how does Tylenol work to relieve that pain?
A: The exact mechanism is unknown, but it might be reducing these things called prostaglandins in the brain, which cause inflammation or irritation. Tylenol also raises your pain threshold temporarily.
Q: But if I take two Tylenol or ibuprofen within a half-hour, the headache is gone. So does that mean that I took the pills at the right time? And that I would have had a headache in the next hour or so anyway? Or do the pills suppress the pain of the headache long enough for the headache to go away on its own?
A: The pills suppress pain long enough for the headache to take care of itself. It doesn’t fix the problem because if you’re feeling pain from anything [more] severe, say, getting your wisdom teeth pulled or breaking your ribs in a car accident, that pain isn’t just going to go away [forever] because you took a painkiller, right? It’s going to be suppressed for a little bit, but when the pills wear off the pain will come back because there’s damage to the body.
Q: Whether it’s from breathing in too harsh of chemicals or being dehydrated, or being stressed from a test or some life experience, it’s putting that strain on the body.
A: It’s important to pay attention to headaches too. [Sometimes] they can be a somewhat normal occurrence, but sometimes – less frequently – they can be a symptom of a much larger, more serious issue, like a stroke or any traumatic brain injury. […] It’s important to know yourself and recognize what might be different.
Q: I’ve experienced sinus pressure headaches where you get it, but like behind the eyes.
A: Funny you should mention that. That sounds a lot like a cluster headache. It’s one-tenth as common as migraines and five times more prevalent in males than females. So with cluster headaches, you can get them one to several times a day. People usually describe it as a severe, steady, boring sensation behind the eyes. They can last for a few weeks and then it just doesn’t happen for months. Does that sound about right for what [you’re] experiencing?
Q: Yeah, it’s not a common occurrence. But when it does, it gives you sensitivity to light and there’s a throbbing pain behind the eyes that does not go away.
A: There’s also other types of headaches, such as vascular headaches, migraines, and tension headaches. A tension headache is like a steady, dull ache that could be related to excessive contraction of your scalp and neck muscles. Vascular headaches are more linked to innervation, like the blood vessels, and more related to inflammation.
There’s lots of different types with different symptoms and different causes. That’s why it’s important to know yourself and know your triggers – that way you can recognize when something is seriously wrong.
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